Ever been daydreaming about lounging around on a tropical beach while the sea laps at your feet and your sunkissed skin soaks in the last rays of the day’s sunshine? Yeah, us too… but when you’re actually there you might find it is quite different.
You might have super stinky pits, sweat-stained (ex)white tees and a travel rash that just won’t go away. Here’s a few tips the BackHackers team have put together to help you combat some cleaning and hygiene faux pars to make sure your travel days are spent purely lapping up the experience!
Cleaning
To keep away those yellowing pits on your favourite white tee – soak the fabric in some milk. You’ll be blinding people with your whiteness!
If you’ve had a little accident and spilt a big saucy dish all down you, apply some baby powder. This will soak up the little mess you’ve made.
Lemon juice is a great bleaching agent – for whitening or if you fancy a change of colour for an item of clothing. For any area you’d like to bleach, simply apply the lemon juice and leave in the sun until you reach your desired bleached shade.
Add white vinegar to your wash to help get pesky stains out! This also applies to hand washing!
It happens to the best of us…enjoying some wonderful wine when BAM all of a sudden you are wearing it. Soak the wine stain up with some salt – it will stop the wine from staining!
Baking soda will help get those manky travel stains out. Soak your clothes in some baking-soda’d water and you’ll get great results. Remember that some of these things won’t always make your clothes smell great so make sure you’re using a fragranced powder/gel as well. Of course if times are tough and this isn’t possible, whack in a bit of hand soap to freshen things up a bit.
Hygiene
Got an ugly zit? That won’t do for your travel pics! Apply some toothpaste and dry the nasty head out.
Toothpaste is also a great soother for mosquito and insect bites. It forms a layer over the skin so also acts as a protective agent and stops you scratching your skin off in the night!
Lemons are amazing. You can squeeze the juice into your hair and let the sun give you some lovely travelling highlights AND it’s a great mosquito bite relief.
Aloe vera (whether in bottle or natural plant form) helps loads with mosquito bites and it the best thing for epic sunburn. If you have access to a fridge, whack it in there before application for extra soothy-ness.
Baking soda is another mosquito or insect bite relief. Just rub a little on the affected area and you’ll be at ease.