Laundry!

[Chiefster23]

What are your plans and equipment for doing laundry if the electricity goes out for an extended period? Or forever? Lehman’s has a hand crank wringer for $130, pricy! Lowe’s has Rubbermaid mop wringer buckets at around $80. Ideas and suggestions? I found a recipe for making 5 gallons of home made laundry soap from fels naptha soap and washing powder. And I figure the basement wash tub and a brand new toilet plunger for actually doing the washing. What say you all?

[Jester-ND]

more worried about the water than the dirt...

[Mad Trapper]

They had hand powered wringer washers before electric ones.

A search shows many people have converted washers to pedal power by connecting an electric washer (with the motor removed) to a used bicylce. I think I'd want to have it built ahead of time so you could get all the hardware needed easily.

Worst case for me, I have some antique wash boards, metal tubs, and a large janitorial mop bucket/wringer. I can heat the water on the woodstove.

[Inor]

While we were building our house we did our wash by hand in just two #3 washtubs. One was for washing the second for rinsing. The easiest way we found to get things clean was using a toilet plunger. Toss the dirty clothes in the washing tub with soap and water, let it sit for 5-10 minutes, then use the plunger for about another 5-10 minutes to agitate them in the soapy water to get out the deep dirt. Then repeat the process in the rinse tub and hang them to dry.

It worked fine and got the clothes as clean as they get with our new commercial washer that we bought for the completed house. And that was when we were in the middle of building a house and getting absolutely filthy every day. The only thing we had to change in the process once we did it a few times was to add some fabric softener. Before we did that, a pair of jeans would stand straight out if you grabbed them in the middle of the leg.

In short, washing clothes is not worth worrying about. Even having a wringer is a luxury that you can do without if necessary. Rest easy on this issue.

[Dwight55]

Not really something I'll worry about until I take em off . . . and can stand them in the corner like a statue.

May God bless,
Dwight

[1skrewsloose]

I never gave doing laundry much thought, but have thought about what to wear (SHTF, or bug out), decided my leather biker chaps and jacket would see daily use.

[MountainGirl]

I washed all my clothes by hand, by choice, up on the mountain; even after we had a w/d.

Filled both sides of our double basin kitchen sink, a little soap in one side, splash of Downy in the other.
Dirty clothes in soap side, soaked for a bit, then hand rubbed clean, wrung by hand and tossed in rinse water.
When everything was in the rinse side, drained the soapy side, used there to let water run to 2nd rinse one at a time under the flow.
Wrung out clean clothes by hand, tossed them in a tub to carry to hang.
Winter: dry inside on expandable rack by woodstove, Summer: outside line dry

I thought about getting a wringer - but knew that my hands needed the work; and the hot water made them feel good.

Trick is small batches, keep up with it.

Add: One of the first things I bought for here was an expandable drying rack. Just in case. :)

[Chiefster23]

I’m very lucky. Water is not a problem for me. I have spring on my property that runs 365 days a year and feeds into a large cistern. And 200 yards up the road is another spring that runs year round.

[Prepared One]

As MG said we are pretty covered, extra 5 gallon buckets, a couple plungers for agitators, extra soap, and elbow grease should do the trick. We have clothes line and clothes pins on hand and she has the rack if needed.

[Mad Trapper]

From my favorite Joe Walsh album, All Night Laundry Mat Blues


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIsfA9vGwUA

Chiefster is blessed having a spring, for drinking and washing.

One of my places has a pure mountain spring a couple hundred yards away and a clear mountain brook nearby. A salvaged wash tub from a washer would make a good container to put in the brook for pre-wash. I'd not wash/rinse in the brook to get soap in it, maybe for final rinse. My other place I'd be using rain water from my catchment system for my gardens. Winter that might be a problem.

I've used salvaged inner top loader washer tubs to make live bait holders in brooks. Water flows right through, bait is happy, and brook keeps it from freezing. Need to make a frame/lid to keep raccoons and mink out, and from it getting "washed" downstream. I guess one of those could serve double duty, ice fishing is coming up soon, got 2" snow this morning.

25741

I like MGs idea of the two basin kitchen sink system. That would work for me, I have a washboard, plenty of hot water from the woodstove.

Always had clotheslines. Outside, and small ones in the rooms with the woodstove, clothes drying racks too. In a pinch during cold weather I leave room doors open and hang clothes off them and on the door knobs. The doors work good for blankets/sheets/big stuff.

You can make your own soap, but 3-4 of the huge concentrated laundry detergent jugs will last a good long time. I hope it don't come to that: rendering fat and making soap from that and hardwood ashes.

I'm still looking into a pedal powered washer. Seems a front loader is easier to convert/way to go. Those can be had free.

[MountainGirl]

As MG said we are pretty covered, extra 5 gallon buckets, a couple plungers for agitators, extra soap, and elbow grease should do the trick. We have clothes line and clothes pins on hand and she has the rack if needed.

