I tried the tiny bag that claims to clean your clothes in 3 minutes (2024)

I've now been using the bag almost weekly for an entire month.The verdict? It's great for small loads of wash, but I'm not convinced it's worth the $50 unless you're someone who camps or travels a lot.

Before we get into how my experience with the Scrubba went, let's talk about how it works. It's a portable washing system that folds up to be compact and uses very little water. It's perfect for traveling or camping, two situations where you want to pack as lightly as possible, and it's super easy to use.

Essentially, you add your dirty clothes, water, and detergent, then you fold up the bag, clip it closed, and release the excess air. After that, you're ready to scrub for around three minutes, or until clothes are clean. It retails for $50 on Amazon.

The one thing I knew I would use the Scrubba for were socks. I wear sneakers a lot, even in the summer, so I go through a lot of socks each week and I'm not about to pay $4 just to do a full load of wash for only socks. So I broke out my Scrubba wash bag and got to cleaning.

I filled it up with dirty socks, some warm water, and a dash of liquid laundry detergent. Then I started scrubbing — the bag has small nubs inside, designed to provide the best wash possible like a modern wash board.

The most challenging part of doing my laundry in a bag was figuring out where to put the clothes afterwards so that they could dry. I decided the best method was to spread outa towel and to laymy many, many sockson top of it to dry out, but this took a day or so to dry completely and also took up a lot of space — a downside to doing laundry without any machines. I think in the future, I would probably shell out money for a drying rack instead.

Even though drying them turned out to bea bust, the socks were all thoroughly clean and smelled faintly of detergent after a three minute scrub down and a rinse in some clean water.

The bag itself didn't leak at all, but I had a little trouble with water creeping up to the folded top and making its way out of the bag onto my floor while I was using it. It wasn't a ton of water, but enough to be an inconvenience, so I'd suggest using the bag outside like while camping, or in a bathroom or kitchen that has tiled flooring.

I used it to clean my gym clothes about once a week in addition to any extra items I wanted clean, like my socks or a t-shirt I wanted to wear. But sweaty gym clothes were one thing I consistently cleaned because theyneed to be washed after every wear. The Scrubba bag was perfect for just that. It fit almost exactly one gym outfit — either a pair of shorts and a t-shirt or some leggings and a tank top — but it probably couldn'tfit much more than that.

It also took a few tries to get the right amount of water figured out. The lines on the side of the bag are a little unclear — was this line for clothes or for water, or for both? The design of the bag made it a littledifficult to figure out the amountclothesand water users should be adding, not to mention soap or detergent.

All in all, it was useful for washing a few items at a time that I didn't need right away. It provided a good alternative to using a washing machine, and if you were a camper or a traveler who needed clothes right away, spending 3-5 minutes washing them in the Scrubba bag seems worthwhile to me.

Butfor me at least, while I'd want to use the bag again while I'm traveling, I'm not convinced I'll be pulling it out to wash my socks or gym clothes between laundry cycles anytime in the near future. Not unless I'm really desperate.