Traveling in Style: Clothing Care

Packing light for any trip longer than a few days presumes that one will have to launder at least some of one’s clothing at some point. Depending on budget, convenience and clothing care requirements, there are a few options.

Hotel laundries: I’ll admit I’ve had minimal experience here. I believe on one of our trips we had one or two of le monsieur’s shirts washed and pressed by the hotel laundry service. Having perused lists of hotel laundry prices in a variety of establishments, I can state with some certainty that this is not the most economical option on the planet. In a pinch, and in limited quantities, it might be a best (read: most convenient) option, especially for items like men’s dress shirts that require pressing. I’d be hesitant to consign items that require cold-water washing or other delicate handling to a hotel laundry.

Laundromats/Dry Cleaners: I detest laundromats, and consider them a horrendous waste of time, (especially precious travel time) and will avoid them if at all possible. I have yet to visit a laundromat in Europe, so can’t really speak to that experience. We did, on one trip, drop off some shirts at a cleaners in Paris a few blocks from our hotel, and though not cheap, we were able to pick up the next day and the work was satisfactory (no broken buttons, le monsieur’s pet peeve). I’ve been told that generally same-day service is not available at European dry cleaners, but will admit this is based on hearsay only and not any kind of scientific poll.

Mostly, I prefer to keep laundry costs as low as possible when traveling, and unless one is staying in an apartment with a washing machine, that often means washing in the sink and hanging to dry. I’ve learned to choose my travel clothing with this assumption in mind, and each trip we take it gets easier.

Most of the time, unless we’ve really worked up a sweat, clothing can be worn a few times without washing. These products help postpone the need to wash:

Febreeze. You can pick up a travel-size bottle or just decant a bit into a travel sprayer. On our first trip to Paris in 2007, smoking in cafes and most public venues was still allowed. We’d return to our hotel room just reeking of cigarette smoke, yet our clothing was otherwise still clean.  A few good spritzes with this stuff, hang in the bathroom overnight, and clothes were fresh and ready to wear again the next morning.  It was a lifesaver!

Tide To Go pens remove stains like red wine, coffee, tomato sauce.  Just dab the spot and let dry. But they don’t work on grease spots, so you must also bring one of these, which is an absolute miracle product in my book:

I was skeptical until I tried this thing. It really does remove grease stains!  Just rub the stick on the spot, wait 3 minutes and brush away. I’ll never be without one of these again!

But at some point, you may need to do some hotel sink laundry. Hotel shampoo will work in a pinch for most items, as will liquid dish soap if available, but I also like to bring a few of these:

They’re safe for even the most delicate lingerie, and are in powder form, so don’t count against your carry-on liquid allotment.

The items that I hand wash can be rolled in a towel to remove excess water and hung over a towel rack to dry.

Though wrinkles aren’t an issue for my own travel wardrobe, if your business travel requires more tailored items and a polished appearance, I’ve been told this spray works wonders.

Do you have any laundry or clothing care tips or favorite products for travel?

~

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27 Comments

  1. I have been looking for the packets of travel soap for years. Thank you so much for finding a source. And I did use a laundermat in at Euro-Disney when I was traveling with two school age daughters. The washer and dryer were so slow, that after wasting most of the day sitting in the laundry, our clothes were still soaking wet. We drove into Paris and bought new underwear and tee shirts at Monoprix– fortunately at a time when prices were low and the dollar stronger.
    Your travel clothes series has been amazing! Do you have any suggestions about luggage?

  2. Thanks for the information on various items–I usually carry some of these kind of things. I have used laundrymats in Paris–but only when I am there for 2 weeks or more. There was a combo drycleaner and laundrymat kitty-corner from my budget hotel during grad years; I often spent an afternoon watching the laundry spin. Wasted time in a short vacation; a kind of Zen experience on a longer one. Visiting grocery stores and doing laundry actually taught me a lot about the French.

  3. Thank you so much for this information. This is a real issue for me as when I travel, I do travel light, so washing is a must. Detest laundromats, but did use them last year in France and Italy as there were 4 of us travelling together…Most were horrible and I couldn’t wait to get out of them..

  4. Thanks for the link to powder detergent- I have the woolite liquid packs, but powder is a no-brainer!

    I spent an afternoon in a laundrymat in Montpellier. I brought a book and chilled out, watching the locals go about their business. As we usually travel with friends, some alone time, even in a laundrymat, is neccessary for me.

  5. I usually take travel wash and rinse stuff out in the sink – a la Trains, Planes and Automobiles!

    Re: same-day dry-cleaners, we don’t really have them in the UK, though you can usually get your clothes back in a day or so.

  6. In at least Ireland and the US (and possibly elsewhere) I have found dry cleaners with laundry service (or sometimes a staffed laundromat) where you could drop off your washables and have them back dried and folder later the same day or the next day, with the service priced on a per-pound basis. It’s a wonderful bargain compared to the hotel laundry service and much better than going to the laundromat myself. You have to assume that everything will be thrown into the wash and dryer together, so don’t give them anything too delicate, but it’s a great way to get jeans, tee-shirts, and lots of underwear and socks clean.

  7. I have never used the hotel laundry because of the costs! My hubs was stuck in New York for an extended once and they wanted $6 per pair of underwear just to wash. It ended being cheaper just to buy new briefs!! Your advice here is good…I usually over pack!

