handwashing clothes!!

BusyGirl

Just a thought, do you have any relatives or friendly neighbours who might wash the odd urgent load for you? I've done this for a couple of my neighbours and they've returned the favour for me as washing machines often break down at the worst times.

whatatwit

No, you don't need hand washing powder, just make sure it is dissolved in warm water.
Your hardest bit will be to wring the stuff out enough to get it dry.
Is there a launderette near you, if so, check if it is unattended and nip in with your soggy washing and just use the spinner.
Or, you could just wash and spin and dry the stuff at home.

Your first priority will be to cut down on the amount of clothes you are washing, my OH is also a tradesman, but wears a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt for 3 days. He has a clean t-shirt and underwear though every day.
My daughter changes out of uniform when she gets home, but wears the same evening clothes for a few days.
I don't have a washer at home, I wash once a week and I must confess that I don't actively hunt for washing. Towels get used several times as we should be clean when using them. :rotfl:

As busygirl suggests, have a word with a neighbour, maybe you could ask just to have their machine on a spin cycle to help you out, then may then offer to do a load for you.

mumofcookers

BusyGirl wrote: »

Just a thought, do you have any relatives or friendly neighbours who might wash the odd urgent load for you? I've done this for a couple of my neighbours and they've returned the favour for me as washing machines often break down at the worst times.

My husband has to take the car to work tomorrow, so I can't get to my friend's house who offered and the neighbours who would let me use their's are on holiday untill Tuesday!

hardpressed

You'll probably find that because we're so used to washing machins that everyone washes clothes more often than necessary. If the children have a nightly bath you could wash their underwear and socks in the bath when they've finished, just use soap and then rinse wring out as much water as possible. When mine went to nursery if it was an afternoon session they had clean clothes on in the afternoon and then wore them again the next morning and then clean ones again in the afternoon. Unless they get very mucky a jumper will do more than one day. For hubby's work clothes fill the sink with hot water and detergent and wash the things one at a time, sort of squeezing and kneading them rubbing any really dirty bits. Then when you've done it all rinse in clean water. The worse bit is getting most of the water out , especially this time of year if you can't dry things out of doors.

meanmarie

Mumofcookers,

If you do the very urgent things by hand...uniforms for instance, do you have somewhere to let them drip...as you will never get them dry enough by hand not to drip. Make sure that you rinse them thoroughly, it takes more time and water than you expect.

Wash only what you really need, could you consider taking some things to the launderette and could I say that it might be a good time to evaluate whether you need to do 3 washes a day when you get your machine working again...see whatatwit's post.

Had to wash for four children by hand many years ago and did not enjoy it but you can get through this I assure you.

Marie

whatatwit

When I do handwash things, I do the white things, then the lights and then the darks....only a few bits at a time.
Put some soap powder into sink, add hot water to dissolve and then top up with cold or warm you want water to be hand hot...if you wear rubbergloves, you can get the water hotter.
Throw some whites into sink and push under water, swish around and then pick out one thing...if it's a school shirt, I give the collar a good rub, usually on itself. The same with the cuffs and the underarms, any grubby marks can be attacked with a nailbrush and a bar of bathroom soap.
Wring it out and onto draining board, onto next thing.

When it's all washed and the draining board is piled high, fill the sink cool water and throw the stuff back in....swish it about to get soap out, wring and onto draining board....I find stuff usually takes 2 or 3 rinses in clean water each time.
A bit of fabric softener can be added to last rinse water if you use it.

stilernin

It is difficult to get excess water out of jumpers without the danger of wringing them out of shape. Gently squeeze as much water out as you can and then lay the jumper onto a bath towel. and roll it up like a swiss roll. Pressing down on the roll will transfer a lot of the water into the towel.

This does mean that you have wet towels to deal with later, but jumpers will dry quicker and are kept in better shape by doing this.

I do the same with tights too.

mumofcookers

It was really made me think about the amount of washing I do!!

Things like, the children have a bath and then clean pjs every night (please don't shout!) Which is 28 sets of pjs/nighties/sleepsuits in a week!!!!! I don't know why as I never ever did as a child but it is just a very bad habit I have got into.


Whatatwit-- That is a very good point about towels, never thought of it like that!

I am just to used sticking things in the wash without even thinking about it,

trust me, not having a washing machine will really make me think about it from now on.

whatatwit

With the towels thing, I put a small towel on my hair and then use a flannel to dry myself off, then I can put a towel round me just to have a final dry off.
The hair towel goes over the rad, body towel over the door and the flannel into the wash.
This way, the bigger towels aren't soaking.

There has been a previous thread about towels, other posters suggested having an individual towel for each person that they can keep using and gets washed once a week or so.

ArthurII

I use a washboard to wash my clothes; it helps to get stains and dirt out of clothes; and it also saves your hands from developing blisters. New washboards can be bought from https://www.carbolicsoap.com. Also there is a hand-cranked washing machine called the 'Wonder Wash'; you put some powder and water in, close the lid and turn it for two minutes; works a treat! The only thing about it is that it can only wash a few kilograms of clothes at a time, so it would have to be used often if you have a lot of clothes. You can buy this machine from www.laundry-alternative.com.