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04 — Carry-On / Guide

How to do laundry while traveling

Doing laundry on the road is what turns a two-week trip into a carry-on trip. The method takes fifteen minutes and the drying is the hard part.

By Brijon M.Last updated How we pick
A folded quick-drying travel towel beside packed luggage

The short answer

Wash in the sink with a small amount of liquid detergent, rinse twice, then roll the garment in a towel and stand on it to remove water. That last step is what makes overnight drying work. Merino and synthetics dry by morning; cotton denim does not.

01 — The point

Why this is a packing decision, not a chore

The length of a trip does not determine how much you pack. The interval between laundry does. Someone washing every four days packs the same amount for two weeks as for five days, and that is the difference between a carry-on and a checked bag.

Laundry on the road is usually treated as an inconvenience discovered halfway through a trip. Treated as a plan from the start, it changes what you buy as well as what you pack -- you choose fabrics that wash and dry in a hotel room rather than fabrics that need a machine.

The three options are a sink wash, a wash bag, and a laundromat. They suit different trip lengths, and most long trips use all three. Packing around the method is covered in how to pack light.

02 — Method

The sink wash, step by step

Fifteen minutes of work. The towel-roll step is the one people skip and the one that decides whether the garment is dry in the morning.

  1. 01Plug the sink. If there is no plug, a universal flat sink plug costs very little and works in almost any basin -- hotel sinks very often have broken or missing stoppers.
  2. 02Fill with warm, not hot, water. Hot water sets stains and shrinks wool.
  3. 03Add a small amount of detergent -- far less than you think. Excess detergent is the main cause of garments that dry stiff and smell.
  4. 04Agitate for two minutes, then leave to soak for ten. Soaking does most of the work; scrubbing damages fabric.
  5. 05Drain and rinse twice in clean water. Residual detergent is what makes clothes feel crunchy.
  6. 06Press the water out. Never wring merino or technical fabric -- it stretches the garment and breaks the fibers.
  7. 07Lay the garment flat on a dry towel, roll the towel up with the garment inside, and stand on the roll. This removes far more water than squeezing does and takes hours off the drying time.
  8. 08Hang it where air moves: over a shower rail with the extractor fan on, in front of an air conditioning vent, or on a line across the bathroom.

03 — Fabrics

What dries overnight and what does not

Fabric choice decides whether this works at all. Pack accordingly before you leave rather than discovering it at 11pm in a hotel bathroom.

FabricDries inVerdict
Merino wool6 - 10 hoursIdeal -- also resists odor for days between washes
Polyester and nylon2 - 6 hoursFastest, but holds odor and needs washing more often
Synthetic blends4 - 8 hoursGood compromise for shirts and underwear
Lightweight cotton10 - 16 hoursMarginal -- plan two nights
Cotton denim24 hours or moreDo not sink wash on the road
Heavy cotton towels24 hours or moreCarry a travel towel instead

04 — The other options

Wash bags, laundromats and hotel services

A sink is not always the answer, and knowing when to switch saves a lot of time.

A wash bag, for anything more than two garments

A sealed wash bag with an internal washboard texture does a noticeably better job than a sink on several items at once, and it does it without a sink at all -- useful on a campsite or a train. The tradeoff is the volume it occupies when packed and the fact that you still have the drying problem.

A laundromat, once a week on a long trip

A machine wash and tumble dry resets everything, including the things a sink cannot handle. On trips over about ten days, budget one laundromat visit -- it is two hours and it removes the slow accumulation of half-clean clothes. Self-service laundries are easy to find in most cities and in many campgrounds.

Hotel laundry service, almost never

Per-item hotel laundry pricing is typically several times the cost of a full laundromat load for a single shirt. The exception is a business trip where someone else is paying and the shirt matters.

05 — Practicalities

Rules and etiquette worth knowing

Hostels and many hotels ask guests not to hang laundry from balconies or windows, and a few enforce it. A line strung inside the bathroom is invisible and causes no argument.

Do not wash clothes in natural water sources. Detergent -- including biodegradable detergent -- is harmful to aquatic life, and Leave No Trace guidance asks for washing to be done at least 200 feet from lakes and streams with the waste water scattered on soil.

Liquid detergent counts toward the TSA 3-1-1 liquids allowance; detergent sheets and powder do not, which is a practical reason to prefer sheets for flights. If you are packing the rest of the toiletry kit around that rule, best toiletry bags covers the containers.

On a campsite, the same principle applies with a bucket: wash away from water, strain the grey water, and pack out any solids. A collapsible sink or a dry bag doubles as a wash basin.

What to buy

The gear we would buy for this

Trail & Terminal earns a commission when you buy through our Amazon links, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products we pick -- see our affiliate disclosure and selection method.

1

Best for detergent that is not a liquids problem

Sea to Summit Trek & Travel Pocket Laundry Wash

Dissolving sheets rather than liquid, so it does not count against the carry-on liquids allowance.

The practical argument for sheets is twofold: they are not a liquid for security purposes, and they are pre-dosed, which fixes the single most common sink-wash mistake of using far too much detergent.

