When planning (longer) vacations for our family, I look for hotels with onsite laundry facilities (i.e., coin-operated washers and dryers).

If I can’t find a hotel that I like with laundry facilities, I ask the concierge for laundry services close to the hotel. (This works really well when we’re staying in large cities.) I’ll run the clothes over in a cab/my rental cab or ask them to pick up the laundry and deliver it back to the hotel when they’re finished.

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I agree Marie!

We took the wash-and-fold option last summer after a particularly filthy camping trip. It was such a relief to arrive home with clean clothes.

First, you forgot to mention your favorite option . . . ask your husband to do it.

Second, washing clothes is hard work and the floors often get slippery.

Finally, thank you very much for featuring a picture of my skivvies in your blog - I’m moving on up!

Such practical advice, but fun. “This isn’t real laundry people, it’s triage.” LOL. Another option is to send each person’s t-shirt, socks, and undies into the shower or bath with them and have them take care of their own. And white bar soap works fantastic.

I love how you always manage to make your posts hiliarious and useful at the same time. I have not yet travelled abroad with the children, but we hope to next summer, and I am getting one of those bang-on useful underwear chandeliers!

Yet another reason I’m so partial to short-term apartment rentals as opposed to hotels — most have a washing machine!

One other trick from my back of goodies — with a Tide To Go stick on hand (or two or three if you’re headed to a destination famous for its chocolate gelato… sigh), you can cut down on the number of items that *must* be washed considerably!

What a well-timed article! We just packed for a family trip, and couldn’t find a bunch of my 9-year old’s underwear - she only had 3 or 4 pairs. We ran to Old Navy, bought a 5-pack, ran back (7-year old whining all the way; she got nada for her efforts). Then I pull out my kids’ suitcase, and there, in the inside laundry pocket, is all 7 pairs of missing undies, left there from our vacation 2 weeks ago!
At least my daughter won’t run out of undies on this trip to the in-laws. Or ever. All this underwear should see her clear through college. :)

Great tips article, Jaime! Fun to read.

Okay I’ve scoured the photo above (no pun intended) and can’t find the husband’s skivvies. Are the pink ones yours, Mr. Pearson?

I never travel anywhere for longer than about five days and even though I never EVER check a bag, no one in our fmialy ever seems to run out of clean clothes. Maybe that’s because we don’t change more than our unders very often and you can pack a dozen even in a carryon.

Despite the fact that laundry was totally not interesting as a topic, I read this with gust just because you are so good, Jamie. You could write about doing laundry at HOME and I would read about it.

When I was a teenager fending for myself in Taiwan, I tried some bathtub laundering during the (insanely damp and moist) rainy season, which seemed perfectly reasonable until a few days later when, still waiting for my clothes to dry, I discovered my jeans and underwear were not only still damp but developing mold! That’s when I discovered the joy of wash & fold.

In drier climates, I’m with you — nothing beats a little hotel shampoo or a bar of soap–even whitening toothpaste can work up a lather and help treat stains. We’re also partial to fleece travel duds for the whole family — cleans up quickly and dries in a couple of hours.

This post, and comments, are cracking me up. Great tips, Jamie.

Beth

We found the best solution for the laundry problem: wear clothes over and over and don’t wash anything. After 6 days in the Apostle Islands (in Wisconsin), our clothes were so smelly (my 4-year-old son, who likes to wear his food instead of eat it, and I packed light and then mailed some filthy clothes home to save on space) that no one wanted to make conversation, let alone sit near us, on the plane!

Great, funny and much needed post! We are going on our third year of an open ended world tour as a family, so have become experts at the secrets of laundry while traveling.

We have those tide pens, bleach pens & shout packets ( the later always with us in a pocket). The bleach pens are only for whites, tide pens work great but empty quickly). It is a handy way to not let a wine spill, balsamic splash or spaghetti drip ruin a day of touring.

Yes, we each regularly take a few things with us to wash in the shower ( with shampoo).Our kidlet loves this routine and gives me time to enjoy my shower while she is busy washing.

Micro fiber towels are the best for pulling out all excess liquid when drying. One of our most loved items, they also make good shawls, travel-blankets, beach or picnic blankets, and sarongs.Darker colors are best ( for towels and all things).

Fast dry and odor resistant clothes are a must for extended travel. We often travel a month with just a tiny backpack each and that includes a laptop or two and homeschool supplies.

Compare prices for wash and fold to doing your own. In many places it is actually cheaper or the same price to let someone else do them. I love this method best! ;) Dryers are often expensive and not used much in the rest of the world, so skip the dryers if you can to save money if you do your own.

An underwear chandelier? For traveling? Who invents these things! Also, and you know I love you guys, that is one of the scariest photos I have seen in a long time. It gives me insight into Rich I could have really done without!