Our brand new washer died. It didn’t just die, it completely disrupted our clean clothes rhythm.
Laundromats are okay, but they are expensive. You can buy a new washer for the amount of money those machines swallow after the number of loads our family has.
The time would take literally half a day, even using multiple machines at once. More if there aren’t multiple ones available.
Did I mention the reliability issues of those commercial machines? Especially the dryers? It’s kind of like an expensive game of poker. You’re never sure if your hard earned coins are going to be wasted on a machine that doesn’t work.
We weren’t going to do that. So we resorted to something my girls and I did decades ago when they were growing up.
Return to the primitive days…
We returned to the old fashioned way of doing laundry.
By hand.
And then I realized what I was missing since succumbing to the use of modern technology.
Wash day…
We had a 200 gallon rubber water trough that collected rainwater during the winter months. In the summer, the water grew mosquitoes and frogs, so technically, it wasn’t really in use.
Up on the tornado shelter it went. Along with a hand wringer I’d purchased years ago, and a wash board, also a few decades old.
The hose was moved to the top of the shelter, and the fun began.
Much to the chagrin of the teenagers, even they had to learn how..
Everyone was responsible for getting their own laundry clean (except for the baby). Much to the chagrin of the teenagers, even they had to learn how to manually wash, wring, rinse, and dry their own wearables.
The trough was filled about 1/3 of the way with water and a capful of regular laundry detergent. The first load went into the soapy water.
PARTY TIME!
Swish-swish-swish! The cool water felt good on the hot summer day as the laundry was agitated by hand or clean feet in a stomping party.
The dirtiest items were scrubbed on a metal scrub board until they were clean. Then through the hand wringer they went into a laundry basket, the water draining back into the trough from the tray beneath the wringer.
The grey wash water was emptied into the flower garden bed surrounding the shelter. The plants loved it!
Washing is done!
Now on to the drying.
Dry time!
Our old dryer still worked. So everyone else used it.
Me? Heck no!(With a few exceptions…)
I strung up my old clothes line and hung out all my laundry. The wind was blowing, the sun was hot, and the clothes – even towels – were dry within a few hours.
Snapping the towels and sheets as they came off the line took out the roughness of line dried fabric. And the smell of the fresh air was unmatched by any artificial, chemically laden, fragranced additives sold on the consumer market.
I became hooked. The bite of the Simplicity Bug got to me again.
How did it turn out?
Fantastically!
The clothes were actually cleaner than any washer we’d used – commercial or otherwise. Using the extra little effort of spot cleaning and using the wash board turned shirts and kitchen towels stained with dirt and whatever else ventured near them sparkling clean!
The clothes were actually cleaner than any washer we’d used…mostly.
Mostly. Baked in stuff from repeatedly using an automatic washer and commercially made soaps didn’t have a chance to come out by the time they went into the trough.
But at least the rest of the laundry came out nicer than when they went in.
I’d forgotten how clean they’d get! Better than the washers ever did!
The joys of simplicity!
A long time ago, an inline skate company put out an ad. “When you get to the top of a stair-stepper, what will you see?” I think of that line every time I look at a gym.
It always seemed strange to me to pay to go into a smelly building with a bunch of large exercise equipment to work out and get nothing in return except, maybe, looking more buff. There isn’t much reward other than that.
But doing manual labor, like doing the laundry by hand, tilling the soil, hauling bales of hay and feed, or sewing on a treadle (yes, I have one of those, too) all give the body a core workout. And you something useful, like doing mundane chores, all at the same time.
I also realized that I missed the simplicity of doing laundry. And the results.
Hand washing was far gentler on the material. And along with using homemade or simple bar soaps, the clothes weren’t subjected to the harsh chemicals that broke down the fabrics. And caused skin problems. Instead, they just out just smelling clean and fresh, and looked better as well.
Simplicity is baked in…
Manual washing is, by nature, simple. Whether it’s going down to the creek and pounding dirty clothes on the rocks, or using a scrub board in a tub, there are no electronic parts to break. It’s just you, the water, some physical labor, and clean clothes.
The same with drying. No machine to break down. No hunting down a repairman or trying to replace expensive parts on your own.
It’s cheaper to buy a clothesline and hang it between two trees.
When a dryer is used for properly hand laundered items, it was, also, interesting to find that the fabrics produced a lot less lint. Since lint is the result of the material breaking down from the friction of fabrics during the machine agitation cycle this would make sense as hand washing is far more gentle.
Plus, the heat from a dryer tends to desiccate the fibers. And harsher chemicals in the commercialized detergent and softeners also adds to the breakdown of the material.
Washing by hand and air drying the clothes eliminates those problems. So clothes last longer.
There are pluses financially…
There is a tendency to choose the fabrics on your clothing by how well the wringer (you or the equipment) can handle it. It’s harder to wash chunky blankets and down quilts by hand. It must be done with two people manually wringing them out by hand.
And finding that second, willing body won’t be easy. Especially if they’ve been asked to help out more than once!
Thick, lush towels are nice if you use an electric washer. But if your stuck without one for a while, those nice towels soon become a really problem. The thinner, less expensive towels become your favorites in short order.
So the fabrics you choose based on how you wash your clothes will also reflect in the price tag on those items. Good quality, thinner fabrics will last longer and be less expensive in the long run.
And there’s Motivation…
The benefits are just the icing on the cake.
There is intrinsic value in finding a motivation to do something. Lifting weights in a odiferous gym, or running/walking without any place to go except in circles isn’t very inspiring for the majority of us. But having to go outside and work out because something needs to be done? The benefits are just the icing on the cake. (Sugar free, of course!)
(And for those tech junkies out there is that you can also beat your entire week’s worth of exercise on your iWatch in just a few loads of laundry!)
Would you like to learn more?
There is more to share on soap making, laundry detergent recipes, how to’s on manual washing, treadle machine sewing, and so much more.
Let me know in the comments below if you would be interested in learning more about practicable, actionable ideas for living a more simple life.
Aubrey