What to do with dirty clothing on board?

[texasnana]

I read that folks throw dirty clothing ina suit case and take it home. I do not care to do that. What do you all do with it. Refold it and take it home? I would rather not look at it again or fold it. So what is the best idea?

[dixieva]

Well, I think those are the only choices. We have a hamper which folds for packing. Put it in the closet and throw dirty clothes in there. When it's full we get a suitcase out and fold them and pack them. It takes up much less room if you fold them instead of throw them in the suitcase.

[138east]

Some folks take their oldest clothes and don't return with them. You could send it out to be washed the very last day. I take a large kitchen trash bag with drawstrings, collect my laundry in it, and then pack the trash bag in my suitcase. I also carry a fold up suitcase that expands into a large bag - sometimes the dirty clothes go in that.

[cb at sea]

Aside from putting it in your suitcase (folded or not!), you can send it all to the laundry, and pay for them to clean it for you, or, you can throw everything away, and not worry about it at all!

 

Of course, everyone else takes home their dirty clothes...I mean, they get dirty at home, too. When we get home, we wash them.

[LDR]

I always take a laundry bag for colored clothes and one for whites and have everyone throw their dirty stuff in it. When it's time to go I have a rolling duffle bag that it fits into perfectly. Then, after we get home, I just leave the now smelly bag in the laundry room-no need to haul it upstairs;)

[jst4fun715]

We also have a folding hamper. We just put it is a closet during the cruise. Then when it is time to pack. we just stuff it into the 2 1/2 gallon zip lock bags, squeeze the air out and throw it in the suitcase...not smelly with the other clothes. When we get home, we just dump it in the laundry.

[ChipLondon]

If you do not want to take your dirty clothing home with you, maybe you could consider one of the following.

Simply take yesterdays clothes ashore with you when you have a port stop and drop them in a recycle bin. Although that would seem very silly and quite costly.

Hire a house maid to go on holiday with you, and get them to handle your laundry issues.

Or do your own washing in the bath or shower, and then have clean clothes to take home.

 

Of course most people are happy to take washing home with them rather than interupt the holiday with simple chores that can be done at home. Most of us would prefer to never have to deal with washing, but it is unfortunately a fact of life.

 

My solution was to get myself an excellent wife, who is quite happy to deal with such issues on my behalf, as long as i keep taking her on cruises. I hope you find a solution to your problem.

 

 

I read that folks throw dirty clothing ina suit case and take it home. I do not care to do that. What do you all do with it. Refold it and take it home? I would rather not look at it again or fold it. So what is the best idea?

[texasnana]

Originally Posted by texasnana

I read that folks throw dirty clothing ina suit case and take it home. I do not care to do that. What do you all do with it. Refold it and take it home? I would rather not look at it again or fold it. So what is the best idea

i did not say i did not want to take it home. Rather an idea to pack it back to take home.. I was looking for ideas how to deal with it to take home. I like the idea of the large zip lock plastic bags and take the air out and toss in suit case.

Thanks all..

[tropical-lovers]

On our last cruise - toward the end of the cruise, we were left a laundry bag - and for $20 or $25 and as many articles of clothing you could stuff in it - it would be washed and folded and you could bring home nice clean clothes!!

[sadie8]

I put the dirties into a space bag all week. At the end of the cruise, squeeze the air out and it goes into the suitcase to go home.

[mspink98]

We keep one suitcase unzipped and accessible under the bed. At the end of the day, it just gets pulled out and dirty stuff gets tossed in. About halfway though the week one of us may have to pull it out and kind of fold stuff to compact it a little, but it takes less than 5 minutes.

 

When we're packing to go home, we just put everything together, clean and dirty, and plan on washing all at home over the next week or so. The suitcases do get a little stale smelling from dirty clothes, but we just leave them in the garage for a week or so to air out and they're fine.

 

I've entertained the idea of a popup hamper, but we've decided that the suitcase under the bed works just fine and doesn't take up any valuable stateroom or closet space.

 

And here's an idea-I'm going through our closets and picking out things that would be on their way to Goodwill in the spring. Those items will be packed and left at Labadee. I've also asked the members of my team at work to bring me anything they would be donating in the spring. I have an old duffle bag in the closet, so I'll pay the extra bag fee to the airline and check it one way. I'll just leave the whole bag. Anything that you don't need, or doesn't fit, or is out of style, or whatever could really help someone else out.

[amybeth4]

Texasnana, I really don't understand your question...would you mind clearing it up? You don't want to throw your dirty clothes back into your empty suitcase? If you don't pack them back up, how will you get them home?

 

Or are you planning on NOT emptying your suitcase and using the closet and drawers? Maybe that's it, cuz if that's not it, I don't get it.

 

I hope I'm not coming across sarcastic or rude. I'm really curious as to what you mean here...

[bluegirlum]

Texasnana, I really don't understand your question...would you mind clearing it up? You don't want to throw your dirty clothes back into your empty suitcase? If you don't pack them back up, how will you get them home?

 

Or are you planning on NOT emptying your suitcase and using the closet and drawers? Maybe that's it, cuz if that's not it, I don't get it.

 

I hope I'm not coming across sarcastic or rude. I'm really curious as to what you mean here...

 

I think this answers it?

 

i did not say i did not want to take it home. Rather an idea to pack it back to take home.. I was looking for ideas how to deal with it to take home. I like the idea of the large zip lock plastic bags and take the air out and toss in suit case.

 

Thanks all..

