Off-Grid Prep: Washing Clothes

It's possible my fascination with off-grid living began with a washing machine.  The washing machine at my apartment complex to be exact.  The one that keeps eating my quarters.  It's a small thing-- a dollar here, seventy-five cents there-- but it was enough to lead me to this website: http://www.off-grid.net/2010/04/22/diy-washing-machine-and-homemade-laundry-soap/

Inspired, I vowed to one-day wash my own clothes by hand and avoid ever losing any more quarters to an unnecessary washing machine.  This week, I finally washed some clothes by hand.

A bit of background.  Apparently, what the lady on the first website made a modern-day equivalent to what was refered to as a dolly tub and dolly stick. *Shrug.*  Seemed like a good idea to me.

Unfortunately, I did a lot of this on a budget.  I still haven't been working.  At this rate, I could get a job doing anything at all and earn more money than I'm earning at present.  I've been looking into job options.  This sitting at home doing very little, with no money to do it with is getting on my nerves.  I feel like a sponge.  I feel like I'm not pulling my own weight.  I've been assured otherwise, but...

So, I bought a plunger, and filled the bathtub with dirty clothes (mine, so if this went wrong my fiance's work clothes wouldn't be ruined) and warm water.  I didn't have anything to poke holes in the plunger with, but that didn't cause any problems.  In fact, everything went very well.

I used store-bought washing detergent because I still haven't gotten together the ingredients to make my own.  I didn't use much of it-- partially because I think they try to get people to use way more detergent than they really need, partially because I didn't want super-sudsy clothes if this went wrong.

I had that "learning" sensation I get when attempting something completely foreign as I began.  I kept worrying that maybe I wasn't doing this right, even though I logically I knew I couldn't screw it up to badly.  It was clothes.  Secondhand jeans, some underthings and a few hoodie sweatshirts.  Nothing I can't live without.  It was still a very weird experience.

And fun.  At least the plunging part was.  I tried to sprinkle the soap evenly across the entire bathtub, then I started plunging everything.  I was trying to get soapy water into everything so I did a rather excessive amount of stirring and plunging.  In the future I don't think I'll have to plunger my clothes quite that much.  And at the same time, that was the fun part.  The water turned brown, which surprised me because I didn't think anything I did with them was that dirty.

Anyway, after draining out that water to the best of my ability and pouring in fresh water to rinse it with, I started wringing out my clothes.  This was the part I now realize I should have done more research on.  I'm reasonably strong, more or less.  I can climb a metal pole and suspend my body in midair for several seconds at a time with nothing but my hands ot hold me in place.  Let me tell you, though, wringing out wet clothes by hand is a chore.  It's kind of like picking up an unweildy medicine ball and trying to squeeze its insides out.

Drying the clothes after that inexpert wringing was rather difficult as well.  We aren't allowed to hang our clothes to dry at this apartment complex, so I had to run them through the dryer twice.

This means I've revised my wish list to include brand new mop bucket with its own wringer.  (The woman whose article originally inspired me on this venture wanted the same thing.)  So, that's my goal.  Which I can't afford yet because I have no money.

So, that's my first adventure washing clothes the way my great grandparents did.  It wasn't an absolute success, but I think next time I try it'll go a lot smoother.