newbie old style help needed!

vik6525

the weird thing is, i actually get a strange sense of satisfaction at the end of laundry day. I kind of feel a bit smug looking at my clean washing and knowing how much damm effort i put into it! if only i could stop knackering my shoulder and arm, it'd be fantastic!

moggins

There's a mangle for £1.99 on E-bay but you would have to go to Peterborough to pick it up

moggins

Vik whereabouts do you live? You may have the same sort of thing in your area that we have here, a charity run by the unemployed for people on a low income. You can pick up washing machines for very little.

Or keep a look out in your local freepaper.

Brassic

Bogof_Babe wrote:

It all sounds far too much like hard work for me. I'd rather blow £3 (or whatever it is these days) on a big machine load at the local launderette every week.

£3!!! I should be so lucky. We had no plumbing for 2 months at our new house and I had to do a weekly trip to the laundrette. It cost me 12 quid a pop for our family of 5 to do our weeklies, not to mention the extra it costs in powder and softener. Gah. So glad to have my machine back in action.

I used to put washing between two towels and wring it with someone else on the other end, but not much use if you have no one else around.

Sorry I can't be more help.

Yikes

moggins wrote:

Sheets are an easy one though, you just knot the ends around the line post and twist in a clockwise direction.

Or you could stand in the middle of the garden and twirl the washing around your head lassoo style using centrifugal force.

Hmm... I was about to suggest the centrifugal force thing, too... now what does that say about me??

What if you laid the wet wash in a sheet, tied it as suggested, and then twisted from the other end? Might that work as a one-person version of the two-person twist?

mgardner

I was without a washing machine for about a year and found it impossible to wring anything out due to arthritis in my hands. I fixed an indoor washing line over the bath and just hung the heavy stuff on that and left it to drain, usually overnight, then hung it out in the morning. The lighter things I just hung outside sopping wet and every so often went out to give the line a shake.

Great thing about hanging washing sopping it wet is that once it is dry very little needs ironing.

Best wishes and hope you get a machine soon.

Just a thought but if you are on any kind of benefit you may be able to get a grant or a social loan to buy a machine,

vik6525

hi! and thanks to everyone for your ideas! i absolutly love the idea of swinging things over my head, i can just picture my neighbours faces! i live in swansea, and for some reason charity shops and the like arent allowed to sell second hand electrical items (kinda makes sense really) so id be forced to buy a machine from the local paper. we're trying to save for one for the winter, because the thought of hanging soaking wet towels over the radiators in the bedroom fills me with terror!

thriftlady_2

I was going to suggest wrapping the washing in towels and walking on it,but Moggins beat me to it.I remember my Mum doing that.

As someone already suggested little spin dryers aren't that expensive.I used one once in a holiday cottage where I had to wash laundry in the bath - wow that was a great holiday-not:rolleyes:

I watched a programme about some historians living and working on a farm using 17th century methods and materials,and they had a wringing post for their laundry.Apparently they were common in town squares,by the pump.People would loop their sheets around it and twist.You only need one person for this.I see someone has already suggested that one too,so sorry I can't come up with anything more creative.

vik6525

Today is laundry day, so im going to give the 'wringing post' idea a go. the main problem i find is towels... obviously they are designed for soaking up water, so getting it out is a pain in the wotsit!

culpepper

My mum used to hang the washing outside summer and winter.
We used to share a house and had just 2 rooms so no washing machine ,spinner ,airer or space :rolleyes:
I can remember knocking on the solid sheets.

When we moved to a flat, she had a spin dryer.
I think most spin dryers have a much faster spin speed than washing machines can spin at so the clothes were okay to hang indoors and the spinner didn't heat up to so was quite cheap to run too.