Drying Clothes

Does rolling them in a towel include walking on the towel? I picked up that idea from this forum, and it definitely leaves the clothes less damp.

I've had the slow-drying issue in the past in dank, low-end lodgings in London and more recently in an unventilated room on the ground floor of a very old building in Sicily of all places (in June!). I can tell you something not to try: holding nylon underwear in front of a space heater; it can melt.

It helps if you can hang clothes (no longer dripping) in the sleeping area, where there's more air circulation. Opening a window in your room can make a big difference, but weather often makes that inadvisable.

I wonder whether rolling wet clothes in a microfiber towel does a better job than using the typical hotel-supplied towels.

Looking forward to hearing others' ideas, since I'll be in Great Britain soon.

I've not done it but I've read about taking along a few balloons. Blow them up a bit and use them to spread the clothes.

I agree that hanging the clothes outside the bathroom really helps.

We always take a couple of plastic bags and more than once have had to use them to bring damp clothes to our next hotel/b&b. I agree its a pain!

Another way to dry clothes faster is to use an iron if you have one. It will definitely work, but it may take you more time. May not work for delicate items, but you can try with a piece of cloth as a buffer between the iron and the item. Otherwise the delicates would melt onto the iron.

Curious about London myself, but in Italy, if you have hangers with hooks, after the clothes finish dripping in the shower, I hang them on hangers and hook the hanger to a louvred blind on the window, close the window if it's too hot to sleep without a/c, and let clothes dry between the blind and the window overnight. This way no one sees your clothing hung out to dry.

I brought a microfiber thing called "The Absorber" on a 3 week independent trip to Italy and it did help get more moisture out than a towel and it dried itself faster too. The key is getting the tings as dry as possible before hanging, then hand where there is some air circulation.

I always pack blow up hangers which help with drying as fabrics are not stuck together.
I also take clips with hanger too for underwear to hang. Speeds up underwear especially socks.
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It's never a problem for me. Take cotton or blended cotton clothes? No. After washing and wringing out water, I'll roll damp clothes in a cotton bath mat or towel and walk on it. Then using lightweight plastic clothes hooks and inflatable hangers finish the job. Air flow is key so placing damp clothes near open windows or vents helps tremendously. The clothes hooks can be attached to all sorts of vents, furniture, top of wardrobe doors, etc.

No great suggestions here but a couple of thoughts. Consider faster drying clothes. I travel enough that a couple of hundred on (most polyester based) travel clothing makes sense and they virtually always dry. If you are going to take your own towel, make sure it is a bamboo based towel (see Amazon for example.) They are stiffer than a regular towel, but wring out over 90% dry and can do multiple loads of laundry without being soaked. If you choose not to get one, try drying your laundry in the heavy floor towel/mat. If you use a regular drying towel it will often be damp in the morning, but a slightly damp floor towel/mat is usually acceptable. I hang my clothing on the widest bar in the closet so (hopefully) the sides of the clothes don't touch. Finally, if your clothing is just a bit damp, put it on and your body heat will dry it (I know, some people hate this idea, but it works fine in a pinch.)

We have the same problem. We've obeyed all the rules, done all the tricks. I won't pack a towel. Instead I pack one more pair of underwear and socks than I think I'll need to compensate for the tardy damp ones. I agree material makes all the difference. Trial and error have led me to ExOfficio underwear, Tilley socks. For shirts I've become enamoured of Kuhl brand (synthetic's only-they do make cottons which I avoid). They look great and dry very fast: 4-12 hours depending on humidity. I carry pants and shorts from Royal Robbins, but only one of each. They will dry with sink wash but it's a pain so, if time allows, these are the ones I spend money and send to a hotel laundry. But only if they took a spill or are walking by themselves.

I'm with you Frank. I can usually get everything dry overnight but the socks are always the problem! We tend to take long trips (4 to 6 weeks) and are pretty active. I usually bring good hiking socks which are usually a blend and take forever to dry! I've been known to put a sock onto the end of a hair dryer in the morning:)

One if the advantages of mixing hotel stays with apartments with washing machines and drying racks. Problem solved even with cotton jeans.

I'm with Tom on this one. By mixing apartments and hotels we can usually do two big loads of laundry at the apartment (colors and whites) and with a drying rack have all of our clothes clean and only need to do 2-3 pairs of underwear each at the hotel and count on the two day's for drying and we have all cotton clothes. Last trip in Florence we had an apartment and with a drying rack outside our clothes dried overnight. I do carry on only but do not skimp on packing underwear, I take 10 pairs no matter how long the trip!

One of the trick is to have the proper fabrics. We avoid all cotton. Will have some cotton blends (maybe up to 30% cotton as a compromise) but synthetic fibers work much better when it comes to drying over night. Wool socks will dry faster if you can find something to put the sock over - like the end of a hanger - to open the sock for drying on all sides.

I've been lucky so far with the washing and drying. I wring the clothes out with my hands, walk on them in between towels, and then use the blow-up hangers on t-shirts (helps with airflow). I also turn them inside out half-way through the drying process.

My problem is that I always get blisters between my thumb and pointer fingers from wringing out the clothes. I need to figure out something to prevent this. Maybe I'll bring a tight-fitting disposable glove to wear or wrap an ace bandage around the area while I'm wringing. I need to figure something out - because those blisters hurt. :D

My light weight Nordic Smartwool socks usually dry overnight but my middle weight hiking Smartwool socks take longer to fully dry. I invert the socks several times, to expose the wetter side to air to speed up drying. It also helps (during winter) to hang clothing above or near the heater coils or to put a dry towel over the heater radiator and the wet clothing on the towel.

