If you are planning on doing your own laundry on the go, we recommend putting together a lightweight travel bag of all your laundry items. All the things you need can be put together in your dirty laundry bag, dry bag, or in a Ziploc bag so you have them when you need them. The Scrubba is basically an innovative dry bag for laundry. Dry bags have been used by campers and outdoor enthusiasts to clean laundry for years, but the design, drain, and internal washboard of the Scrubba make it more ideal for laundry. However, if you on a tight budget or need something that is more dual purpose, a dry bag can also be used. If you like your clothes to be soft, you might also want to bring along a travel sized bottle of fabric softener as doing laundry by hand often leaves clothes a bit stiffer and scratchier than doing it by machine. You can add in a little fabric softener in the final rinse if hand washing.

Here is what we currently have in our travel laundry bag (for a trip through Uganda and Rwanda) where we mostly relied on handwashing with a few instances of having access to our clothing being washed as part of a free service offered at a hotel or apartment.Wash Me Bag– This bag has a fun design and is made of a microfiber material and has a drawstring closure. The bag opens up to 21”L x 22”W size, but when not in use it folds up to about 6 inches and zips shut.You can see more fun designs of these bags here. Laundry soap sheets (Travelon): Great for hand-washing clothes in your hotel sink, these sheets rehydrate into soap with a bit of water. Since they’re sheets, they’re TSA-compliant, and super compact.

Consider where and how you are traveling to determine the best way to do laundry during your trip. What will work at one destination may not work well in another. Fill the sink with lukewarm water (don’t use hot water). Add your laundry soap to the running water. Read directions on how much you need to use. For most, you just need to add a few drops of a regular liquid detergent or a capful of travel-sized hand wash laundry soap. Step 4. Add Clothing Yes, that totally makes sense for wanting something in a bigger container and something more versatile, especially for camping. In reality, most of the travel laundry soaps we recommend could be used in a multipurpose way.For those with sensitive skin, test a new soap at home prior to travel. Baby products are often a good choice for sensitive skin Now place you dirty clothing in the sink. Don’t put all your clothing into the sink at once, wash only a couple of items at a time for best results. Try to use a bath tub or basin if you have a lot of clothing to wash. Step 4. Swirl, Swish, and Scrub Each type of material presents an advantage. Polyester and nylon are both lightweight synthetic fibers that are designed to endure wear and tear. Polyester will repel water while nylon will absorb water. Neither are breathable, but natural fibers such as cotton are. Pay attention to what material best suits your needs and style of travel.

Coghlan’s Bungee Clothesline– This travel clotheslines is well-reviewed and made of twisted nylon covered elastic with carabiner like hooks on each end. Stretches to 10 feet (3 meters). Note: Many brands of dryer sheets and fabric softeners contain toxic and carcinogenic substances (can read more about that here). We recommend choosing a brand that uses non-toxic ingredients or choosing a eco-friendly reusuable dryer sheet. Travel Laundry Bag or Cube Take your skin sensitivities into consideration and always test new soaps at home, before you travel. Another way is to hand wash your dirty clothing in the hotel sink or bath tub. This simply means filling up the sink with water, adding laundry soap, and hand washing your dirty clothing items. Then you can hang them up over the bath tub or shower to dry. If you are new to hand washing, you can skip ahead to read our detailed step-by-step guide to hand washing your clothing.For an ultra compact soap option that’s not subject to TSA’s 3-1-1 rule, try a travel soap sheet. Soap sheets rehydrate when wet to create suds to clean yourself with. Laundromats, also commonly known as coin laundries, launderettes, and laundrettes, are facilities where people can wash their laundry on their own or with little professional help.

Do it Best Rubber Stopper– This simple 5 inch rubber stopper lies flat and fits most sink and bath tub drains. This is the one we have and it has worked with the vast majority of drains we’ve tried it on. These portable ultrasonic washing machines are usually in the form of a wand or disc attached to small handheld unit that you place in a sink or container of water and leave for a certain amount of time to clean. You can see a good selection of these units here. Since your waste water will be going directly into the environment, be sure to use biodegradable environmental-friendly laundry soaps such as those offered by Campsuds or Sea to Summit. Many of these laundry soaps are multipurpose and designed to be used for all kinds of cleaning purposes including as a shampoo, dish soap, hand soap, and shaving soap.

But two brands that I know sell bigger bottles (16 oz or more) are Campsuds and Dr. Bronner’s. Both of them are sold as multipurpose and biogradable, and can be used for a range of things like washing dishes, body soap, hand soap, laundry, washing your dog, etc.