Constant travel and not having a home base sometimes leaves me searching for home or a place that feels enough like home to stay for a while.
On long adventures away from home and familiarity, I used to be comforted by the smell of my fresh clothes and how they smelt like the soap my mum used, when I was a kid, that I continue to use to this day!
Now, when I’m away from friends and family in a new country, my clothes smell like all the places I’ve visited and have stains from various food tours or hikes that I never got around to soaking and scrubbing out.
Taking a day to do my laundry helps me feel grounded in a new town but also connected to normalcy. Somehow, the act of doing my washing is what makes me feel most at home, knowing that I still do it the same way my mum taught me all those years ago, even if it does smell a little different now.
Sitting in a laundromat is also an unexpected, yet interesting way to meet locals and have conversations with people you may never have come across during your everyday travel plans. In Portugal, I met a local woman who firstly showed me how to work the machine, and then we got to chatting. She owned a cafe down the road, and so I spent the afternoon people watching and enjoying a delicious feed at a place I never would have tried otherwise.
When I was in Japan, I spent the day in and out of the laundromat down from my hostel where a mix of locals and travellers were chatting about places to eat, drink and explore. It was here I heard about gardens not too far away and spent my afternoon getting lost amongst gorgeous trees, exploring shrines and stumbling across a little bakery that satisfied my sweet tooth on my walk back to the hostel.
My clothes may not smell like my childhood home anymore, but I will never take laundry days for granted, especially when I can take a load of washing to a family member’s place and use the same soap from my childhood.
When you find yourself on your next travel adventure and are looking to ground yourself or just connect back to home. Take a little time and do some laundry, you never know what you might discover when you take a moment to stop!