AIBU to not mind laundry on holiday?

[DonkeyHohtay]

We;re off on holiday tomorrow, yay! Week in a villa in coastal spain, train to madrid, 4 nights in the capital then home. Self-catering (although i'm not planning on doing much cooking apart from bbq and chucking a pizza in the oven).

Just bumped into a friend in the supermarket when I was buying some of those little liquid washing pods for our trip. She was horrified that I was planning on doing laundry on holiday. I tried to explain that actually, it was just throwing t-shirts, shorts, pants, swimwear in the machine and besides it would probably be the kids who were doing that anyway. She is very much of the opinion that on holiday you do not lift a finger. Ever.

I'm not planning on washing every day - perhaps 3 or 4 times in the stay. It will all dry really qiuckly in the heat. I'm certainly not ironing anything. Doing this means we're not paying ££££ to take extra baggage, teen DS can wear his favourite three t-shirts in rotation and the best thing is you're not returning home with bags and bags of dirty washing.

I guess my question is - what else are you putting in your luggage?

Someone mentioned a camera bag upthread? That makes sense. Clothes - especially summer clothes - are small!

We don't actually do much catering in self-catering (we like eating out on holiday), but we do laundry. Much easier than hauling around a lot of extra clothes.

It's not that you have MORE washing, it's that it's all saved up to be done at the same time. At home, with 5 of us in the house, the washing machine is on 2 or 3 times a week. And we're not the type of people who wear something for a couple of hours and declare it dirty. If you haven't done any washing for a fortnight, we'd have loads and loads and loads to do all at once. That's the depressing bit.

I never do any, unless it’s to rinse out swimwear. I don’t take masses of baggage either though. I’m just not precious about wearing something twice. I know it’s different with small kids, but their clothes take up so little space anyway...

I love it. Not having to go home with suitcases of dirty washing. I wash twice in a week and even book my rooms to be near-ish to the laundry facilities. There is also the added benefit of not having to pack so much as well - four outfits each then wash and wear again. Perfect.

Ah ha, so this is why some people take gigantic suitcases that they can hardly drag along. I've always wondered what they have inside.

Yes I would definitely do laundry if going away for more than a weekend. Fantastic to have a small bag you can easily carry.

We stay in PILs apartment on the Costa Del Sol for three weeks every summer and I always do all my laundry before I come home!

Takes two minutes to throw it in the machine when we get in from the beach or wherever early evening and then peg it on the maiden just before we go out for tea.

Even if we go to Turkey or wherever I’ll always try and find somewhere that takes laundry in to get it done.

We had a holiday where DS2 got an upset tummy. It was £10 for a bag of washing. We rolled everything up teeny tiny and got a whole weeks worth in. Bargain!

I always wash clothes on vacations. Travel back with almost all clean clothes ... but we are light packers in the main and try to get everyone one not to bring special treatment items - no handwash jumpers etc your own your own with that one kid. Also try to stick to family palette of colours eg blues and white to help manage less loads. I take Fabrite washing powder sheets, weigh nothing and can’t leak.

I guess my question is - what else are you putting in your luggage?

I mentioned the camera bag but we also take other stuff that takes up space. We don't really do sitting by the pool when on holiday so usually hire a 4x4, occasionally a boat too, and get out and explore off the beaten track. I like a proper cup of tea wherever I am so a camping stove and kettle is another essential for me, plus snorkelling gear, some form of sun shade etc etc. It all adds up.

I have found my people. I find it quite satisfying to keep on top of the laundry when on holiday - probably more so if traveling around so I don't need to have separate space for dirty and clean.

I try nice to wash stuff unnecessarily, but if we're walking about and it's warm, then clothes will get sweaty and smelly more quickly than they would at home.

I'm trying to wean myself off taking too many things as check in cases are so expensive now.However I have lots of lovely summer clothes that I don't generally get a chance to wear in Scotland ( today excepted) so it is tempting to ram it all in. Tenerife on 10kg ( but at least checked in so can bring sun cream and toiletries) will be a challenge

Washing and cooking and cleaning are not my idea of a holiday- id rather stay home.
If going for a wk i see no reason to have to wash clothes- child only likes 1 t-shirt? tough!

