It doesn’t matter whether you plan to do laundry or not on your travels. Other than air-drying laundry, there are many worthwhile reasons to pack a travel clothesline. It’s handy for hanging a wet swimsuit, ski wear, or a damp rain jacket. A packable version is a lightweight champion, ounce for ounce, one of the most useful accessories in a travel bag.

Reasons to pack a travel clothesline

 1. Lightweight and packable

A travel clothesline is lightweight and takes up very little space, much less than the extra clothing you might otherwise carry if you don’t plan to do laundry.

Clothes hangers, a retractable clothesline, or a drying rack may be available in some types of accommodation for hanging wet items. Wooden hangers in hotel rooms and holiday apartments that can be removed from a closet can be hung on a door frame, a curtain rod, an ironing board, a table edge, a towel bar, a tap, or a shower head. Some hangers have clips for hanging socks, panties, or wet mittens.

However, none of these options is guaranteed. If you’d rather be prepared, a packable travel clothesline expands your options for drying your stuff.

2. Places to hang a line

Hostels, hotel rooms, holiday apartments, and cabins on cruise ships offer a variety of places to hang clothing to dry.

A travel clothesline can be stretched between two stationary objects, such as a bed frame, table legs, door knobs, a luggage rack, a lamp, a balcony rail, a faucet, a towel bar, a bathroom hook, dresser handles, or a chair. It can be easily moved to catch the sun or a breeze from an open window.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

In hostel dormitories, the design of most bunk beds allows a laundry line to be set up across the lower bunk. If there isn’t a privacy curtain, a travel clothesline with a pashmina and laundry can create a privacy screen. For a noiseless, early start to a travel day, it’s a handy place to hang selected clothing in advance. 

Toronto, Canada

When camping or enjoying the outdoors, string a line between two trees or fixed objects, and hang a towel or a blanket to create a privacy curtain.

3. It encourages regular hand washing

For long trips, doing laundry is a necessity. A travel clothesline encourages regular handwashing, a more sustainable choice than using a washing machine and a dryer. A few minutes of hand washing quick-drying shirts, shorts, leggings, panties, or socks in a dry bag, basin, or shower takes very little time at the end of a travel day. Unless you’re accumulating laundry to wash by machine at a future stop, washing one or two items daily feels less overwhelming and requires less drying space.

For lightweight, quick-dry fabrics, they’re usually dry and ready to wear or pack the next day.

4. Control over the process

Placing your clothes in someone else’s hands requires faith that their products and methods won’t harm you or your clothes.

5. Enhances hygiene

Regular handwashing and air-drying are more hygienic. It helps avoid shared, potentially unsanitary communal washing surfaces and machines in public facilities that may harbour bacteria. It ensures your clothes dry in a cleaner, more hygienic environment.

Air-drying clothes is the preferred method for naturally eliminating odours without relying on chemical laundry fresheners like dryer sheets and fabric softeners.

Quebec City, Canada

6. Promotes packing light

Regular, if not daily, hand washing means fewer items to pack, reducing the weight and bulk of luggage. For trips longer than a week, single-wear clothing may require packing more than one bag.

Panties don’t take up much space, but when washed daily, four or five pairs might be enough. Reusable, washable panty liners worn on long travel days can help underwear (and trousers or leggings) remain fresher.

For socks, the same pair of merino socks can be worn for several days, so there’s never a need to pack more than two pairs (in addition to compression socks for long flights). The same holds for base-layer shirts that can be worn several times without washing. Merino can be pricey, but laundering less means it lasts longer.

7. Less laundry taking up space in a bag

The clothes you aren’t wearing are the clothes you need to carry from place to place. And if they’re dirty, they serve no useful purpose. 

8. Saves money and time

Packing fewer clothes can save on checked-bag fees and laundry service fees. Hotel laundry services can be wickedly expensive or unavailable. Searching for a laundromat, finding the correct coins, deciphering the instructions in a foreign language, and waiting for the machines to wash and dry clothes can be frustrating and time-consuming. Visiting a self-serve laundromat can be a cultural experience with opportunities to chat with others and learn more about the neighbourhood, but it eats into valuable travel time that could be invested elsewhere.

9. Clothes last longer

Washing and drying by machine can damage fabrics and strain seams, buttons, and zippers.

Air-drying is gentler on fabrics than machine drying, and clothes usually have fewer wrinkles. Dryers use heat and friction with the possibility of shrinkage. The lint trap in a dryer demonstrates how fabrics deteriorate. Clothes last longer, which is easier on your purse and the environment.

10. Better for the environment

According to Earth.org, 92 million tonnes of clothing end up in landfills. This means that the equivalent of a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up in landfill every second. Prolonging the life of the clothes we wear makes sound environmental sense.

Air-drying is a zero-emissions drying method that uses no electricity or fuel, helping reduce our carbon footprint while travelling.

Havana, Cuba 

 

What is the best travel clothesline?

The best travel clothesline is lightweight, doesn’t require clothespins, and is versatile enough to set up in a variety of locations.

There are many travel clotheslines on the market. Some have built-in clothespins or clips, or beads to help separate clothing.

My favourite type is a twisted, polyester rope with a dual-attachment system involving metal hooks and suction cups. The suction cups for attaching to bathroom tiles and other hard surfaces are not always reliable, so they can be removed and left at home. The hooks at both ends attach to fixed objects, or loop back into the twisted rope when the line is wrapped around fittings or furniture. I prefer metal hooks as they’re more durable than plastic clips. My Go Travel Pegless Washing Line is simple, cheap, and functional, with no beads, clips, or clothespins to add weight or bulk. It weighs 0.8 oz (23 g), is 54 in (137 cm) long and stretches to about 8 ft (2.5 m).

Travelon makes a similar product: a twisted clothesline with removable suction cups and plastic clips to attach to two fixed objects, or to loop back into the line after wrapping around them.

Flexo-Line makes a travel clothesline with three strands of braided latex with loops at both ends. Two carabiners, S-biner clips, or paracord need to be packed to attach the loops to fixed objects. It’s more expensive than the Go Travel and Travelon varieties.

With all three models, socks or panties can be slipped inside one of the twists or braids, so clothespins aren’t needed. The strands pinch the fabric to hold items in place. Other pieces of clothing can be hung over the line (or between the strands for extra security if hanging outdoors).

 

Conclusion

Packing a travel clothesline helps you pack lighter, save money and time, choose safe products and methods for doing laundry, prolong the lifespan of clothing, and maintain hygiene and independence on the road.

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Might you be interested in these related posts?

• Laundry packing list and laundry tips while travelling
• 10 Useful reasons to travel with dry bags
• Top 20 tips on how to pack light

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