2019-09-27 - Without washing machine
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Besides without refrigerator, i also have lived without washing
machine for the last eight or so years. As i live alone, i do not
have a lot of laundry in the first place. And as i don't have a
really dirty dayjob, my laundry doesn't get very dirty anyway.
So i was wondering how easily it was possible to switch to hand
washing, and it turned out pretty easy. Furthermore it also turned
out that hand-washing these small quantities of clothes is pretty
satisfying work.
I sold my washing machine off to a student, who was really happy to
have a cheap washing machine. And i continued to wash my laundry
using something that has grown to be one of my most beloved, and
most versatile low-tech tools; A plastic bucket.
The 15 liter black plastic bucket i have was sold at a hardware
store, and is of the flexible kind of plastic, used also for these
building and construction tubs. Besides washing my clothes i use it
for a lot of other things;
- Collecting water from the canal nearby to water my plants,
- As a bin for gathering weeds and moss when removing these from
between the tiles of the garden.
- Holding water when cleaning windows and window frames
- Transporting sand
- Transporting hot soapy water to clean sanitary things like toilet
and bathroom
Anyhow, i think this bucket is one of my most-used items, and for
some years i also use it to wash laundry.
The washing process i use is very simple; Get some hot water in the
bucket. Add some detergent; I found the concentrated liquid
detergent to work the easiest, but you can also use powdered ones.
As most of my clothes have colour, i only ever use colour
detergent. Any white items are also washed with the colour
detergent. Discriminating by colour is never a good idea, also not
for laundry.
Plunk the clothes into the bucket (not too many at once of course),
do some scrubbing, rubbing and moving about, so the detergent can
do its job. Then take out the items, and squeeze/wring the water
out of each item individually. For doing this i ALWAYS wear rubber
(chemically resistant) gloves. Laundry detergent is pretty nasty
stuff and can really mess up your skin and give some ugly rashes
when being in contact with it occasionally. I found this out the
hard way. As my skin also shows allergic reactions when in contact
with different types of rubber gloves, i use cotton liner gloves to
prevent too much direct contact to the gloves themselves.
After the first washing step, the rinsing (and fabric softening)
step follows; Emtpy the bucket with the dirty detergent and fill
the bucket with fresh cold water for rinsing out the soap of the
clothes. Optionally you can add some fabric softener, or
alternatively a tiny bit of cleaning vinegar (i.e. diluted acetic
acid (8% or so)). Toss in the clothes into the bucket and make sure
to rinse them out properly. You don't want too much residue of
detergent to remain in your clothes as also this could give alergic
reactions.
After rinsing, again, wring out the clothes, and hang them out to
dry. On sunny days definitely hang them to dry outside, as it gives
a nice fresh feel to your clothes. But in winter, i'm quite ok with
drying them inside the house. The washing takes maybe 20 minutes
for a full set of clothes plus a couple of non-clothing items.
For bedding, full-on duvet covers are a bit large to clean, so for
bedding i'd recommend sleeping under simple flat single sided
sheets with an old-fashioned (or army style) woolen blanket on top
for warmth. The simple sheets can be washed easily. The wooden
blanket only gets steamed once or twice a year or so.
The simple sheets can also function as a mattress cover. So it
makes sense to rotate them, from up to down; First a sheet
functions as a sheet to sleep under (underneath the woolen blanket)
and after a week it moves down to sleep on (so as a mattress cover)
With 3 simple sheets and one woolen blanket, you can rotate for
fresh bedding very easily, while always having one sheet at hand
for replacing.
Overall, i don't miss a washing machine. As said, washing clothes
is quite nice work, and it is very satisfying to wash these small
amounts of laundry i have. I like how getting rid of the washing
machine has removed another 'black box' from my life. Having grown
up in western-world luxury, a washing machine was something i
always automatically assumed i needed.
It turns out, i don't need a washing machine in the way i am living
now. However, after doing all this washing only for myself, i
can really understand that for families - especially with kids - a
washing machine is a tremendeously useful device that saves up tons
of time for them.