I notice on the replies that socks are mentioned several times. I haven't packed a pair of socks for our trips to Europe for the last 6 trips. I always just wear my Keens sandals and walk for miles in them each day.

One advantage of wool socks is that you can put them on even when they are still damp. Your body warmth will dry them, and you won't suffer any consequences. Ditto wool clothes--any clothes, really. I hang most of my clothes to dry at home, and often something is not quite dry at the shoulder seams, etc when I want to wear it the next day. It feels weird for half an hour and then it's dry and no problem. Heck, on hot day like we've been having, it might even be nice.

I dry my clothes on the towel warmer or radiator. Just have to move it around a bit but it always works.

I always bring along a plastic bag to put still damp clothing in when I pack to move, but so far I have never had to use it. My clothes have always dried overnight. Humidity might have something to do with it. I travel in Germany, which is pretty humid by Colorado standards, but not, I guess, as humid as Italy.

I have selected my travel clothes for ease of drying, i.e., all cotton/polyester blends. Socks and shorts dry hanging on the towel rack from hook clothespins. For shirts, I have inflatable hangers so all sides get air circulation. I have a woven clothesline, but I never use it. I haven't needed it, and there never seems to be places the right distance apart to anchor it.

In cooler weather, there is usually a hot radiator I can drape some clothes over. The bathroom radiator is often the towel rack.

One tip: every place I have ever stay has had a bath mat, like a heavy towel. I wring out my clothes with that. I don't mind stepping on a damp bath mat after my shower the next morning, but do mind trying to dry myself with a cold, damp towel.

I do the roll in a towel and walk on method to get as much water out, then hang in the room so the air can circulate, ideally with the a/c or heat on to speed it up, or with the window open. Once I hung my jeans out the window in Tallinn.

We tried turning on the towel warmer in Croatia and they told us that it was only operative in the winter. One other trick I have used is to bring those large rubber bands and MacGyver up the hangers (without a hook) to increase airflow to speed drying. I need to look into the Tilley socks for husband, as well as the exofficio undies. I use them and they dry over night.
I learned about the towel rolling and walking on it when I took my first European adventure in college. Best time ever in the UK. (over 30 yrs ago) I have since done this method while traveling all over the world. On very long trips I will splurge to have clothes cleaned. Also I take all my old undies and after 2 wearings and washings I toss them. Surprisingly, almost every country I've been in sells undies....

I think your order is off. After towel wringing hang the items up until they stop dripping. Then use the hair dryer in the wet socks and other super wet items. Then hang them up where there is lots of air circulation.

Using the hairdryer earlier in the process gets rid of the excess water.

Consider getting wicking wool socks instead of the Smartwool brand. I've found Smartwool to be slow drying for their weight.

I pack an inflatable hanger for shirts and cheap plastic hangers (with built-in tiny hooks) and some clothespins for socks and (ahem!) unmentionables; pants go for drycleaning if necessary. Cheap hangers can be left behind at the end of your trip if there's no room in your suitcase.

And -- my best tip -- every hotel in Europe where I have stayed has small, portable fans for the guest rooms. I ask for a fan, then point the fan toward my wash at night.

Bonus -- the white noise helps me sleep!

Nothing I have tried works -- except having the hotel do my laundry or using a laundromat. :-)

Even with the professional services, most European clothes dryers don't really get the clothes totally dry and they still require an overnight hang to finish.

I have had good luck with my clothes drying overnight since I went to all synthetic material. I use Ex Official underwear, Clothing Arts nylon expedition pants and Royal Robbins Expedition shirts, all of these are designed to dry quickly. For socks I have tried several with finally deciding on smart wool. So far we (my wife and I) have had good result everywhere in Europe that we have traveled except Florence, Italy, the humidity was really high at the time and the clothes took about 24 hrs to dry. Also, when you wash is a factor, we always seem to head back to our hotel just before supper and we have found that is the ideal time to do a quick wash and hang up to dry, then go out for supper instead of waiting to wash right before you go to bed this gives you an extra 3-4 hours drying time.

I think the drying options have you covered. I opt for thinner, tightly woven merino wool socks which certainly dry on two night stays.....except in the jungle. I am looking into Wright Socks for an upcoming trip. Two layered synthetic socks. Save the blisters, but might dry overnight.

Does anyone have experience with drying sweaters and winter clothing? I will be traveling in late December-early January and intentionally booked some accommodations with washers, but I realized now that these accommodations don't have dryers. (Should've realized that to begin with given how much more uncommon dryers are in Europe.) I'm doubting clothing like sweaters could dry quickly without a dryer, so maybe it will be worth visiting a laundromat...

lebyland,

We opted to take fleece as a layer vs. sweaters for the one winter trip we've done. Dries extremely fast. I would think drying time for a sweater would really depend on the material it was made of and how tight the weave is. Could be a big variance. I have a few sweaters that would most likely dry very fast, but also have a few that would take quite a while.

Re drying sweaters--if I bring a sweater it's usually a lightweight merino or cashmere pullover and they will dry overnight, but I don't usually wash them while travelling and instead wear a thin T shirt underneath (usually needed for the warmth anyway) and that gets washed as it's right next to my body.