this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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me_irl
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Can you explain to me why doing laundry is not a thing for many people on vacation? Why hurl a giant suitcase of clothing instead of a few pieces you wash every couple of days? Never made sense to me.
Because vacation is often camping or staying in a hotel. And there aren't reasonably-priced laundry facilities in either place
But sure, if you have a washing machine in the place you're staying... Even then, washing every couple of days feels excessive.
But I'm not the one packing 32 shirts either
My last trip was to a foreign country, 2nd world country. I brought enough clothes for half the trip, and did laundry in the sink with locally sourced soap. Hung them in the room to dry 🤷♂️
Hotel laundry was prohibitively expensive, though I suppose I could've found a Laundromat 🤔
At any rate, the towards the end of the trip we stayed somewhere with a washing machine, so we all did a load and hung them on the drying rack.
Clean clothes are important. Sometimes, MAYBE, I'll go three days on a shirt. But only for work, because I work mostly alone and don't sweat much or at all most days. But if I do? Or it gets dirty? New shirt.
In my normal life it's similar, I can MAYBE get two days from a shirt in the spring fall winter, but not summer. One and done.
Same with showers, MAYBE two days, I've done three in a pinch but it's gross. Gotta wash yourself every day. Can't believe people who don't.
Thank you for the sink-washing idea, that might have just saved my bacon, and was easier than the shower wash I was planning
i bring clothesline and sheets of laundry detergent that pack very light just need a sink or tub
Longer trips, yes. A week? You don't want to spend all that money just to spend half a day near a public Laundromat.
You also don't know the area, don't know the laundry places, gamble on a lot of things not even knowing it works like how you think it does there.
I'm busy doing shit I don't wanna wait around for laundry. Plus I've only once had access to a laundry room I trusted to not have stuff stolen out of it; we specifically planned for it because it was three weeks and we needed somewhere to do laundry at the halfway mark
Currently on a longer vacay, was able to do laundry at a friend's near the beginning as planned, but two countries later I'm currently in a laundromat desert at a hotel near an airport.
So it's not really something you can rely on being able to do, unfortunately.
Edit: Just sink washed some things that should get me through the rest of the week after seeing that idea in the responses. Now it just rained, so fingers-crossed the clothes dry faster than they get the wet-mold smell
Costs? In most hotels, doing laundry is really expensive per piece. In some apartments having a washing machine, you have to pay per load and sometimes the washer/energy, too.
So, packing for a few days extra mostly is just question of cost vs. comfort?
But yeah, asked myself the same question packing a big suitcase for the last vacation...
Seeking out a nearby laundry sounds awful.
I do laundry on travel when the location has it as an option.
Because these people evidently don't onebag.