Reddit mentions of EasyGoProducts Hand Powered Clothes Washing Wand, Blue

I used one of these and a 5 gallon bucket to wash clothes for a couple of years. That was for two adults, a toddler, baby, and included cloth diapers. It’s quite an arm workout, but was doable. It was tedious to hand wring everything out before hanging it to dry, but overall saved us so much money in laundry costs. It’d be a really great option for a single person.

My wife and I spent a year in rural parts. Without power and water, there isn't the ability to wash clothes. Something like this would be invaluable: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YQCOCAM

Also, without running water look at various camping shower options. Some paracord and laundry pins are good too to dry out clothes in case they lost theirs in the storm (its not uncommon to use a washer but hang dry your clothes)

Edit: oh and tape and mosquito netting. I bet all the mosquito screens on windows are trashed, so the ability to tape up netting over the windows will help

This is in my Christmas cart, wish me luck.

Bathtub or giant rubbermaid bin, some muscle and this https://www.amazon.ca/Amazing-Washing-Wand-Apartments-Emergencies/dp/B00YQCOCAM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1491484861&sr=8-2&keywords=washing+wand

As for drying you can get a drying rack that folds out or one that hangs on a door.
Edit: this is what i have but I only paid $30 for it https://www.amazon.ca/Greenway-Stainless-Steel-Laundry-Drying/dp/B01MXTQYAX/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1491490271&sr=1-2&keywords=over+door+drying+rack

My first six months at site I hand washed. One tub for washing, one for rinsing, then hang to dry. It'd take at least an hour for a week's worth of clothes.

Then I got smart, I came across this website by one of those doomsday preper/apocalypse type guys. He had this idea for washing clothes without electricity and it changed my life. Basically you need just a toliet plunger and large tall bucket, what we call a 5 gallon bucket in the USA. The plunger can be substituted with a number of instruments but I've found if you can get ahold of a plunger, it works best. You cut some holes in the plunger so water can through. Then to do laundry, put a couple handfuls of soap in the bucket, add the plunger, and put all your clothes in around the plunger. Then add water to pretty much the top. I always add about a 2 liters of hot water too as I find that is extra effective. Let soak about an hour. The to wash simply move the plunger up and down for a about 10 minutes. Then rinse in a separate tub and hang to dry. Before each piece of clothing took about 5 minutes. Now all of them take about 10. I'm able to fit a pair of pants, couple shorts, couple shirts, t-shirt, 3 underwear and 2 pair socks all in one load.

My clothes have never been cleaner and it's super easy. Maybe 20 minutes tops per week for all my clothes. This works exactly like an electrical wash machine except you provide the power. The water and clothes and soap all mix together and agitate each other and rub against each other just like they do in your mom's wash machine back in the good old USA. It's brilliant.

After I made the plunger I found out there's actually a whole line of commercial
products you can buy on Amazon to replace the plunger. Look up "magic washing wand" or something like that and read the reviews yourself. I love my little plunger washer. Highly recommended if you can find the materials.

Also side note, I always do my washing inside now whereas before I did it outside. It can get a bit messy, but hcns here would laugh at me if they saw my style (Im a guy). They generally think I have no idea how to do household chores and scrutinize basically everything I do already. But for me at least and my skill set, my clothes are 10 times cleaner than when I was hand washing.

EDIT: link to the commercial version you can buy on Amazon. Fwiw, I still use a toliet plunger and its fine

https://www.amazon.com/EasyGoProducts-Hand-Powered-Clothes-Washing/dp/B00YQCOCAM

I often wash my by hand like you describe if there's only a few because I hate to waste so much water using the washing machine. I recently bought a hand wash plunger type thing to prewash my towels in a 6.5 gallon bucket. I like it a lot!

I would suggest washing in a bucket because it's easier to swirl around and scrub the clothes. This should help with the musty smell. You can wash your clothes with a bar of Zote or Fells Naptha which is $1 at Walmart and should last a few months. In the longer term, you might want to invest in a washing board, washing wand or manual washer.

Can you line dry? I think it's one of the best ways to dry clothes and your only costs would be a line and some clothes pins. If you can't line dry, maybe a drying rack would work. In the long term a port

If line drying isn't an option

Yep...as soon as I saw it I thought of this doohickey I considered buying at one point.

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This thing has 5 stars on Amazon. I use it whenever I want to wash something gently or I only have one white or dark thing I want to wash and don't want to pay a whole $3.50 on an extra load of laundry at the laundromat.

Comfortors are another thing notorious for disintegrating in the laundry. Check reviews online before you wash one for the first time.

You can get plunger + 5 gal bucket washing machine substitutes to clean those reusable diapers. You could reasonably hang them in the tub or out the window.


Added bonus of having this in your backup is that you've prepped for washing your own unmentionables, and you won't have to deal with any mystery rashes that baby might develop in reaction to all that extra shit going on with disposable diapers that you haven't experimented with previously.

I don't know of any drill option. But here is another solution. I've never used one and don't own one. But it's worth a shot. https://www.amazon.com/EasyGoProducts-Hand-Powered-Clothes-Washing/dp/B00YQCOCAM/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=hand+washing+machine&qid=1569200809&sr=8-5

Actually...yes, assuming you have your own bathroom and/or very understanding roommates :
Use a detergent that has both water softener (to counteract the hard water) and enzymes in it.
The easiest one to find is probably Tide.

But of course, there's a catch.
The catch is that you'll need to soak them for several hours, and because you don't have your own washer, you'll need to soak them at home and wash them by hand. And you'll probably need a second set of sheets if you don't already have one.

If you want to make a small investment that will keep you out of the laundromat and let you wash all your laundry at home (not just sheets) you might consider something like the "wonder washer" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002C8HR9A and a folding drying rack.

If you want to go the cheaper route, some folks use a 5 gallon bucket (from Home Depot or similar) to wash by hand, but I find a big plastic storage tub works better. Use a small amount of detergent (about 1/3 of what you'd use for a normal sized load). If you're using powdered detergent, dissolve it with hot water, then use whatever temperature water you want. Put your sheets in and add enough water to cover the sheets by a few inches. I use a 15 gallon storage tub and usually fill it 2/3 of the way.
Take a clean laundry only plunger (I use this one and love it https://www.amazon.com/EasyGoProducts-Hand-Powered-Clothes-Washing/dp/B00YQCOCAM ) or your hands or clean legs and feet and squish the sheets around in the water for about 5 minutes or so. Then let the sheets sit. The longer they sit, the better the enzymes will work. If you can soak them either overnight or while you're away at work, that would be awesome, but even just two or three hours will make a big difference. When the soak is done, use the plunger (arms/legs/whatever) to squish them around again for about 15 minutes. It's ok to take a break if you get tired, but you want to agitate them for about 15 minutes total. Then empty the water out, and start the first "rinse cycle". Put clean water in the tub and squish the sheets around to rinse. Empty the water and rinse the sheets again.
Then wring them out using your hands and hang them to dry.

TL;DR Wash at home and soak your sheets in a detergent that has water softeners and enzymes.