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Laundry in the sink

Printed From: Avian Flu Talk
Category: Pandemic Prepping Forums
Forum Name: General Prepping Tips
Forum Description: (Home and family preparedness)
URL: http://www.avianflutalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=25200
Printed Date: April 25 2024 at 9:36am


Topic: Laundry in the sink
Posted By: Dr.Who
Subject: Laundry in the sink
Date Posted: September 18 2009 at 12:23pm

If, in a SIP, you needed to do laundry what would the process look like?

Background:

Ok, so I have a high efficiency washing machine and dryer. Unfortunately the washer is broken right now and has been for over a week. (Sears takes about a week to send out a repair person and he needed to come out twice. I Am also unhappy that a relatively new appliance has needed repair twice now)

Anyway, a few days ago I did a couple of loads of laundry at the laundromat hoping to get my machine working before now. But it is not working and now my car, coincidentally, is broken at the same time. Since we have a busy weekend ahead the only option I had was to do a load by hand to get us through until Monday when they machine should be fixed.

My goal was not to take really dirty cloths and to make them clean. My goal was to take clothes that were more or less clean, except that they were sitting in the hamper, and make them fresh enough to wear.

So I decided to do a load of "warm" clothes though I made some exceptions. I grabbed only clothes without stains. I brought them up to the kitchen sink with some laundry soap. I filled the sink with warm water and soap and started to sort the clothes into piles depending on what order I wanted to wash them in. Right away I realized I could first do some without bleach and then add some bleach to finish up the rest. I went down and got some bleach.

First I washed my wife's bras. They were impossible to wring because of the underwires. (I bet a salad spinner would work) Then I washed some pants, then shirts, then white shirts, and lastly a couple of pair of underwear. I added the bleach just before the white shirts.

The actual washing did not take long. But rinsing out the soap took a while and wringing out the water was very physical and time consuming. It proably took me about an hour to wash one easy load.

A prepping tip to learn from this is if one ever expects to do larger amaounts of laundry in the sink a mop-bucket wringer would be indispensible!

I could not get out all the water by hand so I have hung up the clothes to drip-dry. In a little while I will throw them into the dryer to finish off.

As a side note, the laundry soap and the bleach didn't leave my hands feeling to good.

Has anyone else done wash by hand? What have you learned?


Replies:
Posted By: Wishbone
Date Posted: September 18 2009 at 2:01pm
Roll each piece of wet laundry in a large dry towel.
Remove it and hang it on a line or a plastic hanger.
It will dry faster.
 
It's better to have loved and lost than to have to do forty pounds of laundry a week.
 Dr. Laurence J. Peter 

Posted By: jody05
Date Posted: September 18 2009 at 4:57pm
remember the old scrub boards? they work really well. growing up I was expected to do my underwear on a scrub board every night. Maybe it should be part of everyones preps.

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lurking since 2005 with a looong memory
for everything that has transpired on this site!

Posted By: MelodyAtHome
Date Posted: September 18 2009 at 10:07pm
When I was younger we had a wash board. Yes, we had a washer machine but I had 6 brothers who had to wear white shirts to Catholic school as well as I did...so I'd have to put soap on the collars and cuffs and scrub, scrub scrub...since I had all that to do I figured I'd just finish washing the rest of the shirt with the scrubber and they would turn out great.
I would say wash the cleanes clothe first and dirtiery ones last...that is what I'd do when our washer machine broke a couple of times back then.
It is physical and not sure if I could do it anymore. My husband would have to do laundry or my kids :O) if we had to do it by hand.
Melody


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Melody
Emergency Preparedness 911
http://emergencypreparedness911.blogspot.com/

Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: September 19 2009 at 6:53pm
I still like the idea of a mop bucket with the "mop wringer". You can get one at Sam Club for 50 bucks and a plunger for the toilet for 5 bucks. If things look bad at any time in the future those are on my last minuet preps.

You do not need to use much soap... hard to rinse out.

It sounds better to me than hand washing...been there done that!

Posted By: honeybee
Date Posted: January 04 2010 at 9:28pm

Heavier clothes, like pants, bulky sweaters:  Put them in the bathtub, and walk in the tub, swishing, etc.  Some items are easier rinsed with the shower head, especially if its hand held. (if you are lucky, you will have some kids that can have fun with this part).

One problem was wringing out jeans. I was taught to put them around a post or small tree and twise the legs. Gets a lot out, but the upper part is best squeezed in a towel.

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Honeybee

Posted By: Mary008
Date Posted: January 28 2010 at 9:05pm
 
gosh... i'm just stuck on the fact of... a guy who whould be nice enough to do the laundry :)
wow...   you go Doc.


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