laundry while traveling
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Spin Cycle – Laundry While Traveling

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No matter where you are from in the world – every person has to do laundry.  However, the way we do laundry certainly varies from country to country.    In Europe, they don’t use dryers; in India and other developing countries, it is often done by hand by the women of the village. Some countries use a clothesline, some use a drying rack.  I have even seen laundry drying in trees and bushes in many countries.  In India, they dry them on the highway fences.  Can you imagine your panties hanging out on the interstate for everyone to see?!

I had someone recently ask me how I do my laundry while traveling.  I’ve had a lot of experience doing laundry while traveling since I lived nomadically for 11 years and frequently take long trips.  Quite frankly, I do my laundry any way I can: in the sink, in a washing machine, at the laundromat, or have someone do it for me for the right price.  My travel clothes have little numbers written on all of the tags from when I leave my bag of dirty clothes with a random local woman to do my wash; the numbers help them keep track of all of the different bags of laundry they do.  I like them as it reminds me months later of my travels.

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Colorful clothes hang on the side of a building along the Anapurna Circuit in Nepal

Where to do Laundry While Traveling

As a traveler, you have a lot of options for how to do laundry while traveling.

Laundry In Your Rental

Many Airbnb’s and apartment rentals have a washer/dryer included in the apartment of home.  This is by far the easiest and most convenient!  Just check to see if they have laundry before you book.  It normally doesn’t cost any more to rent a place with laundry. However, do know that many of the places don’t have dryers (it’s a cultural thing) and you will need to air dry your clothes.  Or you can travel with a pinless clothesline to hang your laundry.

Use a Laundromat

Many times I have to find a local laundromat to wash my clothes.  This is always a fun adventure as it means that you have to find it, figure out how to work the machines, make sure you have detergent or can buy little packets, and then make sure you have change for the machines.  This can be a time-consuming process but I always find it a fun way to see a different slice of the culture in a country that I’m traveling in.

laundry while traveling
Laundromat in Lanai Hawaii

Explore things to do on Lanai – not your typical Hawaiian Island

Have Your Laundry Done

laundry while traveling
A woman carries laundry in India

In many less-developed countries, you can simply have your laundry done for you by a local woman.  This sounds luxurious, but it’s normally really cheap to do.  And it provides work for the local people.  They normally charge by the weight. Many hostels and hotels offer this option to have your laundry done in a day and it will be returned back to you all folded and clean that night!

Of course, if you are staying in a fancier hotel or a big city or developed country, then you can also have your laundry done at a hotel.  However, this is probably the most expensive way to do it; it’s actually a huge rip-off, and I avoid it at all costs!  They charge per piece, and it’s very easy to rack up a huge laundry bill.

Laundry In Your Sink

On most longer trips of 2 to 3 weeks, I tend to just do laundry in the sink of my hotel!  I travel with a couple of small tide packets and simply wash underwear, socks, shirts, and pants out in the sink. It doesn’t get them super clean, but it gives them a bit of ‘new life’!

laundry while traveling
My niece doing her sink laundry!

Some things to consider if you are doing sink laundry: 
Make sure you pack clothes that dry quickly and don’t wrinkle.  There are specific companies that specialize in travel clothes like Exofficio.  They make products for sink washing that dry super fast and are lightweight. They even say that all you need to take on any trip is one pair of their travel underwear, as you can wash your underwear out each night in the sink and they dry super fast!  And I have to admit…I do love their travel underwear!

Make sure you bring a little soap for sink washing and potentially a sink stop as some places don’t have a way to stop up the drain for washing.

Check out the 45 best gifts for friends going traveling – including laundry supplies!

Laundry Prints from Around the World

I find hanging laundry beautiful and have been capturing laundry around the world during my travels!  Maybe you have a laundry room with empty walls that need a little decor?  I sell these laundry prints too!

Do You Need Some Laundry Room Decorating Ideas?

