Hobbies And Interests
Tub and Scrub
Our early ancestors removed the bulk of the grime from their clothing using water from a stream and beating or rubbing the clothing against rocks.
While beating clothes over a rock in midstream is out of the question for most of us, using an old-fashioned washboard and a tub or sink is a surprisingly effective way to wash clothes, and not as time-consuming as you might think.
Stomp to Clean
If you have a bathtub, one simple way to wash your clothes is to dump them all in the tub. Fill with water and add environmentally safe soap ̵1; preferably hand-made soap to avoid harsh, environmentally unfriendly detergents. Let everything soak for a couple of hours or overnight to loosen the dirt, then pull off your socks and shoes, roll up your pants and get in there and agitate the clothes by stomping on them for 20 or 30 minutes. Rinse the same way. Wring them out and hang on a line across the tub to dry.
Take the Plunge
One old-time method for cleaning clothes involved using a special plunger ̵1; essentially a stick with a funnel-like metal baffle on the end. People added clothes, soap and water to a washtub, then used the plunger to push and agitate the clothes by hand until they were clean. Some commercial stores selling goods to the Amish community still sell these devices for manually washing clothing.
Whiter Whites through Boiling
Our grandmothers had a neat trick for getting white clothes super clean and bright ̵1; they boiled them in a large pot or cauldron, over an open fire, and then dried them in the sunlight on a clothesline or spread over clean grass. You can still use this method to sanitize your white clothes by using a large kettle on your stove. No water-polluting chlorine beach needed.
Five-Gallon Bucket
If you're handy, use a 5-gallon bucket and a toilet plunger to make a clever mini washing machine. You can improve on simply putting clothing in a bucket of sudsy water and using the toilet plunger to wash them. Merely cut a hole the size of the plunger handle in the bucket lid to prevent splashing, and cut three or four holes in the rubber portion of the plunger so water can escape through the holes as you manipulate it up and down. Ta-da, a manually operated washing machine for a small load of laundry.