  8. Wow, that is an impressive list! I never knew so many things existed for laundry care on the go.
    I usually rely on washing things in the sink with shampoo and carrying a stain remover pen in my luggage. I found a most effective method for removing stains is just to dab some soap or detergent into a fresh stain and tackle it later. So when out for the evening I head straight to the first restroom or if I am at a private party I ask the hostess for some dish washing detergent. Unless the stained item is made of super delicate fabric this always works.
    And I’ve been told sparkly mineral water is the best thing for removing red wine stains.

  9. Wow, you are font of knowledge on this. I need to get one of those oil sticks.

    Two weeks till you’re there! Lucky duck!

  10. Ah, you have clearly not had the hilarious experience of trying to do laundry in Poland! Believe me, it is the stuff that Polish jokes are made of. I agree that launderettes are a horrible experience over here, but even a mundane thing like laundry can be an interesting experience when you’re abroad.

  11. I simply duck into the first drugstore or supermarket and buy the smallest possible bottle of liquid detergent. Then I use the hotel sink to wash stuff out at night. Whatever is left in the bottle at the end of the trip I just throw out, figuring in the grand scheme of things it’s more cost effective and time effective to use this method than to use any other.

  12. Ooh, I had no idea that Forever New came in little packets like that, although we could just put some in Ziploc sandwich bags.

    The Tide To Go pens sound great!

    We’ve been guilty of splurging on hotel laundry services but you’re right it’s very expensive and anything delicate or needing cold washing will be ruined.

    Your blog is my favorite morning read!

  13. Thank you for great tips! I am also devouring all the comments on pasty leg syndrome yesterday, very interesting. Sadly, I have never mastered the self tanning thing.

  14. Hello:
    Laundry is, as you so rightly suggest, one of the major problems of travel when an absence from home is more than for a night or two.

    We fear that on such occasions the cost of hotel laundry, usually horrendous, has to be dismissed from the mind, included as part of the overall expense of travel, and summoned.

  15. I had a trauma having the Ritz in Paris steam the wrinkles out of a vintage Ossie Clark. Let’s not even get into the details.

  16. I use the Tide Pen too, and a spray bottle of “clothing freshener”. I also took a small bottle of Eucalan– it’s a concentrated, very gentle, no-rinse detergent that worked beautifully. A lot of hotels frown on hanging wet clothes in the bathroom (we tried to do it discreetly). 😀

  17. I small bottle of Dawn dish washing liquid is my go to. I use it for clothes washing, spot removal too if you rinse it quickly. It takes only a couple drops and rinses easily. Great posts for all travelers.

  18. As you may know, we just returned from 10 days in Europe, the last 4 in Paris. As we are veteran travelers, we always pack light and plan to hand wash as we go. I pack a baggie with powder detergent. No problems so far, but am considering the stick for greasy spills. Looking forward to your trip reports, Pseu.

  19. Great suggestions, but for some reason I couldn’t see the pictures of the products. What is the name of the anti-grease stick? This is something a messy eater could really use.

  20. One thing I find useful to bring is a very very large ziplock bag. I put the clothes and soap into it, just cover with water, close, and can agitate the clothes much more efficiently, with less splashing, than in just the sink. (Also, I don’t have to worry about cleanliness of the sink, important at camping sites, etc.) I use it at home for the same reason, as my bathroom sink is very shallow.

    The bags are cheap enough to consider disposable, but will function fine even with a few holes in them.

    I’m also fine with using laundromats – I haven’t had bad experiences with them in Europe and I don’t mind hanging out for an hour or so with coffee and a book.

  21. I never bring things that need drycleaning. The spouse sometimes has to bring a suit if we’re traveling with a business duty for him, and we find the hotel is OK if a freshener is needed.

    I only travel with washable duds. We usually find a fluff-and-fold place in most cities we go. New York, New Orleans – we even found one in Paris.

    Spouse likes to line up flats to rent when we spend a lot of time in a city, and most have some kind of laundry facilities – sometimes its a comedy of errors trying to figure out how it works.

    And bring lots and lots of underpants! Twice as many pants as the number of days you’re traveling!

  22. Thanks for the oil pen suggestion. I’d never heard of these. We do a load of laundry if we’re somewhere for a week or more, and it’s actually been sort of fun in Venice, as there’s a little cafe/bar next door and we have drinks outside as laundry is going.
    We just got back from Italy yesterday w/ a good experience: in Ravenna at our B&B (the most amazing place, Casa Masoli, where our suite was much larger than most bedroom apartments, and decor very elegant and artistic), we asked about a laundromat, but the elder Signora Masoli offered to do it for us. I’d planned to dump everything in 1 load, but she insisted on separating things and ironing. We, of course, went to a florist and bought flowers for her.
    Otherwise, it was liquid detergent in the bathroom sink. It worked very well, along w/ the utra absorbent poly towel we’d brought. We didn’t use half the underwear or socks I’d packed.

    Marie

  23. I enjoyed reading the blog and the comments, too! I’m good at packing but I find myself either too lazy or too exhausted to wash clothes while traveling. These suggestions will surely help! Thanks!

  24. I am skimming through archives because I just found I’ll be able to go on a south of France/ Spain trip this summer as a chaperone. Could you possibly go in and put the names of some of the products? The pictures are no longer showing up, and the links aren’t there, so I have no idea what gets grease spots out or what powdered detergent you used. Thank you!