Handwashing clothes with a plunger

My latest experiment will probably convince my family that I've gone around the bend.  I've read about using a plunger for washing clothes in a couple different places (don't remember where) and thought I'd give it a try.  So I found a plastic container and bought a new plunger.

The system I've been experimenting with is to wash each day's clothing for one person as a batch.  I soak the previous day's clothing during the day and then spend about 10 minutes in the evening plunging and rinsing.  Each batch is hung up on the outdoor clothes line.  I'm wringing the water out of what is easy to wring and just letting the water drip out of the heavier items such as jeans. The rinse water is being used to water ornamental plants in the garden.  Not sure what I want to do with the soapy water.  My clothing is usually used as a hanky for any one of eight toddlers I spend my day with. 

At the beginning of the week the weather was very wet but I hung things out anyway.  I decided the rain water would rinse things out  a bit more.  By Thursday we had lovely warm weather and everything dried up quickly.  The laundry smells great too. 

I've been a little worried about getting a rash from the soap.  I make my own laundry soap with grated soap, soda and borax.  It hasn't been dissolving very well.  With my next batch I'm going to try pre-dissolving the soap mix in hot water before adding it to the clothing. 

I've used about 2-3 gallons of water for each batch, figuring about 12 gallons for 5 batches which is also usually one load of laundry.  The washing machine uses about 40 gallons on average per load (an old top loading model). So a savings of 25 gallons of water minimum plus electricity for the washing machine as well as the dryer.  It will be very interesting to see what difference it makes in the bills.  It would actually be a good thing if the water bill just stays the same.  It will be time to start watering the veggies soon.

Oh, and plunging the laundry is actually kind of fun.  Hmmm...maybe I need to get out more.

 

Comments

[Trish]

Plants don't mind soapy water - you should be able to use the soapy water to water your plants.
Cheers, Trish G.