Just call me Ranchy Pants
November 11, 2011 7:13 PM   Subscribe

I am traveling, and a waitress just dropped an entire tub of ranch dressing onto my jeans. I am staying in a hotel, I do not have a car, and I do not have easy access to a store. Is there any reason I should hesitate to wash my pants with the bar of hand soap in my hotel room?
posted by wondercow to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (22 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
It would help to know what kind of pants!
posted by two lights above the sea at 7:13 PM on November 11, 2011


Response by poster: Blue jeans
posted by wondercow at 7:14 PM on November 11, 2011


Best answer: If you need soap at all, I'd suggest a small amount of hotel shampoo.

Also, don't get the whole jeans wet, just the spot that got dressing on it because it will take forever to dry but a small spot can be dried with a hair dryer.
posted by birdherder at 7:15 PM on November 11, 2011 [2 favorites]


The only reason is that it's unlikely that they'll dry overnight.

You might call the front desk and ask them if they can help you out somehow - they might have laundry onsite maybe?
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:15 PM on November 11, 2011


Will the restaurant help you out with this? I think they should.
posted by puddinghead at 7:17 PM on November 11, 2011 [5 favorites]


If the hotel has laundry facilities, that would be my first choice. Spot-treating with soap would be my second choice, and I would rinse with water/blot thoroughly with a towel to insure drying by morning.

Untreated ranch dressing on pants would not be an option.
posted by macska at 7:20 PM on November 11, 2011 [2 favorites]


The only reason is that it's unlikely that they'll dry overnight.

I bet the front desk has a hair dryer they can loan you.

But having said that, my first move in this situation is to put $20 in the hand you use to shake that of the Concierge, while you explain the situation. A concierge is a fixer.
posted by mhoye at 7:20 PM on November 11, 2011


Response by poster: Wow, super fast responses, thanks! I'm going to be here a number of days (please don't rob me), so I don't mind if the pants are damp--I can wear other pants in the meantime. My primary worry was that bar soap might damage the pants in some way, since people don't normally (to my knowledge) wash clothes with bar soap. Do I have anything to fear there?

In wondercow-ought-to-be-more-assertive news, I left the restaurant already with only an apology from the server. They probably should have made good on this, but that's water over the bridge already.
posted by wondercow at 7:23 PM on November 11, 2011


Best answer: I spot-wash my clothes all the time with bathroom soap, to no noticeable negative effect. Way easier than washing the shirt I want to wear when I am already wearing it and have to go go go in five minutes.
posted by hepta at 7:24 PM on November 11, 2011 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I wash underwear with hand soap and dry it with a hair dryer if I know I won't have time to get to the laundry. Should be fine for your jeans. My bigger concern would be having damp jeans hanging around for a few days. Could get stinky.
posted by sweetkid at 7:27 PM on November 11, 2011


Best answer: I spent quite a few months on the road last year and hand-washed in hotel sinks all the way. Hand soap should work ok. Start the drying process by rolling the jeans up in a towel and standing on it. Then hang the jeans in front of an a/c outlet or heater. Hair driers or irons help if you're short on time.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 7:28 PM on November 11, 2011


Response by poster: A concierge is a fixer.

Haha, I think you overestimate the La Quinta Inn, sir or madam.
posted by wondercow at 7:28 PM on November 11, 2011 [32 favorites]


A LaQuinta's even better, no palmed $20 necessary! The cheaper chain motel sorts of places are usually really kind about helping you out of binds, since the franchise locations are generally family-owned (read: they have more empathy than a large corporation). Just ask them. They may even let you toss the pair in their laundry machine for free. Or even give you a scoop of laundry detergent to use in your room.

I barfed all over myself once on a family trip, and the motel comped us a laundry run and gave us a (clean, new) scrubby sponge to help clean the chum off my shoes. They ought to help you out. Just ask.
posted by phunniemee at 7:36 PM on November 11, 2011


The beauty of jeans is that they're incredibly hard to destroy -- unlike, say, a silk shirt. I think prospectors during the Gold Rush washed them just with rocks in a stream.

