When I first sat down to write this, I was thinking about hand towels.
Specifically, the ones from my childhood.
My parents owned a hair shop and chose to wash all the shop towels at home. As a small child, it felt like a nightly ritual. The dryer would buzz, and out came load after load of warm towels. We would sit together and fold each one carefully, stacking them just right so the piles wouldn’t tip over. Four neat stacks went into large white laundry bags, ready to return to the shop the next day.
Nearly a hundred towels at a time. Sometimes more.
It’s funny how those small, repetitive moments stay with you.
Laundry: The RV Decision No One Talks About Enough
When you full-time RV—or even travel for weeks at a time—there are countless decisions to make before purchasing your rig. Floor plan. Storage. Towing capacity.
And then there’s laundry.
Laundry may not be glamorous, but it can completely shape your camping experience.
Before you hit the road, you have to decide:
- Can you carry enough clothes for the entire trip?
- Will you rely on campground laundry rooms?
- Are laundromats part of the plan?
- Or do you invest in an onboard washer and dryer?
Each choice comes with trade-offs.
The Weight of Wardrobes
Clothes are heavy. They take up space. And when you full-time, you’re not just packing for one season.
In our rig, we can’t store every piece of clothing in closets and drawers year-round. Off-season clothes get packed and tucked into other storage spaces. The weight is still there—but for us, it’s manageable.
On average, we can carry about 10 days to two weeks’ worth of clothing comfortably. For shorter trips, that works perfectly. You come home and do laundry like normal.
But for longer stays? Laundry becomes inevitable.
Campground Laundry: The Waiting Game
Most campgrounds offer laundry facilities. Depending on the size of the campground, there may be one washer and dryer—or several sets.
In theory, they try to match demand.
In reality? There are almost never enough machines.
When you travel, your days are often full of exploring. Many working campers are gone during the day. That leaves evenings as prime laundry time. Which means:
- Waiting for machines
- Waiting for someone who forgot their load
- Waiting for a machine that’s out of order
If you’re lucky enough to grab a machine, you’ve now committed the next two hours to managing laundry outside your home.
Laundromats: More Machines, More Disruption
Laundromats typically have plenty of machines. That part is nice.
But now you’re packing everything up, driving into town, unloading, waiting, reloading, and driving back.
It takes more time. More effort. And it pulls you out of the camping environment. Suddenly, your adventure feels like an errand day.
The Onboard Washer/Dryer Surprise
We originally ordered a stackable washer and dryer set for our rig. It turns out they wouldn’t fit—and we ended up with a combo washer/dryer instead.
At first, we weren’t sure about it.
It took us a couple of months to figure out the rhythm. Initially, we would wash, wait, then manually switch to dry, and wait again.
Then we discovered the magic: one continuous wash-and-dry cycle.
Set it. Forget it.
We use the lightly soiled setting (we’re not usually rolling in mud), and set the dryer for about an hour and a half. Two hours later, the load is done.
It takes less than five minutes to start a load. No waiting for machines. No driving anywhere. No rearranging your day.
We’re free to roam.
Small Loads, Small Victories
The trade-off, of course, is capacity. Loads are smaller.
We typically wash a load or two every day or so. If we’re nearby when it finishes, we put everything away immediately. Done in minutes.
Small loads almost feel… manageable. Seven or eight clothing items to fold isn’t overwhelming.
But then there are the white loads. Fifteen to twenty towels. And every time I fold those hand towels, I’m transported right back to those childhood evenings—carefully stacking piles from the hair shop.
Some things never change.
Choose Early, Choose Wisely
Laundry might seem like a minor detail when choosing a camper, but it isn’t.
Adding a washer and dryer may mean:
- A slightly larger rig
- A different floor plan
- Or even a different style of camper
Smaller campers often don’t have space for machines. And that’s okay—if you’ve thought it through.
There’s no right or wrong choice. Only what fits your lifestyle.
But make the decision early. Choose your battles before you’re on the road. Because once you’re living it, laundry becomes part of your rhythm—whether you’re stacking towels in a campground laundry room or pressing “start” in your own rolling home.
And no matter where you are, those hand towels will probably still need folding.