Laundry in Mexico

In numerous Mexican households, the presence of a dryer machine for laundry is often seen as a luxury, while simply owning a washing machine is deemed fortunate.

But I’ve met many affluent Mexicans who prefer their clothes to be line-dried. They last longer (all of your lint isn’t being sucked out of your clothes in the dryer), it uses less energy…and well…I don’t know why else they prefer it.

Yes, your clothes ARE stiffer. Yes, it is more work to hang it out to dry and pull them down.

However, it IS much cheaper (because dryers here use a combination of both electricity and propane gas!).

For some people who prefer that someone else does their dirty work for them…there are always LAVANDERIAS.

Laundromats!  Unlike the US, you cannot walk into most Mexican laundromats and expect to be able to put your own clothes in a washer and dryer, while you hang out all day reading a book.

Instead, when you arrive at a lavanderia, they immediately weigh your clothes and charge you a fee per kilo. For anywhere from $10-$15 pesos per kilo (2.2 pounds) someone else will wash, dry, and fold your clothes.  It’s particularly convenient while traveling…you drop off your clothes, and pick them up later that night, or the next day!

As I’ve mentioned, we cloth diaper our baby while traveling through Mexico. We prefer to keep the soiled diapers in a trash bag in the back of the van (double-layered). We’ve used wet bags before, that are supposed to hold in the stink and the moisture…but in a small space like a vehicle, plastic admittedly does better!  Next, we deliver those stinky babies to the lavanderia weighing station. Diapers weigh more than most clothes, because they are not exactly dry! I always instruct them to wash them twice, and go ahead and dry the load. Stinky diapers+lavanderia=clean, cheap diapers!

Their detergents smell wonderful…it is always (literally) a breath of fresh air to open up one of these laundry packages!