How do you handle the dirty laundry

[MinnieVanMom]

With the new baggage fees, charges, limitations, we are trying desperately to pack just a few days worth of clothing and I will do laundry on rest day. We have an 8 day trip so we will a lot of clothing.

I always dress in jeans, a nice sleeveless shirt, then a sweatshirt on top for the flight, I get cold. When we arrive I take off the sweatshirt. Now I didn't have to pack clothes for a cool night because I wore them on the flight.

I also order samples of laundry soap from the budget board along with toothpaste in sample size. Don't forget that if you are renting a DVC studio the laundry machine and dryers are free to use.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

we have a travel party of 7 including my 4 kids so you can imagine the amount of laundry we have in the heat of summer at WDW. We got pop up hampers at the $ store one for each room (2). As for not doing laundry on vacation I don't mind I would rather do it while we are at the pool than having to pack enough changes of clothes for 21 days (that inclused drive time down and back) and then having to wash it all when I got home. We did a final wash the night before we left so there wouldn;t be much to take care of when we returned home.

 

[geokeim]

We use a pop up hamper in the corner of the room - it was a great investment of a $1 a the Dollar Store - LOL...

 

[Handbag Lady]

Oh my condolensces to all of you! I would never do laundry on vacation. Whenever we travel, even when we had the kids with us, everyone brought enough clothes to cover the entire time, the dirties went into a garbage bag or the hotel dry clean bags and then right into the suitcase to get cleaned at home.

I used to be you!!!! This last trip was so long, we had to do laundry and I had to choose between doing laundry or a shorter trip. I chose laundry.

But, of course I had to stipulate to husband that this was a one-off and I'd only do laundry at WDW for longer trips AND he does his own.

So there.

 

[Taja]

I pack two fabric drawstring laundry bags and a lingerie wash case. They're all light weight and pack flat.

The lingerie goes in the wash case and the laundry bags are divided by dark and light fabrics. I line dry the contents of the lingerie case, so it's easy to separate that after washing and take it up to the room and hang the items while waiting for the dryer.

I usually visit WDW in December for 10 - 12 nights, so I have about 6 or 7 days of clothing. I do laundry midpoint and the day before departure. I really dislike hauling dirty laundry home! *LOL*

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I pack a garbage bag for my kids' laundry and my husband's green Army laundry bag for mine and his. I have never done laundry on vacation, but do bring a small bottle of Tide and a couple of dryer sheets "just in case." With a toddler, you never know what is going to happen!

 

[ReneeA]

I also use the pop up hampers for dirty laundry.

I also wash clothing about day 5 or 6 of our vacation. Any longer than that and they start to stink...WDW in August is a pretty smelly place.

Besides, I hate the thought of having 2 whole days of washing to do when I get home.

 

[DisFlan]

We're DVC, and this trip (just the two of us) will be our first stay in a studio for a week - so no W/D. The DVC laundry is free, but I still have to get the clothes back and forth, and put them some place when they're dirty. Thanks for the pop-up hamper tip! I'll head to the Dollar store and get one.

I'd love to be able to take enough clothes to not have to do any laundry, but we'll be traveling as light as possible (stupid airlines).

DisFlan

 

[Taja]

We're DVC, and this trip (just the two of us) will be our first stay in a studio for a week - so no W/D. The DVC laundry is free, but I still have to get the clothes back and forth, and put them some place when they're dirty. Thanks for the pop-up hamper tip! I'll head to the Dollar store and get one.

I'd love to be able to take enough clothes to not have to do any laundry, but we'll be traveling as light as possible (stupid airlines).

DisFlan

That's what I like about my laundry bag system. Load it into a wheeled case, down to the laundry room, then wheel the clean laundry back to the room!

 

[YesMickey]

Those of you that said you put your dirty clothes in a plastic garbage bag will find your wet clothes get sour pretty quick. It is best to put them in one of those hampers or a cloth laundry bag from my dry cleaners, which is what I do. We stayed at POR and there is a laundry room at the pool between partrere place and Oak manor. Works great for us because my wife and I make some margaritas, do the laundry and watch the kids swim all from the comfort our lounge chair at the pool.