Ha! I’m going on a winter holiday (not snow) tomorrow, and I’m happy to do laundry even there! I’ve washed the woollens before going (it’d be a faff to hang those indoors) but the rest I’m happy to do there.

I even quite like ‘local’ washing powder/liquid, so that when you get back home, your suitcase smells like holiday as you unpack!

Ok, so that’s maybe a tad sad.

Oh definitely! I always try to do laundry on holiday if the facilities are there. We are holidaying in U.K. At the moment and I was overjoyed to find we had a washer-dryer as mostly it's just washer which is fine in Spain but drying facilities are key at home. Although it's lovely weather today!

As pp said I don't get why people think hotels are so much preferable to self catering. Self cater you have more room and can eat where and when you want. And arrive home with clean clothes!

I'm happier using a launderette than dragging along a tonne of extra packing.

We often camp and look for sites with laundry. Sometimes it's just handy for drying stuff in damp conditions. Knowing you can do a wash saves the hassle of worrying about getting down to your last pair of pants. On a sunshine holiday of near guarenteed warm weather, packing is more reliable and easier to plan for a week. A week outside in the UK and you might live entirely in cold clothing or hot or a mix.

When the DCs were babies/ toddlers it was just simpler to pack a selection and wash as needed. When DS was "milked" inadvertantly with butter 3 days before heading on holiday, the washing machine in our appartment was vital as he blasted through every nappy from neck to knee due to his allergies.

Can't begin to imagine where you are getting enough washing for several loads.

At one place we stop at it is a 4kg machine so you don't get much in. DS is very messy, he wouldn't get two days out of clothes. I wash not much differently to I would at home.

We UK, last time was Easter, we needed cold weather stuff, wet day stuff and hot day stuff and it was only a week.

No, I've never understood why people say they hate getting back from holidays because of all the extra washing. What extra washing?

The fact it has built up. When at home, I'd bung a load on perhaps 3x a week. If you don't do that for a week (or fortnight) then you've got quite a pile, from 5 people.

I never do laundry on holiday. There's no room for a washing machine in our motorhome and we don't stay on campsites.

There's only DP and me, and we generally manage not to shit our pants or spill our dinner all over ourselves, so it's only usually 2 loads of clothes, plus bedding.

The first lot of washing goes in the machine the minute we get in the door when we get back though!

I won't stay anywhere unless there ARE laundry facilities!! I've had the same said to me re laundry, and also food. Fact is that we couldn't afford to have a holiday unless I did the laundry, as we fly cabin luggage only, with 6 of us, to save on cost, also self catering. Bonus is that we try and come home with most of the clothes clean less work on the other side!

I like having laundry facilities, one less thing to do once home. We had a great hotel in St Lucia last year that had guest laundry, maybe sad but made me so happy I could get it all done before leaving

Yeah I like to get clothes clean when away - hate the washing mountain you get after two weeks. Also prefer self catering if on the coast, for all the reasons pp have said - can please yourself as to when you eat, mooch around and get things done slowly, try out different restaurants for meals out, more space to relax in the evening (this was especially a consideration when the kids were younger and went to bed earlier), not having to spend all your time around other people who are just on holiday - I dunno, it just feels weird and I don't really relax in resort hotels, because it's an artificial environment I think. We do stay in hotels when we go to cities though - nice to get everything done for you so you can whizz round the sights etc.

I love washing on holiday. You can pack less but always have nice clean clothes to wear. My neighbour went away with her family for 2 weeks and they refused to do any washing. So that was 14 pairs of pants each for everyone and cases full of clothes. When they got back she spent several days washing clothes. Surely it's more relaxing yo2 wash as you go along?

A washing machine is always one of my filters when searching for somewhere. Washing on holiday is such a no big deal. I did discover at the end of one holiday that I'd got my washing machine and dishwasher tabs mixed up though - all worked equally well.

I take a little bottle of hand wash to wash out my knickers/bras if it looks like I'm running short, the rest come see home as I tend to stay places without a washing machine.

When we went to Greece last Year we had a washing machine and clothes dried in about an hour as it was windy and sunny so the perfect combo. Stuff dried in under an hour 👍 I do a load of washing every day on holiday and every day when I’m not at work. It is the only chore I’m good at 😂