How do people who change clothes often manage when packing for holidays?

[ApolloandDaphne]

I often see people on here who say they change pyjamas daily and same with bras or each all outer wear after one wear. Same with people who change clothes when they come home and won't sit on a bed in outdoor clothes. How do you manage on holiday?

I only ask as I like to change my pyjamas after every two nights and I'm going on holiday for almost three weeks soon. we have an apartment with a washing machine half way through the holiday. I can wash undies by hand but not pyjamas. I won't be able to get them dry.

Do people who change clothes a lot do a lot of washing on holiday or just lower their standards?

I was passing a Bonmarche this morning and went in and bought three cotton nighties. They are a bit dubious pattern wise but they will be perfect.

It takes like ten minutes to chuck some clothes into the washing machine and press go 🤷🏻‍♀️ Surely that’s better than lugging around tons of clothes?

Im don’t think I’ve ever stayed anywhere with a matching machine when I’ve been on holiday abroad. But one or two week’s worth of underwear doesn’t exactly take up much room and adds almost nothing to the weight of my case.

And with other clothes, I really have got much better things to do on holiday than having to iron clothes if I wash them!

@Growlybear83Ah we always stay in apartments. I love having the extra living room space. I’m also always ironing everyone’s clothes on holiday 😆 I can’t abide going about looking creased and untidy 😅

Im working on the theory that if a burglar breaks in and sees me naked he’ll probably start running the other way 🤣

Well yes, if you are somewhere with a washing machine nearby.

You are not alone. One week’s holiday means one pair of pyjamas. At home I change them after 3/4 days but I’d rather take other stuff on holiday!

I do put luggage in the hold, because I'd rather have reading, meds, charging, adapters etc in hand luggage. That would be underseat now the overheads end up full of cabin bags rather than traditional backpacks and coats. My hold luggage can be as small as a 55cm case.

I can't understand some posters saying they only wear a skirt once. Unlike knickers, trousers, shorts they don't get smelly and aren't clinging to sweaty bits.

For a fortnight I take,16 knickers, 4 bras. I estimate 4 day wears for each bottom half, 2 day wears for each top - each of these probably does 2 evenings before it does any day wears. Add a couple of dresses, maybe. 3 footwear, 4-5 socks. Blazer, cardy, coats as appr to where I'm going. 2 nighty t shirts.

Hahaha. Well, there is that. And I know if a burglar breaks in, I’ll have bigger problems than being naked 🤣

If you like to change pjs every 2 days and have washing/drying facilities halfway through I would take 4 or 5 pairs of PJs which doesn’t take lots of space if you roll them up. This will last you 10 days and then you can wash them at the midway point for your second half.

I usualy pay for extra luggage for a two weeks trip so take two hold suitcases and a cabin bag. Much prefer to have what I want with me and my children also like to take a lot of things so each take a large hold case as well. No way would I be faffing about with laundry on holiday!

Can you get smaller pyjamas? Light cotton vest and shorts should take up less space.

I'm starting to be really intrigued by what people wear on holiday! As in do you wear different clothes each night etc? Having done 6 weeks around Asia a couple of years ago with just cabin bag i wore everything on repeat. Plus staying in quite basic accommodation so no fancy eateries etc probably helps.

I can take as little or as much as luggage allows. I would never pay for more than one suitcase though. Summer clothes take up less space so I am likely to take loads of dresses (and wear two or three max😆). I too have been backpacking and managed with 3 vest tops and two pairs of shorts. There's always a laundrette to be found.

I wear different clothes every day and change every night. I only generally wear clothes once without washing them at home, so do the same when I’m on holiday.

I take 1 pair long pjs trousers, 1 pair short pjs shorts. Then 3 plain pj T-shirts or vest tops. Mix and match accordingly. Ie I might wear the trousers longer if it’s colder, or might wash a T-shirt after 2 nights but bottoms after 3-4 ( I wear pants!). T-shirt washes and dries faster also.

Worse case would just wear pants and another day T-shirt to bed one night if I happened to wash everything else at once in a machine and it hadn’t dried before bed. I wouldn’t carry loads for the sake of it, I hate lugging stuff around, and hate more laundry than necessary in return.

I tend to wear more clothes when I am holiday in hot places. By the end of the day I feel sticky so I change for the evening. At home I would change anything that has been next to my armpits daily unless it was something like cashmere where I would air it inside out for a couple of days.

