June 19, 2009 The Ultralight Alternative, part 4
Mulling the maxims through the prism of the 13 days/13 pounds trip.
Ultralight travel means the traveler must commit to doing a certain amount of sink laundry (#6)
Indeed it does. Doing no laundry on a trip of a week or more (unless a bathing suit and tank top are the height of your sartorial needs) will leave you with a bag that is quite heavy - 20 pounds or more - in many cases. Not to exceed our magic carry-on comfort weight of 15 pounds is the goal. So some of the wardrobe must be washable in the hotel sink and, more importantly, able to be dried overnight.
Is it a hassle? Some will think so, but I can honestly say I never spent more than 10 minutes washing out my day’s clothing and sometimes I did two “loads”. Drying the clothing in a humid climate is more of a challenge. As I’ve mentioned before having more than one way to hang your clothing will help because you rarely know what you’re gong to get in the hotel room. Some have powerful exhaust fans which really speed up drying, some have no ventilation at all. A window may speed things up, but with high humidity this may not even help. Some rooms have balconies with little or no place to safely hang clothing, and most hoteliers probably frown on displays of drying clothes - so you have to be smart and sensitive to your environment. I always pack hangers. The ones that swivel and have notches are best, and don’t forget a cheap plastic pants hanger. The clothespin shower rod hooks are nice too. Unfortunately you can’t count on having a shower rod. Get a good clothesline. They’re out there, I just don’t have one. Curtain rods above the sliding doors to balconies were the best places I found to hang dry. Of course a hair dryer can help you in a pinch.
I did not take the plunge for a full-size microfiber towel for this trip (as a drying aid). My best advice remains to request an extra bath towel or two and use them to wring out your wet stuff.
For multi-stop trips plan your laundry around places where you’ll be staying more than one night. This takes all the urgency out of drying, assuming you have a couple of changes of clothing. What you’re wearing plus two changes (more than I took this time) is recommended. One last tip: be considerate of your hotel maid when hanging laundry. I try to make sure it’s out of their way. This also minimizes the possibility of it getting knocked down. If something is nearly dry you always hang it in the room wardrobe or clothing rack for the day.
A laundromat or hotel facility will obviously work as well, though you rarely find either in Europe. Both are plentiful in the US. You may still find that doing your own in your room is faster and more convenient.
My Stinkfighter Formula works well to odor-proof synthetics. You can also use Woolite, whatever you use at home, or any of the various camp/travel soaps.
One last benefit of doing laundry as you go: you’re never carrying much more than a days worth of dirty clothes in your bag.
Frank@OBOW
Don’t forget a little spray bottle of Febreze. It’a an element of the Stinkfighter formula and you can use to blast your bag or offending article of clothing - but hopefully never any of your traveling companions.
Reader Comments (6)
One of my best investments was my medium sized microfibre towel (I'm a Limey so you get the foreign spelled version ;-)). I bless the day I bought it and used it for rolling handwashing dry, it works so well.
It drys my hair in double quick time too, dries itself pretty quickly, packs small and wrapped around fragile items keeps them intact during transport. If I can think up any other uses for it I'll let you know.
Oh yes......I have used it as an actual (after shower) towel, I nearly forgot that.
I don't know what was up with the Febreze I had in December but my hubs and I both noticed it left some of the clothes smelling a bit like baby sick. Not pleasant.
Maybe that was inferior Limey Febreze! Never apologize for proper spelling; I'm a hopeless Anglophile. I have the daily forecast and current conditions for London on my Google home page and a biography of the guy who designed the London Underground typeface. You get the picture.
You could be right you know Brad........I bought Febreze in Spain too.......don't know what ingredients it had but it didn't smell the same as the Febreze in Canada.
And do you have the BBC site on your bookmarks? ;-)
Are you kidding? Certainly. And Fullers London Porter is my drink of choice. And I sure would like a good Cornish pasty right about now. I've had pints at the Eagle & Child in Oxford, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street, and I even took the train to Kent to visit Churchill's private residence, Chartwell.
Purex (and perhaps others) have recently introduced "3-in-1 Laundry Sheets." These are thick sheets that combine detergent, fabric softener, and anti-static ingredients, the idea being that you drop one in to your laundry load instead of detergent, and the sheet follows the load through to the dryer. A 24-load package was about $6 at a local big box store.
The thing is, they're also perfect for travel laundry. For my 10-day trip, I cut two sheets in to five strips each and folded the cut strips into a plastic bag. Each strip yields enough detergent for a sink full of clothes, and it leaves them smelling nice (the sheets come in various scents). They're very light, don't leak, and are to my mind perfect for travel.
That is not stupid at all. However, ordinary powder detergent that can be used for hand washing would do the same thing, except that you need a container for it.
It would be interesting to know the efficiency of that kind of detergent compared to the normal stuff. How much laundry can I do with 1oz of detergent sheets versus how much laundry can I do with 1oz of ordinary detergent. If both are equal, the only difference would be the weight of the container used to carry the sheets or powder in.