I bet the LaQuinta might even have a washer/dryer...
posted by Countess Sandwich at 7:37 PM on November 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


Hotels in all price ranges often have coin machines somewhere in the building - ask at the front desk if you'd like to just throw them in a washer instead of the sink (but that will work just fine, by the way).
posted by echo0720 at 7:47 PM on November 11, 2011 [2 favorites]


The only reason to wash clothes in the sink is to save money. Not a bad reason, but that works best for clothes that are easy to hand wash and hang dry quickly. Jeans don't, really.

Most hotels in NA will have a laundry price list clipped to a pick-up bag in the closet. One usually has to call the front desk to get it done, but I've had clothes back within a day in every case I've used it. As echo0720 says, many will also have a laundromat on site or know where a close one is, particularly a family hotel. The concierge or the front desk will be able (and typically happy) to answer questions. This isn't unusual or a bother for them.
posted by bonehead at 8:09 PM on November 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


If you do end-up having to hand wash, here's one of the best travel tricks I know: wring the garment out until you can't squeeze out any more water. For jeans, this will still be quite wet. Lay the pants out on a towel. Roll up the jeans and the towel into a jelly roll. Put the rolled-up towel on the tile bathroom floor or in the tub and step on it with bare feet for a couple of minutes.

For something heavy like jeans, you might want to do a couple of rolls, but this dries clothes much more quickly than just wringing them out then hanging to dry. When you're done, the clothes wll be slightly damp, and will hang dry much more quickly. Ironing them will help too (look in your closet).
posted by bonehead at 8:16 PM on November 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


I'm with Countess Sandwich and echo0720 that there's a strong possibility that LaQuinta has a Laundry Room somewhere. I was doing a lot of work travel for 1-2 weeks and staying at that class of hotel and pretty much all of them had a room with coin operated washers and dryers. They will either have coin operated machines that dispense powdered laundry detergent or they will sell it at the front desk. They will also provide change. If they don't have a laundry room for public use, or even if they do, they will most likely offer some sort of cleaning service (if they do there will be a plastic bag in your closet that says laundry and there should be an accompanying sheet with instructions and fees for various items).

Otherwise I don't think that you're going to do your jeans any harm washing them with hand soap in the sink; it's just going to be a pain in the ass and you might not be able to tell if you've gotten the stain out completely once the spot is wet. However, even though it's a pain, it is worth spot treating the stain since dressing is usually oily and might cause a stain (even on jeans) if you allow it to set. Travel tip: I always carry a travel sized bottle of Dr. Brommers liquid soap to use as shower gel, but I can also use if for some hand washing stained items.
posted by kaybdc at 8:18 PM on November 11, 2011


rolling the jeans up in a towel and standing on it

This works great but I want to elaborate a bit: lay a towel out flat and put the wet clothing flat on the towel. Then roll then the wet clothing and towel up together so that they are in intimate contact. I've usually followed this up with wringing the roll, but it seems that standing on the roll would work as well.
posted by exogenous at 8:24 PM on November 11, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks for all the advice! The closet does indeed have a laundry bag with price list ($7 to wash a pair of pants?! What am I, the king of England?) but I opted for the cheap route and washed the spot in the sink. The towel rolling trick + ironing seems to have gotten them mostly dry--thanks for the tips there. I would probably still be running the hair dryer on them 30 minutes later if left to my own devices.

The jeans no longer smell like ranch upon intimate sniffing--now they have the nondenominational citrus smell of the soap.

Many thanks!
posted by wondercow at 8:41 PM on November 11, 2011


The hotel directory binder will usually list where the guest laundry is if they have it.
posted by brujita at 8:49 PM on November 11, 2011


wondercow writes "My primary worry was that bar soap might damage the pants in some way, since people don't normally (to my knowledge) wash clothes with bar soap. Do I have anything to fear there?"

Back in the non-automatic washing machine days (IE: Wringer washers) it was common to shave a few flakes of soap off the same bar of Ivory or Sunlight (the first packaged general purpose soap) that you used to wash yourself. Motel soap is unlikely to have anything in it that could stain fabric because it would stain towels and wash clothes. Bar soap will work best when used in conjunction with the hottest water you can stand.
posted by Mitheral at 1:49 AM on November 12, 2011


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