If you want to try ultralight traveling, one of the things you can cut down on is the amount of underwear and socks you pack. I know they don't take up much space, but when you are going ultralight, every little thing matters. 

Instead of the usual 5+ pairs that many people travel with, try traveling with just two pairs of underwear and socks. And that includes the pair you’ll wear while leaving home. Sounds hard? Here are some tips on how to pull it off. 

These tips also work if you generally want to reduce how many underwear and socks you pack. 

Get Ready to Do Some Laundry

The easiest hack for carrying less underwear and socks (and other clothes) is doing laundry during your trip. I know washing clothes in the sink or tub can be tedious, but smaller items like underwear are much easier to launder. 

Washing underwear and socks makes it easy to rotate between just two pairs. Every evening, wash what you wore that day and hang it up to dry. You can squeeze them in a towel to wring out as much water as possible to ensure they are dry by morning. 

Choose Quick Drying Fabrics 

For the laundry hack to work, it’s important that you buy quick drying underwear and socks. There’s nothing worse than having to wear damp underwear in the morning. It’s uncomfortable and can cause rashes, infections and other health problems. Damp socks can also cause infections on your feet as well as foot odor. 

The best and most comfortable quick drying fabric for travel underwear and socks is merino wool. Merino wool dries really quickly. By morning, whatever you washed should be dry as a bone. During the day, you can dry wool underwear in just a couple of hours in sunlight. 

In addition, woolen underwear and socks are sweat-wicking, they resist odors (you can sometimes repeat the same underwear without having to wash it - just air it), and they offer excellent thermoregulation. 

On the downside, wool underwear and socks are a bit pricey. For something cheaper that dries just as quickly, go for synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon. 

Synthetic underwear and socks are not the most comfortable and they tend to hold onto odors, but they dry super fast.  

Buy No-laundry Underwear and Socks

If the thought of doing laundry, even if it’s just a pair of socks, fills you with dread, there is a no-laundry alternative. 

You can get underwear and socks that are meant to be worn repeatedly and they stay clean and fresh. Hercleon’s Kribi underwear and HercSocks are great buys if you don't want to do any laundry at all. They have an antimicrobial treatment that kills odor and infection-causing bacteria. 

So you can wear them repeatedly and they won’t funk you up. But we still recommend airing them out overnight.  

Consider Disposable Underwear

Another no-laundry option is to buy disposable underwear. These are designed to be worn once or only a few times. 

To lighten your luggage even further, you can plan to buy disposable underwear when you get to your destination. 

Final Thoughts

Obviously, traveling with only two pairs of underwear and socks is an extreme measure that only makes sense for ultralight traveling. For most people it can be inconvenient having to wash underwear every evening and cycle between the same two pairs for days. 

Underwear and socks take up very little space and add minimal weight, so it’s usually okay to pack a few more pairs so that you have a pair for each day or you only wash them a couple of times. 

For short trips (under a week), you can pack enough underwear and socks for each day. For trips longer than a week, pack 5-7 pairs of underwear and socks, then do laundry once a week. 

Alternatively, get 2-3 pairs of the no-laundry Hercleon HercSocks and Kribi underwear and wear them throughout your trip without having to wash them (we still recommend airing them).