Saving Money Big-Time on Your Laundry

Have you ever considered hand-washing your laundry?

You might well have a commodity that people who are employees or are self-employed lack or at least are short of–TIME. If you put in an hour of work in your home to save having to pay out dollars, you can keep the portion of your public benefits that you would have needed to give away. For example, instead of spending perhaps $3 weekly at the Laundromat–that’s $13.50 monthly, more than half the price of a $25 Metro PCS “voice-only 4G LTE” cell-phone plan–you can simply hand-wash at  home.

I use for items like towels and clothing three dishpans, each eighteen-quart. Those fit neatly, two on the counter next to my sink and one in the sink. I use dishwash detergent in the dishpans. I have found that it is too difficult to rinse out laundry detergent with this method. I fill the “rinse” basin first, with hot water and about one Tablespoon of white distilled vinegar (as a fabric softener) for linens. I fill the “rinse” basin with cold water alone for clothing. I set the “rinse” basin and the empty basin ready to receive clothing to be hung on the counter. Then I fill the “cleaning” basin with soapy water and add the textiles. I can do one bath towel, two hand towels, and a dish towel in one load. Twelve pairs of socks and two dinner napkins make up another load. One dress (adult’s) makes up a load. (As you can see, I separate clothes by wash temperature, not color.) I set a timer for fifteen minutes and do other things. When the timer alerts me, I move the “cleaning” basin to the right. I remove the textiles from the water. I press them against the side of the dishpan to release water and to avoid the heavy labor of wringing fabric when it remains heavy with liquid. Then I prepare new “cleaning” water and start a new load, setting the timer for another fifteen minutes. After that second load is washed, the items from the “rinse” basin are ready for the “done” basin, ready to be hung out to dry.

I never do more than three sink loads in a day. I have tried doing more, and I find it oppressive. You might find that you prefer getting a whole Laundry Day over with.

What about larger items–jeans, sheets, or blankets? You’ll need a bathtub, a plunger/plumber’s helper that you bought spanking-new and have dedicated to the laundry, and regular laundry detergent. The plunger is for agitating the items in the water. The only way to wring out the clothes is to stomp out the water with your bare feet, which means that all the detergent should be rinsed out in a large amount of water in the tub first. (There is an expensive alternative, of getting a manual wringer machine, such as is sold by Lehman’s, an Old-Order Amish company.)

Regarding items that need to be sanitized, such as diapers, you can probably wash them in the dishpans in the sink, but after you rinse them in the toilet upon use, soak them in one tablespoon of chlorine bleach to one gallon of water. This can be done in a covered pail, well out of the reach of children or pets.

As to hanging the textiles, on a clothesline, furniture, or a rack that you can find in a thrift store are all fine. Personally, I keep clothespins hanging in each grid opening on shelving over my bathtub and I drape linens over the tub transfer bench that I use due to disability. There is no keeping you from hanging a clothesline indoors! Any drying clothes will add humidity to your home, which at least in Winter you will appreciate.

© Copyright Deborahmichelle Sanders 2018. All rights reserved.