By Russ and Tiña De Maris
Politicians loathe it because somehow, it always comes out. RVers fight with it, because in a tight space, where do you put it? What is it? Dirty laundry! Where to put the dirty laundry until wash day rolls around. If someone could come up with a “one size fits all solution” they could really clean up. Meantime, here’s a laundry list of possible solutions:
Put the laundry basket in the shower stall—take it out when it’s shower time. Great, unless the cat’s litter box already occupies the space.
As an alternative, hang the dirty laundry from either a retractable clothes line, or an additional shower curtain rod, hung in the shower stall. Keeps the cat happy.
Get a hanging laundry bag. We’ve seen a couple of different inspirations on this idea. One hangs on a closet rod like a coat hanger; the other hangs over the back of a door.
Motorhome or trailer owners with plenty of basement storage may find an idea here: Cut a trap door in the bottom of an existing cabinet, then place a laundry basket in the basement compartment immediately under the door. Pop open the door, drop dirty clothes in and forget about them until wash day.
One couple put a laundry bag in an under-counter cabinet, but found they were too lazy to pick up the bag to put the clothes in it. As a result, the clothes just wound up being piled on top of the bag—making a big hassle on laundry day. Solution? They put grommets on the rim of the laundry bag and hung them on cup hooks placed under the countertop, leaving the “front” of the bag gaping open, ready to accept dirty donations.
More inconvenient, but if there’s no other place: Put the laundry basket in your pickup canopy, or the trunk of your towed car.
Sources: Amazon provides both styles of these hampers. Here are links: In-closet hanging hamper and the over-the-door hamper.
Do you have any tips? Please share them in the comments below.
##RVDT1778
Many years ago I made all the girls in my girl scout troop a huge bag with a leather cinch strap on one end to put their sleeping bags and pjs etc. in when we did overnights. Now that my own girls are grown and flown I still had their 2 bags that I didn’t want to get rid of (the material is tie-dye so it’s groovy). I use those bags – (they fold up very flat and convenient when empty) to keep our dirty laundry in. We keep the bag in our washer/dryer closet in the bedroom (we have a 5th wheel). Since it’s a cloth “bag” it’s very squishy so we can put our satellite dish bag on top of it between campsites as extra padding. When we unpack the camper at the end of our trip, we just throw the bag into the back seat of the truck and I take the dirty laundry home to wash. We put all the clean stuff in a see-through tub (the laundry bags included) to bring back to the camper when we get ready to go out again. Works for us.
We use to use actual laundry baskets that stacked inside each other. When the top one got full, it was placed in the back of the pick-up truck (Always had a cover on it). When the last laundry basket was full, we’d hit the laundry mat.
Then we got our current fifth wheel and had a washing machine and dryer installed. Ever since, the washing machine has become our laundry hamper.
This camper came with a built in laundry hamper, but we found it worked better keeping our paper products in, like toilet paper, paper towels, napkins and such. It was a smaller confined space and the paper products didn’t get mangled up there.
I realize RVT caters to older RVers, but if you have teen boys “plastic is your friend”… we have a standing hamper in the boys rear room lined with a plastic garbage bag they are REQUIRED to twist closed at ALL times. When full the bag goes in the bed of the pickup. Amazingly, our RV no longer smells like a possum that tangled with a skunk, died in the black tank, fermented in the sun, and then backed up the plumbing into the living room…
We found a good mesh, rectangular, stand up bag,
Amazon.com: Whitmor Pop & Fold Double Laundry Hamper : Home & Kitchen
that fits perfectly under the vanity across from the foot of the bed in our 5th wheel. It was dead space we weren’t using or anything else. It holds 2 weeks of laundry for the two of us. it’s lasted us 5 years so far, by sewing up an occasional hole in the mesh.
laundry basket under the lid of our bed
We put our dirty laundry in a plastic tub, where we have drilled (4) 1-inch holes on the locking lid, for ventilation. We then stick a deodorizer disk on the underside of inside lid, to control odors. The tote sits on the floor of our walk-in bedroom closet in our 5th wheel (in the corner, where the washer/dryer hookups reside). Just unlock the lid and deposit dirty clothes (nice and neat set-up for adults).