Same! And having paid a lot to go on holiday the last thing I want to do is wear grubby clothes or have to “sniff test” them (🤢🤮) as some posts suggest. I would never do that at home, I wear clean clothes every day and wash them! I can’t imagine putting back on again bras or t shirts or dresses etc. that you’ve already worn in hot weather or standing in the shower in a hotel room having to wash my underwear, having paid to have two weeks of relaxation and luxury and NOT have to do cleaning/ washing/ cooking etc.

Rinsing swimwear in the sink I will accept and drying it in the sunshine in the hotel suite garden or balcony, but going to laundrettes etc or handwashing my clothes in the hotel room sink? I have no desire to cosplay a Victorian servant on holiday and handwash clothes that can be washed in washing machine. Why would someone spend their holiday doing that? Hotel laundry services would generally be far more expensive than taking an extra hold case on top of the one per person that is standard so that is the most economical and easy option, and less hassle when there also.

Obviously it’s a whole different thing if doing months of travelling rather than a holiday, and you are moving between locations constantly and need everything to fit in a large rucksack. In these cases people do use laundrettes of book accommodation periodically that has washing facilities. But holidays are not that, they are generally for relaxation!

On a holiday we book a car from home to the airport and from the airport to the hotel so we do not have to carry the luggage anywhere, so I simply pack what we actually need to have enough clothes for fresh outfits for the daytime and evening for each person to ensure that we all have plenty of fresh clothes, and pay for additional suitcases if required (a tiny fraction of the cost of the holiday) and then everyone can be comfortable and not spend their holiday thinking about washing etc. It’s meant to be a break from that kind of chore.

It’s a couple of weeks of living in luxury so I’d not be wanting to have to choose between clothes I’d already worn and how gross they’d become just to save the cost of some extra hold luggage. And I want my children to have fresh clothes to put on after a shower following a day at the beach/ out exploring places. I really don’t understand the mentality that having paid for a holiday it’s not worth a few pounds extra to take sufficient suitcases with you to contain what you need to relax while you are there. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@ProjectHailMary - thats just your type of holiday. You go to One location, and stay.

ours can involve various modes of transport. Even if we drive whole way I couldn’t fit 2 weeks of 2 outfits per day for 3 of us ( nearby 100 outfits!), plus beach gear, swim stuff, kids crap, kids bike etc all in our car. It’s a normal car

We recently did 3 weeks in Asia. We flew, and had driver and potential huge amounts of luggage allowance . But you only stay 1-3 nights in each location. The thought of packing and unpacking so much stuff in and out of car or hotel room constantly is a faff. Many places were built in hillside with stairs. Also your then carrying 3 weeks of dirty sweaty clothes.
Washing some underwear and a few T-shirts at sink occasionally is far preferable.

How many times are you planning on shitting yourself over that two weeks??! 😆

I would need to move house to have that many suitable clothes per person in the first place 😅

@ProjectHailMary’Holiday’ means different things to different people. For me I don’t go on holiday to relax. I can do that at home. If I’m not at work, am somewhere warm with cool things to learn, delicious things to eat and new places to explore then I’m on holiday. Washing clothes (in our apartment washing machine) doesn’t detract from my enjoyment at all and I’d rather not lug tons of suitcases (plus two small children) around when I don’t have to.

They’re like an ex colleague of mine, who took an absolutely enormous suitcase for a 5 day trip.
And someone I used to know, who had to take a different bag and shoes to go with every one of the many outfits she was taking.

That’s specifically what I said: that personally I go on holiday to relax so don’t want to be bothered with washing etc and don’t have to move stuff between locations as it’s all transported for us home to airport to hotel and back. I take holidays like this to rest because I am a lone parent and unwell. Travelling with two kids who have additional needs and want to take lots of their own things for comfort it makes more sense to just pay for more luggage and not have to interrupt my little bit of time to relax concerning myself with chores like at home.

I also specifically stated that if doing different types of travel that involved moving between locations etc (like I often used to when in better health) it would be different and staying in places with laundry facilities would be necessary at least some of the time.

I’m not sure what you’re objecting to. The OP asked for people’s personal experiences/ views and I told her mine. I didn’t suggest everybody else does the same. Clearly they don’t or there would not be a thread.