[nomoreknothead]

We also have a folding hamper. We just put it is a closet during the cruise. Then when it is time to pack. we just stuff it into the 2 1/2 gallon zip lock bags, squeeze the air out and throw it in the suitcase...not smelly with the other clothes. When we get home, we just dump it in the laundry.

I always did this very thing and still do for the most part! With one difference I have added the next quote

 

On our last cruise - toward the end of the cruise, we were left a laundry bag - and for $20 or $25 and as many articles of clothing you could stuff in it - it would be washed and folded and you could bring home nice clean clothes!!

This way my clothes are clean for the most part and I simply put the clean one out of the baggies into the drawers and the dirty ones go in the laundry room.

[Pitcruiser]

I use an approach that I developed through many years of business traveling. When clothes are dirty I fold them neatly and stack them in a drawer or on a closet shelf. When packing to come home I put any clean items in the suitcase first, cover them with one of the plastic laundry bags from the room or cabin, then put the already folded dirty items in the suitcase. Everything fits neatly, and it takes no time at all to pack for departure.

[kyriecat]

On our last cruise - toward the end of the cruise, we were left a laundry bag - and for $20 or $25 and as many articles of clothing you could stuff in it - it would be washed and folded and you could bring home nice clean clothes!!

The bag on Serenade last week was $25 and could only be used for underwear, T-shirts, shorts, and pajamas. I had used the "wash & fold" bag in the past with good results. The items used to come back folded neatly and appeared to have been taken fresh from the dryer and folded. Last week I got a bag of wadded and wrinkled clothes back. I thought at first that they had simply returned my clothes unwashed but they were in a different bag. It looked like someone grabbed the clothes from the dryer and simply stuffed them into the bag. No effort was made to fold anything. I had planned to wear a couple of the T-shirts again but they were so wrinkled that Downy wrinkle release didn't even help. I ended up washing everything again yesterday when I got home.

[RetireeWannabee]

I read that folks throw dirty clothing ina suit case and take it home. I do not care to do that. What do you all do with it. Refold it and take it home? I would rather not look at it again or fold it. So what is the best idea?

I don't know what other possibilities you think there might be? If you don't want to look at it again, find a place to throw it away, but be aware, your cabin steward may return clothing disposed of in the cabin waste can.

 

you coud maybe run it down to a deck chair to be gathered into lost n found, have it laundered or ....?

 

my best idea is stick it in a plastic bag in the suitcase, but that's only the Best Idea for me. ymmv

[bluegirlum]

On our last cruise - toward the end of the cruise, we were left a laundry bag - and for $20 or $25 and as many articles of clothing you could stuff in it - it would be washed and folded and you could bring home nice clean clothes!!

 

Just be sure to put the clean clothes in plastic bags if you are flying. Our luggage got lost and Delta kindly sat them in the snow for 2 days and everything was soaked. I had sent a whole bunch of stuff to be washed on the last day. It was a complete waste of $20.

[Lady Chew]

We always take some clean plastic shopping bags of various sizes (from Target, W-Mart, Sears, Penneys, the book store, wherever you shop!) and use them for our dirty laundry. It's easy to compact a lot of clothes in them and press the air out, tie them shut and throw them in a suitcase. I don't like the idea of dirty clothes directly out in my suitcase, especially to the point of having to air them out, as someone mentioned earlier!!

 

I usually hang the bag up in the closet or put it in one of the drawers, fill it up, pack in down when full, toss in suitcase, get out another bag and repeat.

 

When we get home, we can dump all the bags into the laundry room.

[phoenix_dream]

I put the dirties into a space bag all week. At the end of the cruise, squeeze the air out and it goes into the suitcase to go home.

 

Me too. This is the absolute best method. We bring a few and 'sort as we go' (darks/colors/whites, etc.). Then the last day just squeeze out the air and plop them in the suitcase. It helps keep the dirty clothes from ...well... smelling up the suitcase, and your laundry is all sorted and ready to go into the washer when you get home!;)

[critterchick]

We sort our dirty laundry by washload (darks, lights, whites) and repack them that way. If we happen to have clean clothes, we segregate them with a plastic bag.

[Name Of The Game]

Wish Royal had a laundry room so we wouldn't have to pack so much and bring all the dirty clothes home.

[pcur]

We use this:

 

http://www.homestoragewarehouse.com/large-capacity-laundry-bag-p-2665.html?osCsid=33173c8744970c9633983ad6071b8e88

 

Only ours is made of very lightweight fabric. Packs tiny and lightweight going.

 

We hang is on one of the hooks on the wall near the door. The weight of the laundry closes the opening at the top. Just pull it open a bit to add more. Take it off. Lay it down and move the clothes around inside to flatten them. Toss it into the bottom of the suitcase.

 

When I get home I just dump it out and sort it for washing.

[Happy ks]

We rarely have any clean clothes to take home with us, if we have planned and packed correctly, everything is dirty. If we do have clean clothing, it is separated from the rest and in a plastic dry cleaner bag.

 

I like to repack to go home the same way I packed to leave. That way we know it will all fit. We're not souvenir shoppers, so rarely have anything more to pack, maybe a photo and a bottle of booze, but those fit in just fine. We also don't want to pack extra stuff, such as laundry bags.

 

We just dump the cases in the living room when we return home and sort the laundry from there. Suitcases are sprayed with lysol and left to air for a day before storing them away.

[NYcruzzer]

I read that folks throw dirty clothing ina suit case and take it home. I do not care to do that. What do you all do with it. Refold it and take it home? I would rather not look at it again or fold it. So what is the best idea?

 

Throw them overboard and buy new ones when you get home..Or as others might have suggested pay for laundry service and take them home clean.