Like most spoiled kids from my generation, I grew up with my mom doing my wash.
So, it was a big shock for me to start washing my own clothes when I moved out – especially since that first apartment didn’t have a washing machine.
I remember one day that I was feeling too lazy to walk with my dirty clothes to the laundromat. I figured, “Everyone used to wash their clothes by hand without electricity. How hard can it be.”
What proceeded was a huge mess, lots of wasted water, and even more wasted energy. I put my dirty clothes in the bathtub and filled it with soapy water. Using my hands, I started to slosh the clothes around in the water.
Soon, there was water all over the bathroom floor. My clothes were in a tub full of dirty water, and I had to drain and refill and refill the tub a bunch of times until all of the soapy water finally got out.
Luckily, there is a much simpler system for washing clothes without a washing machine and without any electricity.
The bucket washing machine costs about $5 and will take you just a few minutes to make.
Drying Your Clothes
In summertime, you can just take your soaking wet clothes and hang them on the line. They will dry fairly quickly in the sun.
In wintertime, this doesn’t work so well.
If you don’t wring out most of the water before hanging them to dry, it can take DAYS before your clothes dry! I don’t have enough clothes to wait 5 days for my laundry to dry!!!
It is not possible to wring clothes out by hand. Your hands will start to cramp up really quickly (And I pride myself on being pretty fit and strong. I can’t imagine how someone with arthritis could do this.). Even with all that painful squeezing, you still won’t be getting that much water out with just your hands.
It is really worth it to get a clothes wringer. You can find them online or might even be able to find an old one at a flea market. The wringer gets out a lot of water so your clothes dry faster.
An easy alternative is to use a mop bucket for wringing out your clothes. Just put the wet clothes in the squeeze area and press to get the water out. The great thing is that the bucket catches the water so you can reuse it.
The Higher-Tech Solution
Bucket washing machines work great and are cheap, but maybe you’d rather buy a readymade solution?
If so, you can check out that works with a foot pedal. You can just sit down and pump your foot to clean your clothes.
Have you ever washed your clothes by hand? Any tips to share?