Clotheline

It works great but you need to supplement it with a couple of medium S hooks to give greater flexibility in hook up the line.

We have used it and it works quite well. I would recommend it for a backpacker - it is compact, light weight, and useful.

I carried a clothes line with S hooks with me for seven years (10 weeks) and rarely found anyplace to use it. Hookable surfaces were always too far apart or two close. I finally got one with suction cups on the end because most bathrooms, I had found, have tile surfaces. (Once again BBC has failed. I can't link to my picture. To see the clothesline, go here, go to "wash as you go", and click on the LH picture.) And anything I could fasten the Velcro around, I could wrap the line around once and attach the clip. However, I've only used it one time, in 2008. Before my 2009 trip I got "drip dry hangers" (see above). These work great for drying underwear, I hang them on the towel rack. I also got inflatable hangers for my shirts.

I found it a mostly useless gimmick because of the difficulty hooking it in places with sufficient air and clearance. But then, I gave up on the "washing in the sink" on and look forward to a good cleaning at a laundromat while I have a beer and catch up on postcards and my journal. Yes. I still send postcards...

I bought my clothesline (probably from RS) about ten years ago. I use it at least once every trip and as recently as earlier this month. It still works for me. It came with rubber suction cups, which I've since relegated to the bottom of my travel stuff because they usually didn't support any laundry. Now I use the plastic hooks and figure out a new way to hang it every time (like putting up a tarp at a camp site). Generally, it works fine for a pair of underwear and socks, or two, each day - not so great when you need to hang heavier stuff like shirts and pants. My laundry kit is now a two-gallon ziplock bag (Hefty), REI laundry detergent sheets, a chamois (from Costco), and my clothesline. The bag becomes a mini-washing machine - clothes in add water and soap, shake vigorously, drain, rinse and repeat til the water comes out clear. The chamois works great for wringing out clothes before hanging, unlike a towel you can wring it out and use it again and again - plus it hang dries quickly. I still plan a trip to a laundrymat about every two weeks to give everything a thorough wash and dry.

I use the Flexo-line clothes line that I purchased from Magellan's website. It is braided so you don't need clothes pins and just push the fabric through the braids of the line. I attached a small length of Velcro to one end so I can easily string it from 2 objects, e.g. the shower head and the towel bar. You can see it at Magellan's.com.

I recommend the RS clothesline. It is braided as well so you don't need clothes pins. I usually wash socks, underwear and maybe a shirt every 3 days or so. Also I recommend buying an inflatable hanger or two.

I just use normal rope. Each end is tied in a loop. I also bring a mini (key ring style, not climbing) carabiner. Instead of clothespins I use safety pins (pack smaller plus handy have anyway) plus I have an inflatable hanger. IMHO it is easier to do laundry daily. (I often do it in the shower, I get into the shower wearing the clothing that is going to be washed and wash them along with myself.) Doing laundry daily has many advantages. (1) I find washing one days worth of clothes this way is not a hassle at all. But doing three or four days worth of laundry at once is a PIA. (2) Plus you need less clothes. I can get by with packing just one pair of socks and underwear plus the ones on me if I wash daily. (But I also bring at least one spare anyway.) (3) You don't need a very long clothes line. Or much space to hang it.

I have a RS braided clothesline and have a question. I have a hard time getting a piece of whatever I'm washing through the braid so it will stay hung. I thought the braid would loosen up and get easier over time, but I've used it on at least 4 trips and still have a hard time getting things far enough into the braid to stay up. Is there a secret to this? Like do you put stuff through the braid first and THEN hang up the line?