Living in an RV full-time presents many challenges, and laundry can be one of them depending on your budget and needs. While leaving the house behind and living on the road generally reduces your household chores and frees up more time to do the things you enjoy, doing laundry may be an exception.

We personally have three kids with us on the road, so doing laundry is a bit bigger than most, but many of our friends on the road have families bigger than us. Either way, it can be done frugally or with a bit of flair; it really comes down to your budget.

Here are some options when it comes to laundry on the go:

Do you have money to burn?

Superb washer/dryer combo

If money is not an issue, or you just like convenience, and your team has the necessary facilities, then you can opt for a Splendide washer/dryer combo or a Haier washer/dryer combo. These units fit nicely into the allotted space in most RVs and are widely used by many nomads. These units will wash and dry your clothes without manual intervention, but the average size of your load is reduced due to their limited capacity. They may be a bit prohibitively expensive, but their ease of use and convenience can make up for that initial investment. With the continued rise of full-time RVs, I think we’ll see more options in this price range in the coming years and their efficiency and price will likely improve.

Do you have some budget to do laundry?

If you have some budget to apply to laundry but not an endless amount, then this section is for you. There are many options available for the budget-minded RV who has a little money to spend.

First of all, you can save yourself the headache of not having any equipment and doing your laundry at the facilities provided by the camp. They’re usually $4-6 a load, but we’ve seen them offered for less. In addition to not having the expense of equipment, the units tend to be more industrial-sized, so loads can be larger on average to get more bang for your buck. We have found that most of the machines are in good condition and get the job done efficiently. Be careful though, larger industrial dryers get very hot and can damage certain types of clothes.

If you have a little money to spend but don’t want to spend your time at the camp laundry, you can start looking for alternatives that make manual laundry easier without having to spend one of the large combo units mentioned above. . These units are compact, inexpensive, and have above-average consumer reviews.

Panda Washing Machine

There are options when it comes to these compact units, but I’ll focus on one particular set that seems to get the best feedback from consumers. If you haven’t noticed, I love reviews. If others like a product, then there is a good chance that I will like it too.

First is the compact washing machine. The Panda mini washing machine is a relatively inexpensive option and consumer reviews show that this machine handles both light and heavy loads well. The loads are much smaller than you would run on a standard size machine, but this unit will pay for itself over the course of a few months.

Centrifugal drying of clothes

To get the most out of your new compact mini washer, you may want to pair it with a compact dryer. Spin dryers are not necessarily a new product, but certainly one that not many people have discovered. With a good spin dryer, your clothes will be 90-95% dry without heat. Here is the best rated spin dryer on Amazon. This product will not cost you too much and is efficient, effective and easy to use.

Do you need absolute frugality?

Are you saving pennies? Many of us are and we need frugal solutions for daily expenses, and laundry is one of them. If you are doing 3 loads of laundry a week then you are spending an average of $60/month if you use the camp facilities. In a single month the following teams will have paid for themselves.

wonderful wash

From the same company that makes the aforementioned spin dryer comes WonderWash. My family has personally had a WonderWash for a year now and it really does an excellent job. This unit is simple, effective and very affordable. WonderWash is a manual unit and requires approximately three minutes of startup for each load and several minutes of soaking. One caveat with this unit is that it does not wring out clothes. One must manually drain them by hand.

To keep the theme frugal, there are a variety of ways to design a clothesline on your RV site. It can be as simple as a rope tied from the ladder of the RV to a tree, an expandable clothesline, or a homemade PVC clothesline that attaches to the back of the unit.

You can choose one of the methods mentioned here for your wash solution, or possibly a hybrid solution by mixing it up a bit. Whichever method you choose to do your laundry while living full-time in an RV, just remember one thing…it’s always going to be a chore.