Biodegradable does not mean safe to use in a stream -- it means it breaks down in soil. Wash well away from water sources regardless. The rest of the toiletry kit is in <a href="/carry-on/best-toiletry-bags">best toiletry bags</a>.

Specs

  • Dissolving detergent leaves in a small case
  • Around 50 sheets per pack
  • Biodegradable formulation
  • Weighs almost nothing

Good for

  • Not a liquid, so it is outside the 3-1-1 rule entirely
  • Cannot leak into your bag, which liquid detergent eventually does
  • One sheet per sink wash removes the overdosing problem

Bad at

  • Sheets clump together if they get damp in the case
  • Less effective in cold water than liquid detergent
  • More expensive per wash than a decanted bottle of liquid
2

Best for the sink that has no stopper

Sea to Summit Universal Sink Plug

A flat silicone disc that seals almost any drain. The cheapest item here and the one that makes the method possible.

This is a trivial object that determines whether the whole method works, and a surprising number of hotel sinks either have no stopper or have one that does not seal.

The common improvisation is a plastic bag pushed into the drain with a weight on it, which works badly. A flat silicone plug weighs nothing and is one of the best per-ounce items in a travel kit.

Specs

  • Flexible silicone disc
  • Fits most drain shapes and sizes
  • Packs completely flat
  • Weighs under an ounce

Good for

  • Works on the broken and missing stoppers that hotel sinks are full of
  • Takes no meaningful space or weight
  • Also plugs a bathtub for a larger wash

Bad at

  • Does not seal well on a badly corroded or irregular drain
  • Easy to leave behind in a hotel bathroom
  • Needs rinsing and drying or it gets slimy
3

Best for the towel the roll step needs

Matador NanoDry Trek Towel

A fast-drying microfiber towel that doubles as the thing you roll wet garments in. Packs to the size of a fist.

The towel-roll step is what makes overnight drying realistic, and it needs a towel that is itself dry again by morning. A hotel's cotton bath towel works once and then is wet for the rest of the day.

If you are camping rather than hotelling, the same towel covers both jobs plus the usual ones. Compare the field in <a href="/carry-on/best-travel-towels">best travel towels</a>.

Specs

  • Nanofiber microfiber construction
  • Packs into an attached silicone case
  • Available in several sizes
  • Dries far faster than terry cotton

Good for

  • Serves two jobs -- drying you, and wringing out laundry
  • Dries quickly enough to be reused the same day
  • Very small packed, so carrying one costs almost nothing

Bad at

  • Microfiber feels unpleasant to some people against the skin
  • Needs washing regularly or it develops a smell
  • Less absorbent per pass than a full-size cotton towel
4

Best for somewhere to hang it

Sea to Summit Lite Line Clothesline

A twisted cord that grips fabric without pegs, with hooks at both ends. Weighs an ounce and solves the drying half.

Air moving around a spread-out garment is what dries it. Draped over a chair back, a shirt dries in overlapping folds and takes twice as long -- a line fixes that for an ounce.

Hang it in the bathroom with the extractor fan running rather than in the bedroom. The fan moves far more air than an open window does and the humidity goes outside rather than into the room you are sleeping in.

Specs

  • Twisted cord that grips garments between the strands
  • Hooks and loops at both ends
  • Around 1 oz
  • Roughly 6 feet long

Good for

  • No clothes pegs to carry or lose
  • Hangs across a bathroom or between two trees equally well
  • Keeps garments spread out, which is most of what fast drying needs

Bad at

  • Heavy wet garments can still slip out of the twist
  • 6 feet is short for more than a few items
  • The hooks need something to attach to, which small bathrooms sometimes lack

Questions

Frequently asked

How do you do laundry in a hotel sink?
Plug the sink, fill with warm water, add a small amount of detergent, agitate briefly and soak for ten minutes. Rinse twice, then roll the garment in a towel and stand on it before hanging it to dry.
How long do clothes take to dry in a hotel room?
Merino takes six to ten hours and synthetics two to six, provided you roll them in a towel first and hang them where air moves. Cotton takes considerably longer and denim will not dry overnight.
Can you bring laundry detergent on a plane?
Yes. Liquid detergent counts toward the TSA 3-1-1 carry-on liquids rule, so it must be in a container of 3.4 oz or less. Detergent sheets and powder are not liquids and are not restricted.
Is a travel wash bag worth it?
For trips longer than a week, or for travel without reliable sink access, yes -- it washes several items at once and does it better than a sink. For short hotel trips, a sink and a plug are enough.
What clothes are best for washing while traveling?
Merino wool and synthetic blends. Merino resists odor for several wears and dries overnight; synthetics dry fastest but need washing more often. Avoid denim and heavy cotton, which will not dry in a hotel room.
Can I wash clothes in a lake or stream while camping?
No. Detergent, including biodegradable detergent, harms aquatic life. Carry water at least 200 feet from the water source, wash there, and scatter the waste water on soil rather than returning it.

References

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