As a woman, the idea of a holiday out of home excites and scares me at the same time. I mean, who doesn’t love a holiday? Of course I do, dooh! But then I think about packing, an excruciating process which in time got more and more elaborated until it became a true engineering project on its own, starting always with a list double checked and approved by my travel companion(s). Fact: more than 70% of the luggage is filled with clothes, and that’s because nobody feels like doing laundry when on holiday.
And if packing for 1 person is not nightmare enough, add to it the responsibility of your companion’s luggage – because, you know, the holiday turns to not so much fun when you hear your usually male companion buddy saying “I forgot to pack fresh underwear”. So even though I try to stay out of it as much as possible, I can’t help peeking at his bag one last time before we leave, to eye check the essentials. Ok let’s say that even so it’s not such a big tragedy and you can easily adjust and compensate a missing item, but add a traveling baby/toddler to the mix and the struggle gets so real.
This is one of my very long list of 1st world problems.
What if it’s really possible to pack only 2-3 outfits and still survive fresh? Today I happened to come across Scrubba, the smallest lightest portable laundry device.
How it works: It’s a seal-able bag with small numbs covering the inside designed to give a good scrub when kneaded. You put water and detergent until the pre-signaled level, put in the laundry (think small, the bag can’t grasp more than say a gym outfit), seal, release the excess air and get scrubbing, kneading, shaking etc for about 3 minutes or until the clothes are clean. Then rinse (same process but leave the air in for a good grip), squeeze as hard as you can and you get very damp but clean laundry.
The biggest challenge is finding a way to let it dry, which gets tricky when camping or in small spaces. 
Another downside I find about it is the price: I find it much to pay €50 for it. For an additional close to ridiculous budget it comes however with some solutions to the drying impediment:
- Drying towel 137×64 cm ~€20
- Inflatable hangers 4 px ~€18
- Travel clothes line (elastic) 150 cm – included in the complete Wash and Dry Kit ~€90
When you may need a Scrubba:
- To wash your gym clothes if that’s the only set you own, if you don’t enjoy being the stinky one who makes cheeks go green when passing by
- To wash socks – yes, wearing them more than one day without washing makes skunks fall in love with your feet and shoes
- To travel light, but take into account drying time. Remember if you plan a trip in the mountains in the rainy season, having clean wet clothes won’t do you much good
- When you don’t have a washing machine. If the place you live in is so small that you can’t fit one and you have to use the laundromat periodically, you might spare some money by using the Scrubba for your underwear and small inbetweeners
- When your washing machine is having a hard time
Verdict: we here in Quirk Heaven are not yet fully convinced, but that’s also because luckily we didn’t need to tick anything from the above list. Yet