# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > General Homesteading >  Hand wash your clothes

## chiltonmj7

I save $20 a month by hand washing my clothes.  For those of you who live in an apartment, you can buy a couple of tubs from Walmart, one for washing and one for rinsing (you need two so you don't waste your wash water by having to pour out your soap to rinse).  Buy another STRONG shower curtain rod to place across the center of your bathtub for drip drying clothes.  I also suggest you get into the habit of doing a little daily, rather than try and do it all at one time, or it can get overwhelming.  I suggest you wash that days clothes today when you are done with them.  God bless!  : )

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## Rick

Oh, no, no, no, no. If God had wanted me to hand wash clothes he would not have given us the washing machine and dryer. Gifts for which I am truly grateful. 

Why not launder your way over to the Introductions section and tell us a bit about yourself?

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## 1stimestar

Yea, one of the two things I really miss living in a dry cabin is a washer and dryer.  (The other is a tub of hot bubbly water when my muscles are sore.)  I have thought about getting a counter top wringer and doing it at home, but that would just be too much water to haul, especially with kids, one of whom is a "pretty little princess".

Edited to add, I have no tub to hang them over and have you ever tried to get deisel out of work clothes, or dog hair by hand washing....?

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## gryffynklm

> Edited to add, I have no tub to hang them over and have you ever tried to get deisel out of work clothes, or dog hair by hand washing....?


So you machine wash your dogs to get the diesel out of their hair? 

My dog didn't like the spin cycle. so we hand washed. 

LOL

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## Rick

Hahahahaha. Now that's funny I don't care who you are. Years and years ago one of the guys I worked with went home for lunch. While he was eating he asked his wife what she had in the dryer making all the racket. She said she didn't know what it was but would check. The scream alerted him that something was not quite right. Being the compassionate husband he was he stopped eating his lunch and took a look at what was left of the cat inside the dryer. They had to throw the clothes away.

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## kyratshooter

> Oh, no, no, no, no. If God had wanted me to hand wash clothes he would not have given us the washing machine and dryer. Gifts for which I am truly grateful.


My sentiment exactly.  All you are doing is swishing around the dirt a little with a hand wash on really dirty clothes.  

I just bought a washer/dryer to put in my shack.

I can live without lights, I can live without the fridge, I can live without AC, but SHTF I will be cranking up the generator to wash the clothes.  

In fact, I will dedicate a trailer to the washer/dryer/ generator and pump to run down to the lake and wash clothes if the water stops flowing in the pipes!

I might even set up a laundery business post appocolipse.

Some of the funnyist journel entries I have ever read while studying history are accounts of washing clothes.  Each culture had their own methods and travelers often were shocked and reported on what they saw.

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## Justin Case

My Bachelor friend " Louie" used to take his dirty laundry fishing with him,  he put on a set of dirty clothes and go swim for a few min,,  then change and do it again,,  LOL,, TRUE STORY !    ( we hated going fishing with Louie, Never caught anything)

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## grrlscout

> Some of the funnyist journel entries I have ever read while studying history are accounts of washing clothes.  Each culture had their own methods and travelers often were shocked and reported on what they saw.


IIRC the ancient Romans used to use pee to help clean their clothes. Effective, but gross.

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## crashdive123

> IIRC the ancient Romans used to use pee to help clean their clothes. Effective, but gross.


*Meet Tiberius Bear Gryllius.*

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## BENESSE

When I was 12yrs. old I read somewhere that pee removed fountain pen ink. So I tried it in desperation and it worked.

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## Winnie

My washing machine is my best friend. I have done the handwashing thing, and still bear the mental scars. Being defeated by a bedsheet is not good for the ego. I'm with KYR, I'd go without a lot of other things before the washing machine.

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## BornthatWay

Amen sister.  Clothes are the one thing that are going to need the swish swish swish of the waher and the whir of the dryer.  If I lived alone maybe I would think about it but I thought and know the washer is a real part of my life.

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## Camp10

I picked up a wash board and a few basins for up at camp a year or so ago.  I thought it would be a good idea to leave some clothes up there and handwash as needed and then I wouldnt have to lug clothes every trip.  It was great the first few trips, after that it didnt seem like so much work to just pack a bag and do a load of wash when I got back home.

