Laundry day at the Homestead Kitty

My trailer didn’t come equipped with washer and dryer hook-ups like those found in most homes. To wash clothes I need go to the Laundromat or wash them out by hand. Going to the Laundromat is akin to going to a whore house, you always leave feeling dirty, sticky, broke and unsatisfied. So I do most of my laundering by hand.

For things like coats, sleeping bags and heavy quilts I use the Laundromat for simplicity and speed, throw in the article add laundry detergent put in money, let it do its thing, remove and go home. For everyday items like pants, shirts, socks and underwear I use two five gallon plastic buckets.

My buckets came from the paint section of the local hardware store, most of the time Wal-Mart has them located in the paint / hardware department. Any five or six gallon bucket will work as long as it is clean and free of any paint or chemicals. You will also need a gamma seal lid for the wash bucket, available from Nitro-Pak. These lids provide a water tight seal and easy access to the items inside.

I fill one bucket one-half of the way from the top with clean water, then I fill a large cooker, bring to a rolling boil on the stove top and pour this into the bucket filling it to about five inches from the top, warming the wash water. Then I put in the items to be washed and add detergent in the needed proportions. Be careful not to over fill, because the contents need room to move around inside the bucket working out dirt and crud.

After filling, screw on the lid and let stand for about thirty minutes, and then waggle and shake the bucket for about five minutes. I have an old rocking chair outside behind the trailer that I strap the wash bucket into. I’m sure I look funny standing beside the chair rocking a bucket, but then I never cared much what people thought of me, so it doesn’t really matter.

The other bucket is used for the rinse cycle. After washing remove the clothes from the first bucket, wring out as much soap and water as possible then submerge several times in the other bucket that is filled with clean water, effectively rinsing the item, wring out the excess water and hang out on a line to dry.

The whole process takes less than ten gallon of water and costs practically nothing. I can’t say for sure, but would estimate a total savings of over a hundred dollars a year. Counting my cost to drive to and from the laundry, I estimate a savings of at least three hundred a year.
Keep Surviving.