Do Your Laundry in a Sink

We’ve all been there. You have three days of travel ahead of you, but only one pair of underwear or socks and all your shirts are drenched in sweaty travel stink. To make things worse, the front desk at the hotel just informed you all the washers and dryers are broken, or cost so much you can’t justify blowing your budget on some socks. What’s the adventurous traveler to do?

Easy! Roll up those sleeves and turn to the sink. Doing laundry in the sink is never a glamorous thing, but it is part of the travel experience when things get dire. Here’s how to make sure you get those clothes clean.

Keep some powder detergent in your bag

Not a whole lot, but enough to do a sink load if need be. Nothing is worse than desperately hunting a foreign hotel for soap. Just a small, airtight container will be enough.

Use hot water

Since you will be air-drying your clothes, no need to worry about shrinkage. Instead, worry about killing bacteria and stink with heat. Fill the sink and mix in your powder detergent.

Wash colors together

Hot water means colors can bleed, so make sure to save your rich colors for last. It will keep you from ending up with a pretty pink wardrobe.

Rinse, rinse, and rinse again

Leaving detergent in your clothes can irritate skin and leave weird residue stains, so rinse, wring out and rinse again. You can usually feel when your clothes are detergent free, so manhandle those shirts!

Hang up or lay flat to dry

This will help save you from unsightly wrinkles, so no one will guess you spent the prior evening hunched over your sink elbow-deep in suds.