We have a pop-up hamper that collapses to store and easily holds all the laundry we accumulate. We keep it in the clothes closet for easy access.
https://smile.amazon.com/Simplized-Laundry-Foldable-Clothes-Handles/dp/B07TDCG72B/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1W675RSW15EIR&keywords=pop+up+hamper&qid=1642699813&sprefix=pop+up+hamper%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzSjJESTdXOUhPTEtaJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDc2NDkzWTkwVVRZMkJVTkY5JmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA0NTU5MDMxWkhaRzhDT1BBUUtWJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==
Hang it outside, downwind of your RV…
we use the washer and dryer to store dirty clothes until laundry day.
That’s the best place. When the washer is full it’s time to do laundry.
Our Cougar has a hinged hatch beside the bed that gives access to a laundry basket in the front storage compartment. It is the most brilliant idea ever! On laundry day just open the compartment and extract the basket and away you go.
We have a bag that holds 7 to 10 days of laundry. The bag is under the table when we are in bed and on the bed when we are not in bed. We have 21 ft TT
We are lucky that our current trailer came with a door in the nightstand to the basement. I put a laundry basket down there and throw the laundry in. Easy Peasy! In our previous trailer we found a dead space above a cabinet that was approximately 6 inches deep by 16 inches wide by 14 inches tall. This was an area below the TV. There were a couple of electrical wires in there. We cut a hole in the wall above the cabinet door in the dead space and ordered a cabinet door to match to cover it. I zipped tied the wires off to the side and installed the door. We then had a hamper that was 6 inches deep by 16 inches wide by 36 inches tall. We used the top door to throw the laundry in and the bottom door to retrieve it. Worked out great as that trailer was very small with no place to put a hamper.
We put our dirty laundry in the onboard washing machine. It works out very well.
It works perfectly. No odours.
Our DRV has a built-in laundry hamper very close to the washer and dryer.
17′ travel trailer with a walk around bed and a wet bath means there’s not much space for laundry. Our trips are usually half a week to 16 nights, and we try not to do laundry on them. We’ve tried various things. For my solo trips, or trips with my husband, I found a hamper that fits in the side aisle on my husband’s side of the bed – he just gets in and out of bed over the end anyway, so we use it for storage. When it’s full, we transfer the contents to a laundry bag, and stash it in the bed of the truck. (Using a bag in the hamper did not work as well.)
When I take a girls’ trip, I just use the laundry bag in that aisle, which is a bit more difficult to reach, but I need the space to stash things kept in the dinette area on other trips, since it’s in bed mode.
I still miss having a roof top cargo carrier (it doesn’t work on our truck), that was handy for laundry and such in popup and tenting days.
We travel in a 32 foot Class C. I purchased the largest duffel bag I could find. When we travel we put our dirty clothes in the duffel bag. The bag is placed in the passenger cab seat when we are set up in a campsite. When we are traveling it is placed in the overhead bunk. It has a front pocket that holds my quarters, Tide pods and dryer sheets. When it is time to do laundry I just zip it close and throw it over my shoulder. Sheets are put inside the pillowcases when it is time to wash those.
Our fifth wheel has a front closet (a typical fiver layout) where we have a laundry basket. It works for us.
I keep both the litter box and the hamper in the shower. Works for us.
Dalykate Backpack Laundry Bag, Laundry Backpack with Shoulder Straps and Mesh Pocket Durable Nylon Backpack Clothes Hamper Bag with Drawstring Closure for College, Travel, Laundromat, Apartment https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G575LHT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_glt_i_2T224DM0YN9MAV15K991?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
This is what we found. When you need to walk to the washing machine you just put it on your back. My husband placed a command hook in the bathroom that we hang it on. It is high enough so that it rests on the floor but remains upright and ready for the dirty clothes to be tossed in.
Our ’04 Bounder 38N has a built in hamper. It did need a hold open prop to keep it open while unloading, which I added soon after we moved in.