When you’re waiting for your travels to begin, counting down the days, staying at home to save money and spending all of your free time on gapyear.com – you start to make a list of all the travel gadgets you are going to need on your trip. I became obsessed. I literally took EVERY conceivable gadget a traveller might need. A few weeks into my first trip, I realised I had become a crazy obsessive and left some of them in the hostel giveaway cupboard.
But there are a few that stayed me throughout all of my travels. And one I will never leave home without is the travel washing line.
Washing isn’t something you might think about before you go but it can sometimes be a bit of a drag when you’re travelling. If you’re in Asia, there are places you can take your clothes to be washed and dried for you at a ridiculously cheap price. This obviously makes life easier for you. Although I did have an unfortunate incident of having my washing returned covered in ants. Not cool.
I’ve also had a situation where I booked a bus out of Sihanoukville but my washing wasn’t ready yet. I literally had to pick it up and run for the bus. I actually don’t think I’ve ever been prepared for a bus journey in Asia! But anyway I’m getting off track here.
The point I was trying to make is that if you’re just going to Asia, you may not think you need this travel washing line. Despite the few pitfalls I’ve mentioned here, it is the easiest option to get your washing done for you. But don’t forget that you may need to wash your bikinis in the sink between clothes washing. And you can hang them to dry on your line!
But for Asia this is really only optional. For Australia, the travel washing line is an essential item. Most hostels will have laundry rooms where you can wash and dry your clothes, but I had a few items that couldn’t be but in the tumble dryer (a few work blouses I bought out there). So you’ll have to hang them up in your dorm. This is also applicable if you’re travelling the States.
You can buy washing lines with hooks at the ends or suction cups. I guess the suction cups are good for hanging in a bathroom but when you’re living in hostels, you don’t want to leave your clothes in a communal bathroom. The hooks are perfect for hanging onto the grid of a bunkbed. I couldn’t find a photo with my washing up but you can see from this shot in Sydney, the metal bunkbeds have grids between the top and bottom bunks. Perfect.
And it doesn’t hang too low so you can sleep with your washing still hung up!
This tiny little fella takes up minimal space, you can even attach it to the outside of your backpack. So there’s really no excuse to leave it at home. You can pick one up in places like Millets or Blacks but I got my Lifeventure one from Amazon for £4.99. You can get yours here – Lifeventure Travel Clothes Line
What are you waiting for?