How to: Wash your clothes in rural Cambodia

This post is dedicated to Charlotte, who has a washing machine in her host home and wouldn’t wash my clothes for me.

Washing your clothes in rural Cambodia isn’t too much of a task in itself but add 35+ degree heat and a bit of elbow grease, you sure wish you had a washing machine!

You start buy buying some scented washing powder, this costs 1000 Ria (khmer currency) which Is equivalent to around 20p; we‘re lucky our host families own a shop although some volunteers have this in their house already.

Outside, there’s two different sized bowls - the bigger one for water and the smaller one for the soap.

However “clean” this may look, we’ve seen it being emptied... it’s mouldy green. So, in light of that, I guess I never really ”clean” my clothes!

There’s a little scoop which you use to fill up the bowls, but you can also use this scoop if you want to bucket shower.

Washing powder goes in, give it a swirl... you know the drill. Sometimes I pretend I’m making a bubble bath... anything to remind me of home.

This is where the elbow grease comes in; after kneading the piece of clothing of your choice for a while in the soap, you’re given a little bristled brush. You need to stretch out the shirt with your left hand and with a rough right hand, violently drag the brush down the ”clothing of your choice“ until the water turns brown.

Squeeze out the soap and pop it into the bowl of clear water. Give this a little beating until all the soap has come out of the clothes.

You never know how dirty you are until you wash your clothes, you’ll need to change the water often (This was from a pair of trousers).

As my lovely housemates pose for this photo, you can see that I have successfully hung up my washing, feeling like a proper adult now.

You have to hang your underwear inside your clothes so that nobody can see them, which also means they take forever to dry. These clothes will be clean until I wear them again and soak them with sweat.... lovely.

Hope you enjoyed this little post.

Lea hi!