I am the Queen of Overpacking. There is always a way to justify one more outfit and a couple spare sets of underwear.
OK, I’ll admit I’m weird that way, but if I were to hand-wash my dirty underwear, that means I would have to put my hands on my dirty underwear, and the only time I do that is to take my dirty underwear off and put in the plastic bag that I carry all the way back to my point of origin, at which point I dump them into the washing machine. So nix on the hand-washing then. No one said it had to make sense.
So, anyway, if I run out on the road, it’s off to the nearest shop to buy some more. So far, fortunately, I haven’t run out of clean underwear in northern Tibet, or someplace else where that option may be limited.
Underwear takes up such little room I always pack double what I need just in case but I usually only pack enough regular clothes for a few days and do laundry, so I would wash or as a last resort buy more. I buy packaged underwear and will only buy it if it’s still sealed.
Most of the extended travel I do is to visit my mom or other family, so it’s not difficult at all to find laundry facilities.
Voted other, because there was no
???
Profit!
option.
I do this when travelling anyway - only take a few pairs regardless of length of trip. I wash it in the shower in the morning and hang it up to dry.
laundry
I always pack more underwear than I think I’ll need. If I ran out I’d just wash them in the sink. Whether I would need to wash all my clothes would depend on the weather and the clothes.
I always pack double the underwear I need, too. As others have said, it takes up such little room. I don’t overpack and can pack quite efficiently, but I see nothing particularly admirable in underpacking, either.
But I’d probably buy some more. I do know how to handwash my own undies, and have done it in the past, but I don’t like doing it, and you can never have too many undies.
Yeah, I’d just wear them again or go without. I’m not sure what the big deal is about wearing a pair of underwear for two days. Are you supposed to suffer jungle rot? Or do stink lines follow you around like a cartoon skunk?
Probably my suggestion, and I voted “other” here so I could elaborate with that suggestion <creepy voice> for the lay-dies. </creepy voice>
Guys might be able to get away with it. Girls generally can’t.
I travel with small packettes of laundry detergent I get from minimus. I can and will do laundry. You can hang the undies all over the room until they dry. I use microfiber undies that air dry fast.
I call band name rights on the thread title.
Because of the jungle rot or the cartoon stink lines?
Assuming I’m not visiting a private home (relatives or friends), I’d just buy more. I wouldn’t go to a laundromat in a strange town, and laundering in a hotel sink leaves the problem of clothes not drying quickly enough plus drying “hard” when they do dry.
This has happened to me before under many different circumstances, and laundering them has always been the easiest/most effective solution. Between a host’s house, laundromats, hotel laundry service, and (if you’re in Europe) the ol’ bidet + shampoo + towel rack method, you have lots of options.
Heh. Cartoon stink lines all the way!
I was thinking about this thread this morning, don’t ask why. It’s not that I haven’t done it before, when I was younger, or even gone without - it’s not like some horribly gross stuff happens. I have just gotten a lot more fastidious as I have grown older.
Also, I just hate handwashing clothes, if only because I had to do it often in India, and it just seems so peasant. 
Yes, I am being all snooty and shit.
I always pack more underwear than I need, because depending on what I’m doing, sometimes I change every day and sometimes I change every two or three days. There’s been days I’ve changed twice a day.
If I absolutely ran out? I’d wash them or do without.
Unless it’s been a really sweaty day, I would rather re-wear dirty underwear than put on new ones that haven’t been washed yet.