to be washed even after TEOTWAWKI. Prepare now!
Back in July, my husband and I bought a single wide trailer that
included all of the appliances. After a week of living in the trailer
the washer broke. I refused to get another one because I was sick of
buying modern appliances that broke 6 months later. I decided to wash
clothes by hand. My family thought I had lost my mind.
Here are the steps to wash clothes by hand. There are several
methods, this is just one:
1.) Buy three 6 gallon plastic buckets from Emergency Essentials (or
some other company like them.) My preference is to do 3 buckets at a
time. Other folks may want to only do one bucket.
2.) Buy Free and Clear Ultra Laundry Detergent (or some other
detergent like it). I buy mine at Costco's. It's cheap, it's perfume
free (no scent to give away your location!), it's relatively compact
so you can buy a bunch and not take up too much room, and it lasts
forever because it's HE (high efficiency) which means a little bit
goes a long ways,
3.) Buy a Lehman's rapid washer. (More on this topic later).
4.) Place all 3 plastic buckets into the tub, next to the lake, or
some other sources of water.
5.) Fill each bucket about 1/3 - 1/2 full with dirty laundry.
IMPORTANT: Pre-treat stains with something like Spray and Wash of
possible.
6.) Pour laundry detergent over laundry. Remember! A little bit goes
a long ways of it's HE! If you put too much detergent in then you'll
be rinsing forever. I suggest starting with about 3 - 4 tablespoons
per bucket of wash. Adjust if necessary.
7.) Fill each bucket with water to about 3 - 4 inches over the top of
clothes. If possible, wash light colored clothes in hot water and
dark colored clothes in cold water. If heating up water is not a
possibility then oh well.....move on. There are obviously bigger
issues to cope with.
8.) Take out plunger. Plunge each load of wash in each bucket 20
times vigorously.
9.) Pour out dirty water from each bucket. Wring out clothes loosely
to get out dirty water.
10.) Put clothes back into bucket.
11.) Refill each bucket with clean water. Plunge 20 times vigorously.
12.) Pour out dirty water. Wring clothes out loosely. Put clothes
back in bucket.
13.) Refill each bucket will clean water. Plunge 20 times vigorously.
Repeat this cycle until clothes are clean and free of suds. I have
found that one "wash" cycle and two "rinse" cycles do the trick.
14.) Dry off Lehman's metal plunger thoroughly and immediately.
(Again, more on this topic later.)
15.) Wring clothes by hand with everything ya' got. If it's the
summer time then dry clothes on a drying rack outside. If it's winter
time you can either dry clothes on the rack while the rack is standing
in the tub (major hassle) or throw them in the dryer (if electricity
is still available.)
16.) Dry out inside of buckets to cut down on possible mold and mildew.
So more on the Lehman's plunger issue........I found that the Lehman's
plunger rusted extremely quickly (approximately after one month) even
though I dried it off religiously. There are so many nooks and
crannies in the Lehman's plunger and they are virtually impossible to
get to. Overall, I love Lehman's as a company but I suspect that this
washer/plunger was meant for emergencies only - not daily use. I even
coated the Lehman's plunger with three hefty coats of clear Rustoleum.
It didn't help. My husband recently purchased a similar looking
plastic plunger from Emergency Essentials company (www.beprepared.com)
but I have not tried them yet.
Happy washing by hand!
Sincerely, Samantha in the Trailer Park
TOR here: First I want to thank everyone who contributed. It was really a hard decision! In the coming days I will put out the second and third place articles. Samantha, please send me your address so we can get a Go Berkey Kit sent to you.
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6 comments:
Great article.
Any reason to not use a regular (new) toilet plunger instead of the metal one? Does the black rubber get on the clothes, or do you just need something stiffer, thus the metal or plunger?
I lived in a house with no electricity and no running water in the 1980s. Water came from a community pump about 1/4 mile up the road. I used a similar method, but I just used a toilet plunger. Worked just fine. I had to replace the 1.99 plunger about once every 4 months.
Six years ago I was living in a tent and my only resource for washing clothes was a stream. Rinsing was a BREEZE compared to the bucket method! I ran a line of para-cord from one side of the stream to another, kinda low. I would wade in, pin my clothes (already washed) to the line and let the stream--which was fast running--rinse them for about an hour--TA-DA! Laundry rinsed. Wring them out and hang them up! Oh...and I used safety pins to pin the clothes to the rinse line. Clothes pins have a tendency to let go under the forces of rapidly running water. Found that out the hard way, lol!
My wife used to hang clothes on the line outside to dry in Winter. She would then finish drying them inside on a rack. No mess from drips then.
I really don't know how cold it would have to be to not be able to do this though. It's been a long time since we had to do laundry by hand.
Be warned: if you are not used to wringing wet clothes by hand you will get a blister on the webbing between the thumb and first finger, a terrible place for a busy person.
Really dirty jeans should be soaked overnight.
Don't get the black plungers with the rubber folded up inside or you will splash water everywhere when finished. And get a red plunger that screws on or the plunger bit will get pulled off before the job is done.
btdt with 4 kids - learn to have working/play clothes that are okay to wear dirty and good/everyday clothes that are not allowed to get dirty both adults & kids. Ever look at old photos of dairy workers - the men had large *aprons* they wore to keep their clothes clean.
In the Army we used a heavy duty water proof bag, A little soap, Water and clothes close tightly and just let soak for a bit then beat it up. i.e punch and knead it. Same for rinsing.
I still use my washer but I have not used a dryer for a couple years. Here are a couple tips if you are using a clothes drying rack. One find a way to spin out your clothes as much as possible. The make clothes spinners that work with or with out electricity. If you can not rig up some type of spinner then wring them out as much as possible by hand then use a big shammy if you have one or a really absorbant towel and wring your clothes in that. For some reason it is much faster to dry two partially wet items than one really wet item. Hope this helps anyone who wants to go with out a dryer.
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