If you’ve read my post about Packing For Our Trip, you know that we are carrying minimal clothing with us as we travel. We each have enough clothes to get us through a week – though sometimes it means washing a few things in the sink because it’s been so hot and humid (a.k.a. sweaty!).

Many people have asked about laundry. It’s funny because that’s just not something I was worried about. But, after so many inquiries prior to starting the trip I wondered if I should be! As it turns out, laundry is not usually a problem and has been one of the easiest things for us to figure out in each place we stay.

For those of you who are interested, here are some of the ways we’ve managed to do the laundry:

• When renting apartments in Beijing and Xi’an we had a washing machine. We did have to email the owner to figure out how to use the machine in Beijing, since everything was in Chinese but after sending her a photo of the washing machine controls, she sent back which buttons we should push, in which order and all was well! There was a drying rack in our apartment and we hung everything on it. With the aircon on, it dried not too badly.

• In Xi’an, the owner had written English instructions beside the washing machine so we had no troubles there. We brought a travel clothesline and hung our laundry on that.

• In Guilin and Yangshuo we stayed in hostels. You could give them a bag of laundry and they would weigh it and charge you by the number of kg. One of our hostels would dry it for you, and at another you got it back wet and could hang it on their rooftop clothesline. Another hostel had a washing machine and you washed it yourself and then hung it on their clothesline.

• At Villa Manoly we saw signs in front of some people’s homes saying they would do your laundry. This laundry “shop” was just down our laneway and the lady brought our clothes back to our guesthouse the next day when they were done.

• At our most recent guesthouse, our host very kindly washed our clothes and we strung a line on our porch and dried them there. With the humidity things don’t dry very well but you do what you can.

And there you have it – the “ins and outs” of our laundry so far. I’m sure we will encounter even more interesting/unique ways to get our clothes washed during the course of the year!