Travel is a fun activity. It allows you to explore and enjoy amazing and sometimes even quirky travel destinations, relieve stress and broaden your horizons.
When you’re on a tour or a road trip, though, one of the tedious chores that you need to do is laundry. If you’re going on a holiday or a vacation for more than a week out of town or overseas, you’ll likely need to clean your clothes (unless you buy new clothes on your trip).
Washing your clothes by yourself or with the help of a hotel laundry service provider, however, gives you the advantage of:
- Rewearing your favorite travel clothes
- Packing less (great if you’re trying to save on baggage check-in fees that can eat up your travel fund)
- Going back home with less dirty laundry
If you’re going to be doing any kind of laundry during your trip, you’ll need to pack a big laundry bag in your travel backpack or luggage.
Why Do I Need a Travel Laundry Bag?
Nothing is more annoying than mixing your dirty laundry with your clean clothes when you’re traveling. What you need is a laundry bag designed primarily for travelers.
Travel laundry bags often include features that make the sack sturdy, durable, convenient and lightweight. This type of laundry bag may also come with nice-to-have features like water-resistance and odor control.
When you have a quality laundry bag, you can keep your clean clothes smelling fresh and prevent the mixing of dirty (and sometimes smelly) items with clean ones. Doing laundry in the hotel will also be easier, as everything you need to wash and clean is in one bag.
How to Use a Laundry Bag Effectively
After unpacking your stuff in your hotel room, Airbnb, apartment or other type of accommodation, look for a good place to hang or store your laundry bag. A good location is a specific corner of the room. Then, fill the bag with dirty or stinky laundry throughout the week. You can then take the bag filled with dirty laundry for cleaning.
If you’re going to be on the move frequently, such as visiting multiple cities or destinations in one week, make sure you fold or stack your dirty clothes neatly into your travel laundry bag. Simply shoving items in that bag isn’t a good idea, as this will make packing your suitcase or luggage a lot harder for you.
How to Make a Laundry Bag at Home
Ideally, you should buy a quality travel laundry bag for your upcoming trip or vacation. If you insist on taking a DIY approach, you have the option to make a personalized laundry bag using stuff around your home.
When you’re done with this project, use this sack as your delicates laundry bag at home.
You’ll need the following materials for this project:
- A pair of scissors
- Pillowcase
- Needle and thread
- 5 cm ribbon
- 5 cm of coordinating ribbon
Here are the steps to creating a laundry bag:
- Take a large pillowcase. Then, using your scissors, cut a length of 2.5 cm-wide ribbon two times its width plus 2 cm.
- Fold over a centimeter at each end of the ribbon, then press.
- Beginning at one side edge of your pillowcase, position the ribbon 4 cm down from the open top edge. Don’t forget to tack the ribbon all the way round.
- Use the needle and thread to stitch the ribbon along both edges of your pillowcase to create a channel.
- Snip a length of 1.5 cm wide ribbon. Then, use a safety pin attached to one end of the pillowcase to thread the ribbon through the channel located at the side opening.
- Overlap the ends of the ribbon by one centimeter. Then, stitch the ends together.
- Feed the ends back through the channel. This way, the join will no longer be visible.
- Draw the ribbon to close your custom laundry bag.
Take note, though, that the laundry bag that you’ll be making won’t surpass the ones on the market. If you want a laundry sack that will last you for years to come, you’re better off buying on from reputable stores.
What Can I Use If I Don’t Have a Laundry Bag?
If you’re already out of town or overseas, you’ll want to make time to buy a travel laundry bag. You don’t have an excuse not to purchase one, as you shouldn’t be mixing dirty and clean clothes in your luggage.
If you find yourself in a place where there’s no laundry bag available for sale, you could make do with plastic bags that you can find at your hotel or apartment. If you have more than one luggage, dedicate one for dirty clothes and the other for clean clothes. Don’t get them mixed up.
Another alternative is to use a beach towel if you’ve packed one. Simply lay out your towel at the bottom of your luggage. Then, layer your dirty clothes and fold the towel over the top. Take note, though, that this will only physically separate the dirty and clean items. It cannot prevent the odors from mixing together.
Before you drive to your destination or the airport, make sure you’ve brought a laundry bag with you. Remember to opt for a large bag if you’re going to be away for more than two weeks.