Author Topic: Hand washing of laundry (Read 5457 times)

LordPhan · « **Reply #15 on:** October 28, 2011, 10:05:34 PM »

What do you need to do this? Will the Dawn dishwash soap work? Can you do it in a bathtub? Do I need a tool afterwards? I have nowhere to dry them but I could take them down to the machines for drying after handwashing them.

Telesphorus · « **Reply #16 on:** October 28, 2011, 10:15:47 PM »

Quote from: LordPhan

What do you need to do this? Will the Dawn dishwash soap work? Can you do it in a bathtub? Do I need a tool afterwards? I have nowhere to dry them but I could take them down to the machines for drying after handwashing them.

I bought a washboard at a flea market. I don't put the clothes directly in the tub, but in a large pvc basin and in 5 gallon buckets. You could use a heatable wash basin if you can find one. You apply the fels naptha to the board and rub the clothes on it, individually, working on stains, etc. When the water is squeezed out you dip it back into the soapy water. Repeat, ring, wring out the clothes, then hang on the line.

Telesphorus · « **Reply #17 on:** October 28, 2011, 10:19:20 PM »

don't use dish soap except for stains, and only use dawn (other types can damage clothes I think - others have attested to dawn being okay, not me). For making your own detergent save the remains of bars of ivory/castile/felsnaptha soap melt them in a few quarts of water in some pot on the stove. Add washing soda, borax, baking soda. Then poor the melted mixture into a bucket full of warm water. This cools and forms a gel that can be used as laundry detergent (it's not very potent, but very cheap, you can spike it with tide I guess if you must).

Anna1959 · « **Reply #18 on:** October 28, 2011, 10:48:00 PM »

Quote from: Telesphorus

Right now I'm using an old "Triumph Zinkeinlage" (washboard) from Germany and a 32 gallon pvc basin to hand wash laundry. I have a clothes line up. I use the homemade borax/washing soda/ivory soap detergent and bars of ivory soap to wash.

Though it is time consuming, driving half an hour to the laundromat and back, and spending the money in the machines adds up to time and money that makes the cost of washing at home roughly equivalent.

I don't have heatable metal wash basin yet.

Anyway, if someone has any expertise to share about hand washing, please let me know!

You are bringing back memories for me! I used to help my Grandmom wash clothes by hand, on the scrubbing board and sometimes (when it was a lot), in her washing tub with the wringers at the top (old-fashioned washing machine.)

ora pro me · « **Reply #19 on:** October 28, 2011, 11:04:32 PM »

Anna,
You just reminded me of watching my own grandma use her old-fashioned wringer machine. I was fascintated with it. I believe she used it until she died. Now I'm wondering what ever happened to it. She also hung her clothes out on the line outside and in winter she used a clothesline in her basement.

MaterDominici · « **Reply #20 on:** October 29, 2011, 11:22:42 AM »

Quote from: Telesphorus

Hand wrung clothes go on the line wetter and don't get nearly as wrinkly.

I think this has more to do with the line drying than the hand washing. Almost all of our laundry is machine washed and line dried. I can leave clean clothes in a basket for days and still not have much wrinkling.

Telesphorus · « **Reply #21 on:** October 29, 2011, 11:58:21 AM »

Quote from: MaterDominici

Quote from: Telesphorus
Hand wrung clothes go on the line wetter and don't get nearly as wrinkly.

I think this has more to do with the line drying than the hand washing. Almost all of our laundry is machine washed and line dried. I can leave clean clothes in a basket for days and still not have much wrinkling.

Well, the clothes that I line-dried that had been through a spin cycle turned out a lot more wrinkly than when I line-dried clothes I wrung by hand.

Telesphorus · « **Reply #22 on:** October 29, 2011, 02:26:19 PM »

I made 5 gallons of laundry detergent last night with 2 cups of the remains of bars of soap. Since soap like that tends to be hard to use and quickly disappears I think you can practically say the cost of the soap for the detergent is free. I put washing soda, baking soda, and borax, and I use plenty. I suppose it's important not let the get get too thick. It's not the most potent stuff, but spiked with a little of the store stuff it should do well when I do use machines, and also I soak clothes in it.