Do you have a laundry room with empty walls? Why not get a few laundry prints to put up in your laundry room? You can find all of these images plus more at my photography site. They are easy to order prints or canvas prints!
Laundry Room Prints

This is my collection of laundry around the world.

landry
Italy
laundry prints
Canada
Laundry
Vietnam
laundry prints
Peru
laundry
Montenegro
laundry
Greece
laundry
Jordan
laundry
India
laundry
Cambodia
laundry
Croatia
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Singapore
laundry prints
Malta
laundry prints
Africa
laundry prints
Nebraska
laundry prints
Cambodia
laundry prints
Venice
laundry prints
Canada
laundry prints
Morocco
laundry prints
Vietnam
laundry prints
Lebanon
laundry prints
Italy
laundry prints
France

Do You Need Some Laundry Room Decorating Ideas?

Do you have a laundry room with empty walls?  Why not get a few laundry prints to put up in your laundry room? You can find all of these images plus more at my photography site.  They are easy to order prints or canvas prints!
Laundry Room Prints

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    52 Comments

      1. Thanks Shannon! I have always naturally taken pictures of drying clothes – and I was looking through photos one day and wondered what I would do with them all…they look much better all together!

    1. During my visit to Shanghai, I kept thinking that whoever brought the clothes dryer to China would be an instant millionaire. I know…it’s not green, but hey, it was just a daydream!

    2. Hi Sherry – I love the stories these photos tell. When we were in New Zealand, I was struck by the fact that households in this modern, well-off–and often rainy–country mostly used clotheslines instead of dryeres. If they can do it, so can we Americans! I’ve tried to cut down my use of the dryer since traveling to conserve energy. Also, I wanted to recommend to your readers to travel with a braided clothesline — a stretchy rubber clothesline with velcro tabs at the end so it can be strung across almost anywhere. Since it’s braided, you can stick lots of pieces of clothing in it to hang & dry without needed clothespins. Our family used it several times a week.

      1. YES – that travel clothesline is great! I don’t have one yet (should have bought one at sports basement when I was there…darn!) – but Dave and Deb used one during the Mongol Rally and I loved it!

    3. What a fascinating insight! I can’t remember the last time I saw clothes hanging on a line (or actually hung any out to dry!) which doesn’t say much for our washer’s and dryers! Great shots!

    4. I recognized the first picture from Nepal and the last from Singapore. We could sure save a lot of energy with the old way of air and sun drying

      DAD

      1. Yes – and to think we were renegades in the US always hanging our clothes our whole life! I didn’t know it was so popular until I left and started traveling!

      1. Thanks Joe. I use Aperture to do any photo processing and editing. I put the watermark on it from that program. Most photo editing/storage programs have watermarking available. Thanks for following along!

    5. Great photos in this post. The one thing that strikes me is that most people hang their clothes out on a line. In the U.S. we rarely see that anymore. Creative post!

    6. In South America most of the time the laundries would stitch a little coloured string into the label (or into the clothes if there was no label)…writing numbers seems like it would be much faster!!

    7. As I started at the top I was wondering if there might be a photo from Singapore! I really noticed the laundry there (wouldn’t normally!). Driving north across the island I was struck by the huge apartment tower blocks all draped in exactly the same way with highly regimented rows of laundry!

      1. Thanks for stopping by Alastair! Yes – the Singapore laundry is always a favorite of mine! I love how no one uses dryers around the world except in America!

    8. I have always taken “laundry” photos when we have travelled. The commonalities of people across the globe always amazes me. I’m now inspired to hang my laundry photos. In the laundry room I think.

    9. Hi Ms Runaway – We love that you are living the dream and have run off into the great unknown :))

      Just saw all your lovely laundry pics and thought we’d give you a heads up on our new soon to be product the SockLock which is just about home n hosed on KickStart.

      Take a squizz if you have a mo betwix winging between over ponds!

      http://alturl.com/56r63

      Cheers from the crew 🙂

    10. Hi Sherry

      I would love to email you a creative workshop I did with 3 women with regards to washing and hanging up our washing.

      I think you would find it interesting.

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