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## BENESSE

> *I save $20 a month by hand washing my clothes.*  For those of you who live in an apartment, you can buy a couple of tubs from Walmart, one for washing and one for rinsing (you need two so you don't waste your wash water by having to pour out your soap to rinse).  Buy another STRONG shower curtain rod to place across the center of your bathtub for drip drying clothes.  I also suggest you get into the habit of doing a little daily, rather than try and do it all at one time, or it can get overwhelming.  I suggest you wash that days clothes today when you are done with them.  God bless!  : )


If you want to save $20 a month, skip a few meals. You'll feel better and you'll be healthier and you'll have more time to spend on stuff that's actually fun.

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## Rick

> IIRC the ancient Romans used to use pee to help clean their clothes. Effective, but gross.


So am I to understand that the phrase "p*** on it" was a helpful suggestion?

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## ravenscar

when golden showers work, news at ten......

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## Rick

Now that right there is funny I don't care who you are.

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## ravenscar

dont put praise behind mien comments, i may think you are egging me on

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## finallyME

I washed my clothes for a year in Iraq.  I can't imagine doing it for my family of 7.  I would quit at this survival game.  Shoot me now and take my food.

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## ravenscar

i couldnt do that to ya, you have a kid

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## Rick

Wait a minute. We haven't seen his food yet.

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## LowKey

here ya go.
http://www.lehmans.com/store/Home_Go...32901100?Args=
They also sell gas powered ones.

I can live without the dryer. I'd think long and hard about the washer. SHTF, you may have more important things to worry about than clean cloths. Take em off at the door, put em back on the next day. Gramps had a shower on his back porch for coming in out of the garden. The clothes were just gonna get dirty again the next day.

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## crashdive123

Ah - the Speed Queen.  I've gotten a finger pinched in the rollers a time or two.

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## Rick

I had one of those eat me all the way to the shoulder one time. If I didn't have such a fat head I'd have been a goner for sure! Ours had a release on top of the wringer but I was too little to figure out high tec stuff. Ma saved me. 

Can't live without the dryer around here. It's 11 degrees out there! I like my sheets soft, fluffy and warm not frozen solid like a sheet of plywood.

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## crashdive123

We never had a dryer while I was growing up (as I suspect several here didn't) so I know I don't need one.  It's nice to have the choice though, and for now, since I am able, I choose to have one.

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## LFM

> Oh, no, no, no, no. If God had wanted me to hand wash clothes he would not have given us the washing machine and dryer.


I'm going to get some quarters for my BOB if SHTF, I'm going to need correct change at the laundry mat. LOL
 Just when you think you got it all figured out someone throws a curve ball.

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## Fieldmouse

Okay slightly off the topic here but I just need to share this with you all.
As most of you would know, if you take you're washing out off the dryer just before its dry and you hang it up it gets barely wrinkled! 
Now as for me being a bachelor, I once figured that its the moisture that prevents the wrinkles, so I took a normal household bottle, (one of those that sprays the water in a fine mist)  Washed it out and filled it up with water.
Yeah you guessed it, now this bachelor doest iron any of my casual clothing anymore! You stil need to iron your suite& tie but that's something I wear once or twice a year, and that's about the amount of time I spend ironing my clothes (once or twice a year)!

Just take down your washing from the line and fold it up for storage, and whenever you take something out to put it on, quickly cover it with the mist and your wrinkles shall be gone before you leave the house! 

Hope you will find this as usefull as I did!

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## grrlscout

> So am I to understand that the phrase "p*** on it" was a helpful suggestion?


Yep. Your clothes, and athlete's foot.

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## crashdive123

> Yep. Your clothes, and athlete's foot.


And jelly fish stings.

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## grrlscout

Do I sense a "101 uses for pee" thread in the future?

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## Rick

Right. I'm about to stick my foot in this tank containing one thousand bloody jellyfish to show you how effective a good whizz is on the sting. This is extremely dangerous and I must be very brave for even attempting it. 

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He's gonna be mad, I can tell. 

What happened?!