 

[123SA]

I use the bags and suticase, no laundry during vacation. I had thought that I would have to on our next trip because of baggage fees. 12 night trip in Sept, 2A, 3C. Airtran charges $10 for a second bag, $20 roundtrip. 3 loads of laundry, wash and dry will cost $12 (light, dark, whites) - it is not worth it to me to save the $8, I'd rather relax on my vacation.

 

[steffali]

We take a laundry bag with us. When i am ready to do laundry I pull the strings and off I go.

 

[tammydel]

Another vote for pop-up hamper. (Mine is Sponge Bob, Shhh...) Keeps the dirty clothes off the floor. One year I used a suitcase - after the clothes were clean I noticed the suitcase smelled a little funky! Pop up goes easily to the laundry room or stuffed in the rolling dufffle if not clean. Love it, never travel without it any more, not even for short trips.

Tammy

 

[sherry8253]

We take garbage bags and we use a local wash & fold service a few minutes from Disney about midway (on longer) & toward the end of our vacation. We have nice clean clothing to take home which is wonderful. It beats having to go home to a bunch of dirty laundry.

 

[DrDeb]

no laundry since the D children have grown---altho in Jan i did do a quick load while i read by the pool @ POP... was nice--

 

[123SA]

We take garbage bags and we use a local wash & fold service a few minutes from Disney about midway (on longer) & toward the end of our vacation. We have nice clean clothing to take home which is wonderful. It beats having to go home to a bunch of dirty laundry.

Does this mean you drop it off and come back later to pick it up? This I would consider! Where? Do you remember the cost?

 

[jlewisinsyr]

For shorter vacations, less then 1 week, we usually just bring enough to cover the week (plus 1 - 2 outfits extra). We put our dirty clothes in one of the drawers folded but seperate.

For vacations over a week we send out our clothes mid-vacation for laundry service. For the $100 - $150 it costs, it's worth it to me not to waste time doing laundry and wasting my vacation.

 

[sherry8253]

Does this mean you drop it off and come back later to pick it up? This I would consider! Where? Do you remember the cost?

It costs less than $20 for a big bag of clothing. I think it is about a $1.25 a pound. We always go in Dec or Jan, so we are talking heavy jeans, sweatshirts, etc. It is on Apopka Vineland Road in the strip mall where Steak & Shake is located. You drop the clothing off during the late afternoon and pick it up the next afternoon. When you pick up the clothing everything is always neatly folded. They also do drycleaning if you need anything drycleaned. We have been using them for at least 10 years. They are wonderful!!

 

[123SA]

It costs less than $20 for a big bag of clothing. I think it is about a $1.25 a pound. We always go in Dec or Jan, so we are talking heavy jeans, sweatshirts, etc. It is on Apopka Vineland Road in the strip mall where Steak & Shake is located. You drop the clothing off during the late afternoon and pick it up the next afternoon. When you pick up the clothing everything is always neatly folded. They also do drycleaning if you need anything drycleaned. We have been using them for at least 10 years. They are wonderful!!

Thanks so much for the info! I can always get together enough outfits for the kids, but it seems like I always end up running out at the last minute to buy myself stuff just so I don't have to do the dreaded laundry on vacation. This would work out well...now if they would just deliver!

 

[shellybaxter]

There have been a lot of threads about why someone would not want to own DVC lately, but this laundry issue is one of the things that make DVC worth the price of admission to me.

PreDVC we use to:

Pick a drawer or the inside of the bed side tables at certain resorts, and fill that with dirty clothes until that got full and then we tranfered those to an empty suitcase. We packed at least one outfit per day and took TONS of luggage since we go for no less than 10 days, usually 14.

Then we bought into DVC and stayed in a one bedroom. Like some on these boards I was not interested in doing laundry on vacation, but having the washer and dryer right in the room is awesome. You can throw a load in when you get into the room at night and transfer it to the dryer before you go to bed. In the morning you put the clothes away as you're getting dressed.

We now only pack about five to six outfits for the trip, take WAY LESS luggage and have purchased a laundry bag to keep the clothes tidy while waiting to be cleaned but sometimes we just throw them straight into the dryer as we remove them.

DVC is awesome for laundry (one bedroom and above)