clothesline

I use a clothesline. I also take inflatable hangers and a couple of hangers from the department store with clips. Those are helpful to hang pants or a skirt. I leave those hangers behind when I come home.

We use two of the clotheslines sold on this website either joined to form one long one or as two separate ones. The lines are usually hooked up in the bathroom 'cause there are lots of hooks, rods, handles, etc. to use.

Thanks...I wasn't sure if that was okay to do or not. The clotheslines sold on the RS Site...do they really hold your clothes?

Hi Sheree - Yes, the clothesline sold on this site do hold the clothes up, even w/o clips (b/c they're made of braided rubber. I found another one from a travel store that I like better - it's thinner and lighter but still made of braided rubber. But the RS one will work just fine.

One thing: I would take two S-hooks, or mini carabiners, to give you more flexibility in what things you can hook the clothesline around.

Sheree, take a couple of 2 or 2 1/2 gallon ziplock baggies, put your clothes in them with some clothes soap, shake, soak, shake again, rinse & hang. The RS braided rope works great. Or you could take a long thin nylon cord & either small clothespins or safety pins to hang them up. Instead of taking up suitcase space with inflatable hangers, I took a baggie full of long thin balloons. I put them inside the clothes to separate the fabric & speed the drying. Sounds ghetto but it works!

I got a RS clothesline many trips ago and could never find a place to attach it to plus found it to be too heavy. I take a plastic "thing" that hooks on top of a door and has many slots to hang hangers from (don't know what it's called), I hang wet clothes on plastic hangers (which are very light) to dry.

I also got to thinking a clothesline full of clothes hanging across a bathroom might be a pain for the maid.

Sheree,

I've found some Hotels these days that provide a retractable clothesline in the bathroom. However, for those that don't, I also use one of the braided rubber clotheslines.

It's VERY important to ensure that you don't hang wet clothes over the carpet or other areas that will be damaged by water. That makes the Hotel staff VERY annoyed!

Cheers!

I pack one of the stretchy clotheslines. Sometimes I find other ways to hang my clothes where I'm lodging. It's not unusual to find a retractable clothesline in the shower.

Thanks everyone....I am trying it at home first to see which clothes are easily washed by hand and hung. I am hoping to do laundry somewhere mid-trip and not have to do too much of this.

For what it's worth. Dental floss takes up less space and can even be used to bind up busted luggage. Never travel without it.

one tip is to do your clothes after you're done showering. Your towel is only damp from drying you off, so what you do is put your clothes in it a piece at a time and roll it up, then twist the ends to wring the item dry. It takes a lot of the water out.

Also you should have travel clothing; cotton takes forever to dry.

I have a page on my website devoted to packing light, including washing as you go and clotheslines and hangers.

· Wash clothes as soon as you check in so they have more time to dry. Put on clean clothes for the evening.
· I get cotton/polyester blend underwear and shirts, which dry quickly.
· I rinse them in water as hot as I can stand and wring them out in the bathmat. (I'd rather step out of the shower onto a damp mat than dry myself with a damp towel.)
· Use "drip dry hangers" to hang small items (shorts, sox) on the towel rack.
· A couple of inflatable hangers take up very little room in the suitcase if you deflate them first.
· I could never find a place to attach my Velcro clothesline. I found one with suction cups that attaches almost anywhere.

Added: Keep up with your hand laundry. It's hard to catch up if you get behind.

It's always a happy day when I realize I have enough clean clothes to finish the trip and don't have to wash anymore.

I like that bathmat idea; I will have to remember to do that next time.

On our first trip, we found that using towels to remove extra moisture from wet clothes got the towels soggy quickly. On our second trip, we brought a synthetic chamois. It was lightweight, didn't take up much room, and was used for car washing (well, drying) when we got home.

On 8 RS tours, we shower in the AM, wash our ExOfficio clothes in the PM using towels to ring them out, hang them on one or two RS clothes lines (they are VERY lightweight) hooked over the bath or shower and everything is dry by AM - we also take a couple of clothes pins and a couple of "S" hooks just in case. NEVER had a problem. We do get a kick out of watching some tour folks pack lots of clothes that they go to a laundry to wash mid tour. Whatever feels comfortable for you. Happy travels

I took it with me to Europe for two months, and didn't use it once. Everywhere we stayed had washers and driers, and there were few places to hang it in our rooms. So not worth it. Soap and fabric softener were handy and used, but not the line.

And I didn't travel with a lot of clothes, but appreciated taking an hour to do laundry every 4-5 days.

Used the RS clothesline quite often. You'd be surprised the places you can find to hook it to. Washing often and hanging to dry is sooooooo much a part of packing light.

Normally, everything opens around 10:00 that we want to see or do. Therefore, we find a laundromat, usually suggested by hotel, and do our clothes washing from 8:00 to 10:00AM ,so we do not miss any sightseeing time. I do take 20 ft or so of paracord and some clothespins, for just in case. Have used them a couple of times. Paracord is really light and very strong. Wife packs small zip lock bag of detergent and dryer clothes for to bring with us. We travel for 5 to 8 weeks at a time and all items must fit in backpack or purse or laptop case. We wash clothes once a week or so. Also, if clothes get to dirty, buy some more there and throw yours away. Wife loves this idea.

LOL I bet that goes over real well! Thanks again for all the helpful advice.

RS clothesline, 2 inflatable hangers, a couple of clip hooks, and 2 pack towels to roll up wet items so the clothes dry faster and you still have a dry bath towel. After rolling wet items in the pack towels, you then have more options for your clothesline

I just use a piece of nylon cord as well -- it takes less space than the braided ones, and I've always thought I'm going to have a wrinkled-up corner from where I stuck the clothes into the clothesline!?

I also have a few mini-clothespins/bag clips that serve double duty for food I pick up along the way. I've also never been at a shortage for hangers in hotel rooms, which are often plastic. If they only have wood ones, I put a plastic bag over the hanger to protect the wood.

But for the bulk of my laundry, I like a quick visit to the laundromat -- always entertaining and sometimes adventurous.

My wife and I both packed a microfibre towel that we purchased from Walmart for the purpose of rolling up wrung-out wet clothes to help speed the drying process, rather than use the one towel provided that you will need for your daily shower. The micro fiber towels dried very quickly. Finding a place to hook the braided clothes line is often the most challenging part of the entire trip! Often times we see a clothes line in the back yard of the B&B, but never have had enough nerve to ask if we could use it! We even once saw a small sign in a B&B that said water use was being monitered. Sure enough, there was a clamp gizmo and wire fastened to the water pipe below the bathroom sink! Don't know if it was actually in use, or was just a diversion to keep you from doing sink laundry! We did a small amount of laundry, and nothing was ever mentioned to us at checkout. Dan