Vandwellers often talk of ways to save money. I’m all about that, up to the point where it gets too ridiculous for even me. I’m not going to swipe all the sugar and jelly packets when I’m at a restaurant. I won’t make my own soap. And I don’t care to scrimp on toilet paper.
A couple years ago, a guy said that he would air-dry his used socks and underwear overnight, when in the desert. He claimed that they would smell as fresh as if laundered in the morning. That saved him some trips into town to do laundry. His theory made me laugh and I scoffed at the idea.
This summer I’ve been going longer between my trips into town, so laundry tends to build up and I may even run out of some things. I remembered the air-dry idea and decided to give it a try. I’m surrounded by other campers, so I just hung my socks and undies inside the van overnight. A partial success!
Cotton seems to retain more odor, so items made of that will dry fine but you can’t use them that much more than usual. If they are smelly when you take them off, not much is going to change. But synthetics and silk work great with this method, especially silk underwear. As long as they aren’t actually dirty, I can get more uses from them. I won’t say how many because it varies and I don’t want to gross people out. Less than a month, for sure! But, this was a successful experiment.
iggyvandweller 