While you might be able to pay at the washer itself, it's more likely that you'll have to insert your money at a central unit. (Don't put your main soap into the pre-wash compartment, or it'll be washed away before its time.) The soap compartments on most washers have three reservoirs: for pre-wash, the main wash cycle (normally at the top of the washer), and fabric softener. If you're planning on visiting a launderette, you could pack one or two small detergent boxes, although you can typically buy some at the launderette from an automated dispenser. While the exact procedure varies, it usually includes the same steps as you'd encounter at a launderette at home. When it's closing time, an attendant might come by to evict you, or the machines may simply stop operating. Look around for a sign listing the "last wash" time, and stick to it. Others are completely automated - but many of these have pictogram instructions that usually aren't too hard to parse. (Many hostels have coin-op washers and dryers or heated drying rooms.)īetter launderettes have coin-op soap dispensers, change machines, English instructions, and helpful attendants. It takes about an hour and $10–15 to wash and dry an average-size load. In Western Europe, nearly every neighborhood has one in Eastern Europe, launderettes are much less common. Using a Launderetteįor a thorough washing, ask your hotel to direct you to the nearest launderette. It's clean and refreshing, and (sadly) in 15 minutes it's dry. In very hot climates, I wash my shirt several times a day, wring it, and put it on damp. A piece of tape is a good ad hoc lint-brush. If your shirt or dress dries wrinkled, hang it in a steamy bathroom or borrow an iron and ironing board from the hotel (nearly all have loaners).
Smooth out your wet clothes, button shirts, set collars, and "hand iron" to encourage wrinkle-free drying. Laid-back hotels will let your laundry join theirs on the lines out back or on the rooftop. Don't hang your clothes out the window - hoteliers find it unsightly, and you might find it has blown away when you return from dinner. Separate the back and front of hanging clothes to speed drying. It's hanging quietly in the bathroom or shuffled among my dry clothes in the closet. Suspend them over the bathtub or in a closet. Hang clothes in a low-profile, nondestructive way. Rolling laundry in a towel and twisting or stomping on it can be helpful (but many accommodations don't provide new towels every day). Other than a clogged toilet, there's little a hotelier likes seeing less than a pool of water on their hardwood floors.
Wring wet laundry as dry as possible to minimize dripping. Some travelers create their own washing machine with a large, two-gallon sealable baggie: soak in suds for an hour, agitate, drain, rinse. Bring a universal drain-stopper from home, try using a wadded-up sock or a pill-bottle lid, or line the sink with a plastic bag and wash in it.
Sometimes a hotel will remove the sink and tub stoppers in an attempt to discourage washing. Interpret hoteliers' reticence as "I have lots of good furniture and fine floors in this room, and I don't want your drippy laundry ruining things." But as long as you wash carefully and are respectful of the room, go right ahead. Some bathrooms are even equipped with a multilingual "no washing clothes in the room" sign (which, after "eat your peas," may be the most ignored rule on earth). Most European hotels prefer that you not do laundry in your room. (I test-wash my shirts in the sink at home before I let them come to Europe with me. To make things easier, I bring a quick-dry travel wardrobe that either looks OK wrinkled or doesn't wrinkle. But you can pack a self-service laundry kit: a plastic or mesh bag with a drawstring for dirty clothes concentrated liquid detergent in a small, sturdy, plastic squeeze bottle wrapped in a sealable baggie to contain leakage and a stretchable " travel clothesline" (a double-stranded cord that's twisted, so clothespins are unnecessary). I keep it very simple, using hotel laundry bags to store my dirty stuff, washing my clothes with hotel shampoo, and just improvising places to hang things. One of my domestic chores while on the road is washing my laundry in the hotel-room sink. Do laundry in your hotel room, find a launderette, or splurge on full-service laundry. But you don't need to go to these extremes to have something presentable to wear. A guy in Germany showed me his take-it-into-the-tub-with-you-and-make-waves method of washing his troublesome jeans. I met a woman in Italy who wore her T-shirt frontward, backward, inside-out frontward, and inside-out backward, all to delay the laundry day.
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