Tips and Tricks: Doing Your Laundry on the Camino de Santiago 👚🩳

[@gayle4sayre]

Thank you!! Very informative for the Camino Frances. I walked the Camino Norte y Primitivo. Laundry was soooo difficult in the beginning! Many pilgrim albergues are sparse and since it was August there were tons of people and we would always get there later. The weather was also wet. Therefore, we would walk hanging wet clothes/underwear on our back packs. Once it took 3 days for my clothes to dry and by then it smelled like mold. At that point, we would find laudromats in the towns and take our clothes to the local laundromat if the alburgue did not have dryers. On the Primitivo, the albergues were set up with good facilities and we did our laundry with machines. We had that scrub bag, but did not work very well for us.

[@WanderlustingLawyer]

I haaaate that smell. I thought the Norte wouldn’t be so rainy in August!

[@maryday5781]

I didn't stay in alburgues, so didn't have those handy clotheslines. Next time I will bring the clothesline (that I left at home) to stretch out in my room. I hung clothes from light fixtures and any spot I could find last time!

[@WanderlustingLawyer]

Yes! The only time I used my clothesline was when I stayed in a hotel room.

[@susananquist8357]

I was wondering about this as well. If you are staying in hotels or pensions, did they ever have washing options?

[@dltallan]

I brought a Scrubba with me on my 2016 Camino as well as the little soap sheets you showed but had the same issue with the soap and hardly ever used the Scrubba. I didn't take the Scrubba on my 2018 Camino. In 2016, I was with my son. For handwashing, I found I preferred the purpose-built laundry sinks to the Scrubba. But eventually I got into the pattern of machine washing our clothes every other day where the four sets made a nice load. In 2018 I was solo so hand-washed more often, using either supplied soap or a Lush shampoo bar. I found that the secret to clean clothes is as much in the rinsing as the washing, with multiple thorough rinses really helping to get the soap and dirt all out.

[@robscamino]

I took a Scrubba once. I liked it but not worth the weight in my view. A light dry bag does the same duty really.

[@WanderlustingLawyer]

Completely agree!

[@arlenelaskey94]

@@WanderlustingLawyer good to know, as I already have dry bag but not a Scrubba, won't look for one.

[@jancourtney6330]

I brought with me the scrubba and by the end of the first week I left it at an albergue on purpose. It weighed too much and I found that just scrubbing with soap was good enough. Are you planning on going on the camino in2021? I am hoping to do the Frances again in June and July in 2021, would love to meed you and your wife.

[@WanderlustingLawyer]

Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Probably more likely that we will walk June/July 2022. 😊