November 2, 2022
I have always hated doing laundry, which is ironic, since I love everything clean–especially clean sheets to sleep on.
I’ll admit, the night before laundry day in basic training was always my favorite since it meant real sleep instead of sleeping at attention so the bed could be made easily in the morning. But I think that is the only time I have looked forward to laundry day.
Fast forward to twenty-something years later, and I dread it. When we lived in our house, everyone had a laundry day, but I still handled the linens, household laundry like blankets and curtains (yay dust allergy!) and my own, as well as the little ones until they got big enough to do their own. I was honestly looking forward to RV life and not having to deal with laundry every day.
In the eight or so months we’ve lived in the RV (and I still can’t believe it’s been that long), we have toyed with turning the half bath into a laundry room, and sacrificing weight elsewhere. But in an RV, it usually means a combo washer/dryer and full hookups are needed. It also means daily laundry since loads are smaller. Or it’s one of those smaller machines and line drying—but more stuff to store away.
Since we move at least once a month, our methods may vary from those who don’t move around or move more frequently.
In the long run, we opted to keep the bathroom, and last week we were sure glad when the master toilet broke and parts were nowhere nearby, so we had to wait a week.
That means we go to the laundry mat, or laundry room, if there is one where we are staying. This is super convenient if it isn’t busy and we can get a large capacity machine. We can get a week of laundry done for all 3 of us, plus linens, done in about an hour.
The downside is the price, and the method of payment. It can vary from a dollar or more a load for washing and for drying. Some places take quarters, some credit cards, some require a special card loaded with money that is non-refundable and requires a $5 deposit for the card that you’ll never get back.
We’ve also had machines that we load up, and go to pay (because if you pay before it starts without your clothes) only to find it charged us, but was broken, and the facility doesn’t handle refunds.
This has taught us to research places and we usually opt for someplace outside the RV park. When possible, we will go when we need to do a grocery run and other errands.
Since we only RV in Florida right now, we haven’t been lucky enough to find the ones with parking big enough for the rig to do this chore on a travel day, but we have heard tales of this being a possibility in other areas, and I long for this!
For now, we will keep heading to the local laundry mat each week with our mounds of laundry and finishing quickly, leaving us the rest of the day to ourselves.
And trying to solve the conundrum of where to store the dirty laundry while waiting. I’ve been through four or five different methods. So far, the least invasive is a large basket in the shower that comes out when we need the shower.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get a rig with a laundry chute in the master down to the storage bay and there’s no way to modify that into ours. If that is something important for you, then it may be something you look for when you are RV shopping.
So, how do you laundry in the RV? Better yet, how do you store your dirty laundry in the RV? I need some inspiration!
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