In North America it is easy to find a laundry mat with coin operated washers and dryers. That is not the case in many countries. In some areas you can find laundry services where you drop off a bag of clothes for pickup a day or two later.
One of the benefits of hostels is that many have some form of laundry facility. Newer, modern hostels often have washing machines, maybe even a dryer, but chances are you will need to pay to use them.
If you are traveling light and moving locations frequently; you may not have a full bag or load of clothes to wash at one time.
Instead, you might want to wash a few items like underwear, a shirt or a pair of pants, every couple of nights. Hostel laundry areas are not always obvious, so don’t be afraid to ask if they have a place to wash clothes or hang clothes to dry. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
Too me, the beauty of traveling to foreign countries is about experiencing things differently. I have found some awesome, practical, and inexpensive ways to wash and dry clothes while traveling. Here are just a couple of them.
Then there are other hostels where the only place to wash clothes is a bathroom or kitchen sink with the all-important sink plug missing.
Without this simple item, it’s hard to keep water in a sink and wash clothes at the same time. I’ve also needed a sink plug in a home stay with a tub but no drain plug.
In fact, this item is so important to me, that I now carry two of them. I put one in my main toiletries bag and one in the overnight bag that I take with me on trains and buses.
Carrying two plugs is not a necessity for most, but I have hard gas permeable contact lenses. I take my lenses out every night and clean them every morning before putting them back in my eyes. Without a sink plug, I could easily loose one down the drain.
These lenses are not cheap or readily available like many soft lenses. Trains and buses are often missing sink plugs as well. In a cramped train or bus bathroom along with the vehicle swaying motion, a sink plug has saved one of my lenses on many occasions.
Finding a clothesline at a hostel is not guaranteed, so best to carry your own as well. Sometimes it’s just easier to rinse out a couple of items in your room and hang them on your bed.
A clothesline can also be used for other things such as hanging up a pashmina to give you more privacy in your bunk bed.
On trains, I have wrapped my clothesline around the handle of my suitcase and then a couple of times around a luggage rack. Theft of a suitcase can happen, but it is the easy to grab bags that will be taken first. Or if your bag looks too much like someone else’s it could be taken by accident. A few loops of a cord through the handle and around a post will prevent that.
Maybe I’m a bit paranoid about losing my luggage, but I have read that crowded metro stations can also be a place where your luggage goes missing. In those locations I use my clothesline to attach my suitcase handle to my purse. It is easy to get distracted trying to buy a metro ticket at a ticket machine. In the process you may need both hands to push buttons and feed in money. This means letting go of your suitcase handle making it an easy grab for someone else to walk away with it.
Another tip, if you don’t have a cord to attach your luggage to yourself, when standing anywhere, always place your luggage between your legs or in front of you almost on your toes.
On each of my long trips I have tried different types of clotheslines. Finally, I made my own! This clothesline allows you to adjust the size of loop on both ends. It can be looped over a bed post or wrapped around the post. Then you put the other end through the loop and pull tight.
Wrap the other end of clothesline around the other bed post and use the attached Velcro to secure it in place. This clothesline is lightweight, 9 feet long and comes with 4 clothes pins. It’s available in the TrainsBusesHostels.com Shop
The last item needed when washing clothes is laundry detergent. In the past I have carried concentrated liquid detergent and I’ve also tried soap bars.
Now I am using a new product – TruEarth Eco-strips, made in Canada.
Not only are they miniscule in size and weigh nothing; they are environmentally friendly as well.
One strip equals a load, so I have cut some strips in half and placed them in a tiny Ziplock bag. Using one of these smaller strips should be the right amount of detergent to wash a couple of items in a sink.
You can purchase strips from TruEarth https://www.tru.earth/Tru-Earth-AB-06-07-21 or from specific retail stores. I have included 10 sink size strips in the travel utility kit available in the Trains,Buses,Hostels Shop
For more travel information, get a copy of the book, Trains, Buses, Hostels & Home Stays. Books & Resources
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