Save Money by Hand-Washing All Your Laundry

     One of the ways I have been experimenting with getting things done is to wash all of my laundry by hand. Supposedly clothes will last forever that way,  and I find it especially helpful for washing those delicate synthetic clothes like my work uniforms. 

     Now, I'm not saying that I wash all of the family's clothing by hand. For one, it would take me quite a while to do that. Each load takes at least 10 minutes, and the overly large laundry basket full of clothes would take about 2 hours to wash. Really that's not longer than the machine takes to wash that amount of clothing. For two, spinning the laundry agitator takes quite a bit of upper arm strength, as I don't have a really good counter to use the washer with so the suction cups are usually not deployed. One arms spins the agitator, one arm stabilizes the washer. 

     I think it would be pretty easy to use outside sitting on the ground, or perhaps on a picnic or folding table. It has a small drain pipe which could easily hook into a larger and more permanent drain pipe, to take the laundry water away from the table area. Right now I have it next to the sink for easy drainage, and when I'm finished using the washer I drain the soapy water into the sink.

      What kind of soap works the best? After doing a little bit of experimenting, I have decided that standard clothes washing detergent isn't awesome. It tends to be hard to rinse clean and also it really dries out my skin if I manually squeeze the extra water out of the clothes. What I really like to use is Meyers hand soap, which has a nice smell and rinses well. I previously used to make my own laundry detergent, and I may start doing that again in the future. Homemade laundry detergent, recipe featured here, has washing soda and borax as main ingredients so will require significant rinsing. I recently bought some bar soap to use on the clothes, if using fels naphtha or something similar you would grate a half teaspoon of flakes for each small load.

     One obstacle I have yet to overcome is wringing, right now I do this by hand.

     Whether washing cothes by hand or by wasing machine, bra hooks still catch on everything.

The Wonderwash, the Best Washing Machine for sale at Amazon

Living off grid in an RV, it is possible!

     Not long ago I was out and about, andI happened to see this amazing example of off grid living. The owners of this RV had hooked up several minimally sized solar panels, presumably to provide for or supplement their electricity needs. 

     Alas, I did not have time to as them how their setup works. I did find out that the RV park where I found this is one of the most reasonable around here, supposedly about $3,500 per year. That price includes water and sewer, use of the amenities which include a pool. Barrington Hills.