living without a washing machine

[sandyshore]

is anyone doing this? is it feasible?

i am going to live in a remote part of Portugal, without electricity and therefore no washing machine..

please give me any advise or ideas for how to wash without a washing machine..

[baldowrie]

get yourself a pressure washing machine (manual) from a camping store, cost around £30. It will do your 'smalls' if nothing else!

If I can find a link I will post it!

[sandyshore]

thank you

i have never heard of such a machine, or invention.. any more tips greatly received

[baldowrie]

http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/acata ... s_298.html

It's the wash wonder.


Could have done with the portable tumble dryer this year!

[Clara]

I´ve done it when I lived in an abandoned house high in the Pyrenees - it´s hard work. Though it forces you to slow down and that can have its own rewards.

If you´re making your permanent home there I guess you will have solar electricity and hot water at some point? That is what we have (boiler and generator for the depths of winter), and we wash clothes (and nappies) just like everyone else.

[Annpan]

I lived without a washing machine for months I basically hand washed (or foot washed) everything.

I used to put all my clothes in the bath fill with as hot water as my feet could stand (prolly 40oC) pour in some soap powder (or grate a piece of bar soap) and stomp up and down on it (like wine makers of old ) For the tuff bits i'd rub bar soap straight on and rub the material on its self (if that makes sense) Then I'd let fresh water run through it for a while to rinse it while I still stomped up and down. I'd wring it out and hang it in the sun.

This works well for sheets and other things that are far too big to fit in one of those wee machines.

It is totally do-able, think of the centurys that we had no kind of washing machine.

[Muddypause]

I lived without a washing machine once upon a time. But I've never had the sort of clothes where I need to worry about the whites being white. Things were put in a bath of hot soapy water for a while, then stirred around for as long as I had enthusiasm for it, before being drained and rinsed and hung out to dry. Jeans and things were done with a scrubbing brush.

But eventually I realised that a cheap secondhand machine was A Jolly Good Idea. I do think that a washing machine of some sort is one of the saner 'modern conveniences'.

get yourself a pressure washing machine (manual) from a camping store, cost around £30. It will do your 'smalls' if nothing else!

My dad had one of these. The instructions that came with it made all sorts of impressive 'scientific' claims. It's really nothing more than a hand agitator, and as such is probably pretty good - after all, it's doing exactly what an ordinary washing machine does. But any claims that it is using the pressure inside it "to literally force the dirt out of the clothes" is entirely dubious science. You could probably use it to make butter in, between washes, too!

Don't forget the links to bicycle-powered washing machines that have been posted before (several threads IIRC). Do a search to find them.

[baldowrie]

yes the pressure part is exaggerated but the one I had worked very well and I used one for 6 mths (and a spin dryer) when living in a caravan and the children's white socks came out very clean, considering. You also don't need vast amounts of water in it.

[Clara]

Don't forget the links to bicycle-powered washing machines that have been posted before (several threads IIRC). Do a search to find them.

These are fab, saw one at BGG a couple of years back.

[the.fee.fairy]

yes the pressure part is exaggerated but the one I had worked very well and I used one for 6 mths (and a spin dryer) when living in a caravan and the children's white socks came out very clean, considering. You also don't need vast amounts of water in it.

oooh, i don't know - i jhad a pair of jeans signed by a band in permanent ink. They'd been washed a few times in a washing machine, and by hand. Once, just once i put them in a wonder wash and the signatured were gone forever! So they're pretty darn powerful washers!!

[Fizzy Izzy]

We currently do not have a washing machine (although this is not intentional and we hope not a permenant situation!), but we are managing perfectly fine simply by treading on our laundry while we are in the shower. The soap and shampoo we use for ourselves washes the clothes too. Easy on time and resources :)

[Thomzo]

Hi Fizzy
That's exactly what I do if I need to wash something on holiday.

If you want to dry it in a hurry, put it between two towels and stand on it while you dry off.

Zoe

[QuakerBear]

I'm sorry, I can't find the links to the bycycle powered washing machines, can anyone help?

[SueSteve]

I lived without a washing machine for around a year, it was a nightmare with 2 babies. I felt I was washing everyday, my hands were always sore. And it took ages to do!!
After a year we could afford a cheap 2nd hand machine, but that only lastest 2 months, I was then washing by hand again, I remember the little bedroom was full of washing, to be done when I got round to it!! And things that were needed were washed before others, so some items were left for months
Eventually I saved my pennies and got a new machine, I have refused to hand wash ever since!!!

[Muddypause]

I'm sorry, I can't find the links to the bycycle powered washing machines, can anyone help?

Here's one.

I'm sure there was at least one other link to a bicycle powered washing machine, but couldn't immediately turn it up.