Living as a full-time traveler is a dream come true for most people. It has been an amazing adventure for me, hands down the best decision I ever made for myself. With that said, some basic things tend to be a bit more of a challenge, like laundry and cooking a home-cooked meal. I’m asked quite a bit how full timers do laundry, so I thought I would answer that question for you.
Hotel Laundry Rooms
This past year, I stayed quite a bit in hotels. Often times, they have a guest laundry on one of their floors. Let me tell you, they are the most expensive loads of laundry that you will ever do. Typically, it costs $5 per load to wash and dry. If you don’t have your own detergent and dryer sheets, expect to shell out another $5. Yep, $10 for ONE load of laundry. One trick is to have a bag of those gel-type detergents. I keep 3-5 in a baggie in my carry-on when flying with a couple dryer sheets. I tend to do one load of laundry a week. If I am going adventure traveling, I bring more as I know I will get dirty.
Seventh Generation Natural Laundry Detergent Packs
Laundromat
Every time I step into a laundromat while road tripping I feel like I am back in college. There is a big difference though these days. Quite a few now have coffee bars in them and have free WiFi. I can get some writing down, have my favorite vanilla nonfat latte and have clean clothes in about an hour. That works for me!
Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Dryer Sheets
Most National and State Parks have laundromats next to the showers in larger parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone. I can pop in and take a shower (some are pretty clean and modern others make me shudder in my shower flips) and then throw everything into the washer. I typically will go outside and do some yoga or take a short walk during the cycles. Occasionally there is WiFi, but most often you are SOL.
World Map Travel-Size Laundry Bag – How cool is this?
Your House
Seriously, invite your favorite traveler over and offer to let them do their laundry at your place. What’s better than folding clothes over a bottle of wine and laughter with friends? This is by far my favorite way to do laundry!
Now I haven’t tried this portable laundry system, but a few of my traveling friends have. I don’t know, would you use it?
Scrubba Portable Laundry System Wash Bag
Tim Hirtle
Thursday 14th of January 2016
I've bought and tried the scrubba and found it lacking. It was more fiddly than simply bucket washing and didn't clean any better. Also, it started falling apart 1/2 way through a 5 month roadtrip. At best the scrubba is a gizmo for a short term backpacking trip (but using the sink is just as easy, and faster).