Deciding on which vacation clothing to pack is something that seems to torture most of us. So what should you do?
Even if the manufacturer claims you can wear their underwear 17 days straight without washing, should you? Should anyone?
This is THE PRIME example of one of our favorite sayings, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.
When packing, we all can struggle with if we’ve packed a bit much (or way too much), or even in some cases too little. Taking only one spare underwear change is probably not the most prudent, as you’ll most likely be washing everyday. Of course most countries don’t provide dryers, so…
How to figure out your trip
When you start planning for your trip, you’ll need to answer a lot of questions to narrow down your clothing list. Fortunately, most of the questions are easy to answer.
- What kind of clothes are most appropriate for my planned vacation?
- How many days will I be away, and how many times will I be moving?
- How many times do I intend on wearing certain items?
- How many clothes changes will I need?
- What kind of clothes changes will I need?
- Should I bring enough for the entire trip or should I plan on washing?
- So how many changes do I need, and when should I plan on washing?
What kinds of clothes are most appropriate?
This is the most important, but slightly complicated question in some ways. This will you to hone in on the types of clothing you’ll need to take.
- Are you hiking? The entire time? How many times/days?
- Doing “touristy” stuff?
- Attending any events that require more formal attire?
Here are some examples:
Example #1: When we had to travel for work to Hawaii, we tacked on some days for leisure. As part of that trip, we decided to go Hiking in Hawaii on the Kuli’ou’ou Ridge Trail. So we needed business casual, Hawaii casual, beachwear, and hiking gear. Don’t forget hiking boots.
Example #2: We attended our son’s wedding where we were flying cross country. As part of the trip, we decided to spend some time hiking in the mountains, on Bald Mountain and see the Armstrong Redwoods. We also wanted to wear regular casual clothes for wine tasting at places like Ledson Winery and Vineyards and window shopping. And of course we’d need to bring our wedding outfits. This was three different types of clothing for a total of 15 changes (2 changes on dress rehearsal day and 2 changes on the wedding day).
Example #3: Gary went to Africa for 3 weeks for work. One style of outfit was all that was needed for the entire time. It was so easy that it all fit in a carry-on. Yep, 3 weeks in a carry on, and that included mud boots.
How many days will I be away, and how many times will I be moving from place to place?
This is a critical one here.
How many days at each location determines if you decide to bring everything you need, whether you think there’s opportunity to wash and when that opportunity will be.
If you’re staying in one place then you have the flexibility to wash and wait for everything to dry. If you’re moving every 3 days or so (like we do), then you’ll need to time washing when you first get to the new location so it has time to dry.
Washing your clothes
On our trip to Luxembourg and France in 2019, we decided to “audition” our newly purchased Scrubba Portable Clothes Washing Bag. It’s light and very compact, which means if we didn’t use it, it didn’t add much to the weight or space in our luggage.
It was only two days in, but we had the perfect opportunity as we were going to be at one place for 5 days. For a couple of reasons, we opted not to bring a container of laundry liquid or powder. Laundry soap can raise a flag to TSA, and we didn’t want that. In addition, it weighs more and is potentially takes up more space.
Instead, we landed on bringing the Homevative Laundry Detergent Sheets (yes, we do buy a fair amount from Amazon). It was a small package offering the potential of 30 “loads” of laundry.
Gary dove right in and washed a couple of loads as a test. Dianne had to add some laundry after a bird “did its business” on her clothes. It certainly helped that our room had an outside area to hang the clothes and was equipped with a towel heater. Clothes dried overnight versus the normal 1-2 day air dry.
Even still we did purchase a Sea to Summit clothes line as well, just in case! We didn’t happen to use it on this trip, but will most likely use it next time we go abroad.
All things considered, washing clothes while away using the bag can definitely be worth it. Especially if you want to pack light and avoid carrying extra baggage. On top of that there are the associated baggage costs, which can be pretty steep on international travel.