I couldn't find jelly fish. All I could find were electric eels. 

Well, at least he whizzed.

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## crashdive123

Now where did I leave that jelly fish?

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## hunter63

I don't think hand washing is such a big deal, here is a couple of pic's of DW's "New Fangled washing machine", and "Solar dryer".

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She said it was better than going down to the river and doing the rock beating thing.......

Anyway I got those jeans really muddy hepling out flood victums and she said that she wasn't gonna put them in the machine.
Actually worked pretty good.....according to her....I wouldn't do it...like myself, you know?

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## Rick

She looks genuinely pleased that she's working and you're documenting everything. Important calling that documenting stuff.

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## 1stimestar

Hand washing one pair of muddy jeans is different then hand washing for the daily life of a family.  How close was access to water?  My water has to be hauled from about 10 miles away.

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## hunter63

> Hand washing one pair of muddy jeans is different then hand washing for the daily life of a family.  How close was access to water?  My water has to be hauled from about 10 miles away.


I hear ya, that was a special occasion, but did confirm that it "could" be done.
When that cabin was built, DW's only requirement was running water, indoor plumbing in general.
I did design the plumbing for a washer and dryer.

Property is located on a river, old temporary camping/living area did/does have a rain water collection system, w/shower. At least a few months a year.

Did tote water for coffee, drinking, in 5gal containers, a JOB in itself.

As far as washing by hand for a large family, I'm guessing it isn't being done by many, and if it is, it isn't to save $20 bucks......Its because it has to be done.
All it takes is once by hand, to determine that alternate way is very important.

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## Rick

I've washed clothes by hand before. Well, I've actually woke up in the gutter a time or two so that's sorta the same thing. The gutter was wet.

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## hunter63

> I've washed clothes by hand before. Well, I've actually woke up in the gutter a time or two so that's sorta the same thing. The gutter was wet.


 LOL, I hear ya......

As a young single man, my first apartment only had a shower, so taking a shower with my clothes on, then drying over radiator was kinda a, "haven't made it to laundromat yet" course of action.......

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## LowKey

Hunter, with a view like that off your porch, any chore outside would be a pleasure, including laundry.
Nice place!

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## hunter63

> Hunter, with a view like that off your porch, any chore outside would be a pleasure, including laundry.
> Nice place!


Thanks we like it......Took a long time to get there, but hey.

Here kinda what it looks likes in the winter.


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As far as hand clothes washing goes, I/we do a lot of things "The old way" just to see how it  was and what our mothers, fathers, and grand parents had to go thru, just doing everyday tasks.

We have it so much easier, but it's still good to know the old ways.........

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## hunter63

The washer we use before the tubs was kinda like this one:
http://www.off-grid.net/2010/04/22/d...-laundry-soap/

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## Sourdough

I do laundry twice a year, even if it does not need to be done.

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## BENESSE

> I do laundry twice a year, even if it does not need to be done.


Same with taking a bath, no doubt.

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## Sourdough

> Same with taking a bath, no doubt.


No, I get four showers per year and they cost $6.00 each and they are on a timer (10 minutes). And I get a shower this coming Thursday.

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## BENESSE

I'll alert the media!!!

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## Sourdough

> I'll alert the media!!!


Just "Playgirl Magazine"

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## 1stimestar

> Thanks we like it......Took a long time to get there, but hey.
> 
> Here kinda what it looks likes in the winter.
> 
> 
> Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
> 
> As far as hand clothes washing goes, I/we do a lot of things "The old way" just to see how it  was and what our mothers, fathers, and grand parents had to go thru, just doing everyday tasks.
> 
> We have it so much easier, but it's still good to know the old ways.........


That's a beautiful place.  Yea, I've done it by hand enough to know that if I ever were to have to do it, a ringer at least would be needed.  It kills my hands to try to wring out jeans.  My hands are just too small.

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## Northern Horseman

I'm thinking one of these will do as a back up and to prewash clothes that are too dirty for the washing machine.
better than a plunger and good small and light for extended camping trips.




I'm with the rest of you, we've spent a small fortune so that our hi efficiency washing machine can be used, nothing like a happy wife Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

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