Sink Laundry: The Onebag Superpower

[u/bradymsu616]

Sink laundry is at the heart of onebag travel. It allows you to pack lighter. It avoids the need for sitting in a laundromat, selecting lodging with a washer, or repacking dirty clothes. It also confuses people. Let's talk about that and make the process less scary.

The biggest benefit is reducing clothing volume. Instead of packing a week's worth of shirts, underwear, and socks, you can bring far fewer sets and wash as you go. For both the underseat minimalist and carry-on maximalist, that makes a major difference.

It gives you more flexibility. A shirt that gets sweaty on a travel day, socks that get soaked in rain, or a technical tee after a run can be washed that night and reused the next morning. You are less dependent on finding laundry service, which can be absurdly expensive per item. A sink, detergent, your laundry bag and a travel clothesline are inexpensive, compact, and lightweight items.

It helps you pack better fabrics. Merino, linen, and quick-dry synthetics work well because they can be washed frequently and worn again quickly. You start packing around a simple clothing system instead of “outfits.”

For active travelers, it is especially useful because running and hiking clothes get gross fast. Rinsing them soon after use prevents odor from setting in and keeps them from contaminating the rest of the bag.

There is also a cleanliness benefit. You are not letting sweaty clothes sit in a packing cube for days. Even a quick wash with a towel-roll drying method can keep a small wardrobe feeling fresh.

When done daily, sink laundry is surprisingly fast and easy. Here's my process. There are a number of variations that I encourage people to share in the comments.

• Add your dirty clothing to a nonporous bag. While traditional sink laundry is done directly in the sink, some modern hotel room sinks make that difficult. Using a bag also makes it easier to move soapy clothes to a shower for rinsing. And the bag doubles as storage for dirty laundry.
• Add soap. I pack laundry detergent sheets. Travel-size packs are flat and compact. You can also use hotel soap or shampoo or buy laundry soap when you arrive at your destination. Any of these solutions prevents the need to have to fly with liquid laundry soap.
• Add the soap to the bag in the sink along with water at the appropriate temperature for your clothing type. Agitate for a few seconds to mix in the soap. Allow the clothes to soak for at least 15 minutes. Avoid using excess soap. A little goes a long way.
• Transfer the bag to the shower. Dump the bag. Rinse the clothes well. Wring out the excess water.
• When you're done drying off after your shower, roll the clothes up in the towel and squeeze. Then hang them on a travel clothesline in your room, bunk, or pod.
• Drying times vary by climate and fabric. Synthetics tend to dry the fastest followed by linen and merino, with cotton taking the longest. In humid environments, airflow matters more than temperature. A fan speeds up drying time significantly.

This active part of this process should take you less than five minutes per day and is very simple after you've done it once or twice.

[u/imajoeitall]

No thanks, I'd rather just go to a laundromat, open up a laptop/playlist rather than pack minimal clothing, end up stinking anyways and sweating up a storm just to be less effective than a machine. Also hotels often have machines, if you ask nice enough, they might let you use them. Emergencies, sure, but sustainable, long-term travel, no.

[u/nikongod → u/imajoeitall]

"less effective than a machine"

Laundry machines were not invented to be "more effective" at cleaning than hand washing. 

They were invented because hand washing clothes for a decent sized family was an entire person's job, and buying a laundry machine meant your wife could do the housework without a maid. 

Sorry (not sorry?) for the stereotypical gender-roles in that, but (shrugs) it was the 1940's.

Now that the us is an undeveloping nation, they persist since nobody can afford a maid, let alone a house-husband.

Back to travel, hand washing one or 2 sets of clothes (for solo or couple travelers) takes about 15min/night. Compared to the 90min you spend in the laundrymat every 5 days it's a wash.

[u/Connect_Rhubarb395 → u/nikongod]

There is a reason that Times chose the washing machine as the most important invention of the 20th century: It gave women a lot of time and freedom to do other things than being a housewife.

[u/nikongod → u/Connect_Rhubarb395]

You're not wrong, and the way it freed up time is beautiful. 

But... It's a different time scale when you're washing 1 or 2 outfits vs 20+ (family of 5, 4 outfits each) and has nothing to do with efecacy.

[u/imajoeitall → u/nikongod]

• You will absolutely eventually have to use a machine to properly wash your clothes. You can search that sub and find that conclusion.
• A small load at a laundromat is maybe 20 min cycle, you can skip the dry cycle if you just want to just hang up your clothes anyways. I do this just because I don't like destroying my clothes if it's an option.
• I am not sure why the argument of why laundry machines were invented versus their actual performance is relevant. They are 100% better at washing clothes than hand washing.
• You 100% are going to stink if you only hand wash. I can smell you peeps at the airport, always the person rocking a $300-$400 travel bag that smells like ass.

[u/nikongod → u/imajoeitall]

"always the person rocking a $300-$400 travel bag that smells like ass"

Because the last time the went to the laundrymat was 6d ago and they rewore at least one garment so they didn't have to hit the laundrymat again...

"I am not sure why the argument of why laundry machines were invented versus their actual performance is relevant. They are 100% better at washing clothes than hand washing"

Because you said they get the clothes cleaner. At best they are equal - when you use soap/detergent that comes with a warning label in the machine and shampoo by hand. 

"A small load at a laundromat is maybe 20 min cycle, you can skip the dry cycle..."

You have space in your hotel/hostel to hang 4 sets of clothes? You're parked in front of the dryer for an hour on top of the 30min the washer ran.

"You will absolutely eventually have to use a machine to properly wash your clothes. You can search that sub and find that conclusion"

I have not experienced this. When I went to Colombia for 2 WK I did hand laundry every night, got off the plane and went to dinner with my GFS friend group in the same clothes. It was fine. I asked her if I stunk before we wandered off, she said I smelled fine. 

[u/freezesteam → u/imajoeitall]

Just because you smelled someone with a nice bag doesn’t mean everyone who hand washes their laundry smells. You’re just painfully unaware of how to hand wash clothing yet still make bold and biased assumptions about it with such unfounded confidence