Bulk Hand-Laundering the Smart Way

I was surprised when my anthropology teacher told us that the single most liberating invention for women was the washing machine. According to this source, washing clothes went like this:

"In the early days, without running water, gas, or electricity even the most simplified hand-laundry used staggering amounts of time and labor. One wash, one boiling and one rinse used about fifty gallons of water—or four hundred pounds—which had to be moved from pump or well or faucet to stove and tub, in buckets and wash boilers that might weigh as much as forty or fifty pounds. Rubbing, wringing, and lifting water-laden clothes and linens, including large articles like sheets, tablecloths, and men’s heavy work clothes, wearied women’s arms and wrists and exposed them to caustic substances. They lugged weighty tubs and baskets full of wet laundry outside, picked up an article, hung it on the line, and returned to take it all down; they ironed by heating several irons on the stove and alternating them as they cooled, never straying far from the hot stove."

With hot running water at our disposal, hand-washing in bulk is not the horrendous task it once was. Of course, its not nearly as easy as tossing a load in your own private machine. So why would I advocate hand-washing your clothes? For those of us who do not have a washer/dryer at home, using your apartment's overpriced facilities or taking your laundry to a laundromat can be a dreaded experience. For people who are living paycheck to paycheck or on limited budgets, the extra $3.50 per load could very well be a hardship. In these instances, you can quite successfully wash your clothes by hand for free with great results. I find that in my cases, my clothing gets cleaner and suffers less damage with hand-washing than in machine-washing. That being said, not everything needs to be laundered after each use. Jeans are the perennial example. Unless you are gardening or doing manual labor in them, denim jeans can stand to go a few wearings without washing. If you are withdrawing from the the wear once and wash standard of living, air them out after wearing or get a travel steamer and some fabric refreshing spray. Sweaters and other outerwear are also good examples of clothes that don't have to be washed after every wearing provided that you don't sweat a lot or smell bad to begin with. Wear an undershirt and wash that every wearing instead. Towels used to dry off a clean body can go at least a week provided it is hung up promptly after use. Pajamas can be worn several nights in a row. Items that should always be laundered after each use are undergarments and socks. In addition, any clothing that shows visible dirt, sweat, or smells less than clean should be washed.

Next, it is important to pay attention to what your clothes are made of. This will determine, more than color, how you sort your laundry for bathtub washing. Synthetic fabrics such as polyester, nylon, spandex, etc. will dry quickly. Cotton will dry very slowly and can mold without some air flow. I try not to wash too many cotton items all at once or nothing seems to dry fast. Cotton is also very heavy and will increase the weight on whatever system you use to dry the laundry. I would suggest only washing one cotton towel at a time as they are difficult to hang with clothes pins or with hangers, and take a long time to dry. As far as the volume you can wash at once, it depends on how much you want to deal with and how much space you have to dry everything. I would start small until you get a feel for how much you can handle at once.

What you need:
*A bathtub, plastic bin, or even a 5 gallon bucket (for small loads)
*A "laundry stick", a strong rod, like a broom handle (2-4 feet long)
*Detergent

When I first started, I actually got in the tub with my laundry, stomping and agitating the contents like grape stompers make wine. It was tiring and inefficient. Now, I use a 3-foot rod to "stir" my laundry in between periods of soaking. The type of rod used should be strong, long enough for good leverage, and of course, water-resistant. A broom handle is about right.

Ready to begin? First, fill up your bathtub about half-way with warm water. Put in a full capful of detergent. Dump in your selected clothing. Hold your laundry stick with one hand half-way down and the other hand at the top. Use the leverage of the rod to easily swish around your clothes in a figure-eight pattern. After 10 minutes or so, let the laundry sit. Come back in about a half-hour and swish the laundry again. This is not an exact science. You can soak your clothing as long as you wish, repeating the cycles of agitation and soaking until you are satisfied that your clothing is clean. Drain the water and refill the tub half-way with cold water to rinse. Swish around for a few minutes and then drain the tub.

In the beginning, I thought it was necessary to wring out each individual peice of clothing before hanging it. This was the single worst task - involving cold hands and tired arms. Now, I simply let gravity do most of the work. Most apartment complexes do not allow line drying so I have found the best way to dry your clothes is to hang them from hangers over the bathtub. If you already have a spring-loaded shower curtain rod that can hold the weight of your clothes then you are in business. You may need to adust the tension to accommodate the added weight. When you are ready to hang, just slide the rod into the shower so that your clothes will drip over the tub. Don't bother wringing them out, just put them on hangers and hang them. Make sure to space them out enough so that there is air flow. After about an hour, most of the water will be in the bottom half of the clothing. While the clothes are still hanging, simply squeeze the bottom half to rid the material of most of the excess water.

If you don't have a tub or a shower rod that can hold the weight of wet clothing, you can string up a clothes line in the kitchen and use clothes pins. Unfortunately, you'll have to wring out each piece of clothing, or else have a huge mess on your hands. The water that does drip, however, can be used to mop your kitchen floor with and is quite manageable if you've done a good job wringing. You can also buy a hand-wringer to make this job easier but I have so far found it unnecessary. Your mileage may vary.

Your results will be markedly improved if you can set up a fan in the bathroom to circulate air. An open window is a good idea too during fair weather. I find that most pieces of clothing will dry completely in about 12 hours with a fan. Once clothing is dry, simply hang the clothes in your closet . There will be no need to iron the clothes, however, you may have to manually remove lint and/or pet hair with tape or a lint brush.

Special challenges:

Socks: It took me a while to figure out how to dry socks properly. Because they are mostly made of cotton, they are heavy and dry very slowly. They resist hanging on hangers and take up a lot of room on a clothes line. While doornobs make decent sock drying apparati, its not the most attractive option. I found that what works the best for me is to make a sock chain with one hanger and a bunch of clothes pins. Clothes-pin one sock on each side of a hanger so that the two socks balance each other in weight. On the bottom of the sock, clothes-pin another sock by the top so that the bottom of one sock attached to the top of the next sock. You can make two "sock chains" as long as necessary in this fashion on one hanger as long as the weight remains balanced.

Sheets, Blankets, other large items: Don't over do it. Wash one large item at a time. Blankets can be dried in the kitchen suspended over chairs after it has been satisfactorly wrung of excess water. Keep a mop handy to deal with the dripping. A box fan helps to speed things up. Dry it outside in sunny warm weather if possible.

Warning: Do not place any piece of clothing in your microwave or your oven!

Note: This method will clean, but not sanitize your clothing. If you have an infestation like lice or bed bugs, you will need to wash your clothes in a machine with a sanitize option to properly kill the insects. In addition, any sort of clothing that might harbor infection or any plant or chemical based irritant should also be laundered in a machine.

I have been doing my laundry this way for years. I find that it takes less time and energy than hauling it down to the laundromat and hoping for a free washer and dryer and I don't need to spend an extra $40 dollars a month to wash my clothes in an overpriced barely-working washer and dryer at my apartment complex. I can wash my clothes using the swish and soak method while I am attending to other things (such as writing a blog post), and I never have to worry about ironing, folding or hanging when done. Its a time and money saver, and it works like a charm! I feel so liberated!