LOL Sounds like YOU will be doing the laundry then :thumb:

[hawgrider]

LOL Sounds like YOU will be doing the laundry then :thumb:

Ouch!:whippin:

[Prepared One]

LOL Sounds like YOU will be doing the laundry then :thumb:

I was thinking we would hire a maid?

[Inor]

I was thinking we would hire a maid?

Make sure the maid has a "rack" too...

[Mad Trapper]

Make sure the maid has a "rack" too...

Abbondanza!!! Maybe I need a maid too.......

25758

[Slippy]

This thread is getting better...

[bigwheel]

My Mama hand washed all our clothes in the bathtub for a couple of deceades after her maytag broke. It worked just fine.

[bigwheel]

Good point. Whos going to worry about getting stinky smelling in a crisis?

[bigwheel]

Think a guy named Rube Goldberg may have invented that strategy.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=rube+goldberg+washing+machine+hooked+to+bicycle&atb=v154-1&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.edutopia.org%2Fstyles%2Fre sponsive_2880px_original%2Fs3%2Fmasters%2Fd7_image s%2Fcover_media%2F062416-stevens-5mffrubegoldberg.jpg

[Chiefster23]

Good point. Whos going to worry about getting stinky smelling in a crisis?

Actually, I’m thinking things may not get to “crisis mode” (depending on your definition of crisis). But rather just extended periods of much more frugal living. I’m thinking extended periods without electricity. The easiest way to cause mayhem in this country is to take out electricity and this could be done very easily by bad actors already across our borders. They simply just start shooting transformers and chaos will shortly begin. I’m really surprised that this hasn’t started already. Me! I’d much rather have on clean underwear while I’m shooting starving zombies! LOL

[T-Man 1066]

When I was growing up, we did not have a washer or dryer, so every friday we went to grandma's and washed in her machines. My aunt and uncle did the same thing on tuesdays. So whenever grandma needed to replace a worn out washer and dryer, we usually chipped in and bought it for her.

That being said, my school gym uniform would get pretty ripe after a couple days, so I brought them home and washed them in the sink, like MG described, hung them to dry. Like MG said, gotta keep up on it, would not want to wash 4-5 days worth of laundry in the sink all at once.

[MountainGirl]

Actually, I’m thinking things may not get to “crisis mode” (depending on your definition of crisis). But rather just extended periods of much more frugal living. I’m thinking extended periods without electricity. The easiest way to cause mayhem in this country is to take out electricity and this could be done very easily by bad actors already across our borders. They simply just start shooting transformers and chaos will shortly begin. I’m really surprised that this hasn’t started already. Me! I’d much rather have on clean underwear while I’m shooting starving zombies! LOL

Regarding grid down - PO agrees with you 100%.
And so do I.
Which is why ALL my prep methods - are hand powered.
Even solar can fail. BTDT.

[Prepared One]

I do agree 100% that Grid down is the most likely MO for our friendly neighborhood terrorists. There are perhaps 10's of thousands of the bastards spread over who knows how many sleeper cells already here in the states thanks to Dementia Joe and his handlers. Our grid is highly vulnerable and if they can manage to bring it all down, even for a few months, it will satisfy their lust for high body counts. Like Chiefster, I am surprised they haven't done it already, but I am sure they are working on it.

[Mad Trapper]

On the laundry stuff. Besides a stash of detergent bleach is handy to have. Not just for laundry but for cleaning/disinfecting. It don't store forever but solid Calcium hypochlorite/pool shock stores well.

When the Kung Flu scare was in progress I laid in a store of calcium hypochlorite. Make sure it just contains calcium hypochlorite, not other crap for pools mixed in. Store it in original container, cool dry place, never metal ones even as secondary.

I put mine in big empty plastic coffee containers. Plastic is pretty inert and the containers are not airtight so if any gas is formed they can vent. They hold a few bags/pounds. I just checked my stash from 2020, and the bags are a little sticky on the outside, but the granules are still free in the bags.

Need to know wt% of hypochlorite to make up bleach solutions of known concentration, a scale, and best to use distilled water. Filtered rainwater might be an alternative. Make up only what you'll use.

I had a file for mixing it up but I'd have to locate it. For chemically inclined this will get you started. Commercial bleach is 5-7.5% sodium hypochlorite. Pool shock will be listed as % Ca (OCl)2. The HTH I bought is 52%.

FW Cl = 35.5 O = 16 Ca = 40 Na =23

FW Ca (O Cl)2 = 143

FW Na (OCl) = 74.5

[bigwheel]

There ya go it would take only a few thousand religoin of peace folk with 30 30s and instructions on where to hit on our electrcity switching stations, or the N. Koreans to explode their chicom statellite EMP thing to plunge us back to the good old days so its best to pray to the Lord for a wall of fire and hedege of protection around us and ours.