An ode to Scrubba: My most beloved, yet underrated, piece of travel gear (2024)

Hate doing travel laundry and smelling like a backpacker’s armpit as you board your third overnight bus of the week? Allow columnist Sarah Reid to introduce you to her favorite travel item of all time: The humble Scrubba.

There are a couple of items of travel gear that have made my career as a travel writer infinitely easier. The humble travel scale has helped me evade the carry-on baggage police from Melbourne to Mallorca. And a handy water filter bottle has given me the freedom to ditch single-use plastic water bottles for good. But if there’s one piece of travel gear I refuse to stop gushing about (and to be clear, I do not receive an incentive to do so), it’s the Scrubba.

Redefining a suitably grubby Australian slang term (I’ll leave you to Google it) for the modern traveler, the Scrubba wash bag is touted as the world’s smallest and lightest washing machine, weighing in at just 5.3 oz (150g).

Essentially, it’s a dry bag featuring a flexible inner washboard and an air release valve. One simply dumps dirty clothes into it (a standard ‘load’ is two t-shirts, two pairs of socks and two pairs of underwear), adds water and cleaning liquid (ideally biodegradable, especially if you’re washing in the wild), closes the bag and deflates. Then you just rub your clothes against the internal washboard for up to three minutes, rinse, and hang to dry (Scrubba also makes an elastic clothesline). While the result is not quite as effective as a regular washing machine cycle, I’d argue that it’s close enough.

I first used the Scrubba on a multi-month Africa overland adventure with Intrepid, and it was an absolute game-changer. Every time we pulled into a bush camp with enough time to get some washing done, I’d smash out a load and kick back with a beer while my fellow budget-conscious tour mates were still wearing away their knuckles rubbing their knickers together in a dirty sink. That was six years ago, and I’ve never handed over my laundry to a laundromat or hotel since, except for one regretful incident during a rainy week in Kosovo, when every item of clothing came back from the hotel laundry a different color.

That’s the main drawback of the Scrubba—you still need enough sun, or time, for your clothes to dry before you carry on with your trip. But personally, it’s worth it to avoid exorbitant hotel laundry costs, and the stress of wondering when (and if) all your clothing will be returned. I still mourn several items long lost to the laundries of South America…

I’m still using my original neon green Scrubba wash bag (which has a transparent window to monitor water levels), but the folks at Scrubba have since launched the Scrubba Untouched, an undyed and unbleached version that requires less product and energy during manufacturing. There’s also a special wash bag for delicates, and a ‘tactical’ wash bag with a larger air valve. But all of the Scrubba wash bags use far less water than a traditional washing machine, which is great news in an era of water scarcity.

I like to support travel brands committed to limiting their negative impact and giving back. In 2022, Scrubba’s parent company, Calibre8, partnered with 1% for the Planet, committing to donate one percent of its total revenue each year to environmental causes. Scrubba has also partnered with the on-profit charity: water to run water-access projects in Bangladesh and Ethiopia.

But my favorite thing about the Scrubba is that it’s an affordable investment (USD$55) that works. And when you don’t need to do laundry, you can use it as a dry bag. Ding ding ding.

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