Yesterday we looked at the tricky business of keeping clothes pressed and crumple-free while on
vacation. But what do you do if you actually want to get things clean?
It's not always as simple as taking your stuff to your hotel laundry. If you're staying in an establishment that's at - shall we say - the economy end of the market, it's very unlikely that laundry facilities will be offered. In that case, you need to take a hike to your nearest laundromat. If you're in Europe you'll find that most towns and cities have at least one of these, and don't be surprised if you get a slightly more personalized level of service that you're used to back home. Although fully automated laundromats exist, many are staffed by teams of identical old ladies who will take your washing and clean, dry and press it to your directions.
Of course, you need to be able to give directions - so it's worth studying the clothing section of your phrasebook in some detail. The same goes for dry cleaning services, thought if you're traveling for more than a week or ten days it's probably not a good idea to take too much stuff that is dry clean only unless you're staying in the sort of swanky establishment where everyone speaks English and a carryout cleaning service is available.
If you're somewhere more remote, you may have to handle your own cleaning. There are many tried and tested techniques for cleaning clothes in hotel rooms. If you want to do the job properly, take some handwashing liquid with you in a small bottle, along with some rubber gloves and a travel thermometer to make sure you're getting the temperature of the water right - you don't want to shrink all of your jeans and spend half your vacation hobbling around a foreign city with no circulation in your legs.
In an emergency, if you have no detergent at all you can use hotel-room soap, though it's unlikely to get a good result and you may be picking flakes of dried detergent our of your clothes for weeks afterwards. In a situation like this, if you only need to wash relatively light clothes like undergarments and shirts, "borrow" some vinegar from a restaurant. Wash your clothes in a hot five percent vinegar solution. Leave them to soak a little bit, then rinse thoroughly and dry to get the vinegar smell out. This will at least get your clothes hygiencic again, even if it does take some effort to get staining out. This isn't a good technique to use on very delicate or expensive clothes, or clothes that are new or not colorfast. You have been warned!