EDIT: I’ve received enough help to get a washing machine now and will have it on Tuesday. Thanks for the suggestions though.
I’m not having much luck with my mutual aid request for a new washing machine. I’m finding it impossible to wash my clothes by hand. I have very little use of my left arm, as well as issues with my hands. I’m finding i just can’t wring the clothes out by hand, which means i can’t get the laundry disinfectant I have to use, out properly. They’re being left itchy and smelly. Does anyone have any good tips on dealing with this?
people are always getting rid of used washers & dryers on craigslist and many fo them are portable so you don’t need actual washer/dryer hookups.a
i’ve collected and given away 2 so far this year.
Honestly I think the best bet would be to go to local dumps or recycling places and see if you can talk with people there, explain your situation, and that when a washing machine comes in, you might get it. People do get rid of old working washing machines.
Have you tried no-rinse detergent? I use it all the time to hand wash and I never have to wring my clothes because of it, makes laundry much less of a chore.
Wringing out clothes sufficiently is something that even particularly muscular able-bodied people have difficulty doing, it’s a task for which human hands lack the necessary mechanical strength. My local Anabaptist community uses hand-wringers which look a lot like a pair of rolling pins, I’m unsure of how available these are in the UK.
Could you get a few free 5 gallon buckets from a grocery store?
https://theramblingnelipot.webofwyrd.co.uk/2016/05/08/diy-clothes-washerwringer/
I’ve used a similar setup to this while camping, perhaps this could be helpful?
Thank you but I don;t think I can do that. I have trouble doing basic things like putting on my shoes and can barely left anything or use my right arm.
Would a mechanism you could push or lean against work for you? A commercial mop wringer could wring out perhaps 1-2 articles of clothing at a time, then a rinse and line dry should be sufficient.
Alternatively, a different application of the bucket method would allow you to sit on top of one bucket and have that force squeeze the clothing between the buckets.
Please excuse the crude drawing, but here is a simple diagram, you would sit on the inner bucket, which would squeeze the water out of the clothing (yellow) and the water would escape through the drilled holes.
But I would have to buy the buckets, and a drill, and drill the holes?
These sorts of buckets are often free because they’re the waste packaging used for commercial quantities of things like laundry detergent or cake frosting.
I typically get a few of these for free from my local grocery store or dry cleaners every year to plant vegetables in.
Could someone with a drill do that part for you? Could your landlady do that part, as she is presumably also without a washing machine now?
we would have to buy a drill though. and this just doesnt seem like a long term solution.
You dont need a drill to put a hole in a plastic bucket, it just makes it easier. You could melt the plastic a bit with a BBQ lighter to soften it (do it outside cause of fumes and cover for breathing bits) and then poke something through. It’s not like you need precise hole sizes. You could probably score it with a knife and then pop it through as well.
It’s definitely not.
A more functional long term solution would be in fixing the washing machine. In what way is it not working? It’s possible a handyperson or appliance repairperson could fix it.
one has already been out and said it’s unfixable. it’s like 20 years old and has had many problems and been repaired multiple times before. it’s knackered now, doesn’t drain or spin.
You can buy clothes spinners that you pump with your foot for pretty cheap I think?
actually looking around I can’t find them anymore. The only manual ones are a hand crank.
Returning to this thread and reading through it I want to add something. You may consider before buying anything to try to do this (like buckets or anything like that) if it would not just be cheaper to find a laundromat and clean clothes there once every couple of weeks? I know this may not be an option though depending on where you are.
Ok, I had moderate success with trying out the method I mentioned in my other comment.
Step 1: is to wash the clothes (either in the sink or in a bucket, I have to wash my clothes in the shower), I usually just let them soak in hot/warm water for a while, sometimes they don’t even need to be agitated after this, the soaking does most of the work. (Personally I try to use as little detergent as possible because it is so hard to wring it out.)
Step 2: I got a dish drying rack and an old cutting board, I don’t have a rolling pin, so I used a wine bottle as a replacement, anything cylindrical and relatively heavy should work.
Step 3: I laid the clothes out on the dish rack as flat as I could manage, and tried just rolling and crushing the water out, just the weight of the tools and my arm was generally enough, I didn’t need to push hard, just leaned into a bit, I found pressing with the cutting board and then rolling with the wine bottle worked best. Then I flipped the piece of clothing and wringed it out again, sometimes needing to do this a couple of times.
Step 4: I rinsed the clothes and then repeated the process, it took me about 2-3 cycles of this to reduce the detergent to a level I was happy with, but if you might need more or less depending on how sensitive to that itchy detergent feel you are.
I wash only washing underwear today though, and each piece took me about 3-5 minutes to do with this method, so it is slow, and would probably not work for very large articles of clothing like a full dress or for bedsheets.
Additionally, I was on my knees the entire time because I was washing them using the shower, but if you have a laundry sink (or you could even use your kitchen sink really), then it would probably be a lot easier on your legs and feet.
I’m also worried that while I tried to come up with a method that wasn’t too physically taxing, it might still be an exhausting task, I’m feeling pretty tired after doing it, though that could be because I was on my knees and constantly needing to stand up to stretch them out.
I hope this can help a little bit, you’ll probably need to adjust things to suit your needs and limitations, but let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help!
When I was a kid and lived in poor rural Tennessee one trick was to get a mop bucket where you can squeeze the water out of the mop but just use that for the clothes.
Also the general method was to use the bathtub. Fill it with warm water and some detergent throw in the clothes agitate a little and let them soak. drain the water and fill with cold water agitate and drain. Sometimes do that three times or whatever.
Cool experiment! Washing clothes is generally exhausting, historically it’s one of the things people first outsource when they subjugate others. Laundry used to take alllllll fucking day.
I don’t have a rolling pin, so I used a wine bottle as a replacement
This comment makes me think of all the people I went to uni with who got scurvy lol. Although I suppose if you don’t bake a rolling pin is not very useful.
A rolling pin was one of the first kitchen tools I bought in grad school because there wasn’t one in my dorm suite’s kitchen. In the last 7 years it has been used exactly zero times. Lmao
Why don’tcha use this as a reason to take some time to yourself and make some dumplings, or croissants if you’re feeling cheeky. Baking is very relaxing :3
It’s one of those Honky Cooking Items we don’t really use in our household, like the giant German cleaver my wife ignores in favour of the caidao, we just use a dowel instead.
Fair fair. I just have a smoothed and oiled wide dowel because handles break under high pressure but I can lean my full body on this.
Also caidaos are great (my fav knife for general cooking) but cleavers are for chopping which will chip the fine edge of a caidao. If you are vegan though you don’t really have a need to cleave through bones etc.
I feel like even a lot of carnists are alienated enough from their food that they don’t need to chop through bones regularly. Maybe to expose marrow for stock?
When I was on my “factory farming bad, meat needed” arc I did a lot of hunting and “ethical” butchers stuff. Might’ve skewed my idea of what meat eating people eat.
Honestly ive found smaller cleavers to be pretty great for the hefty roots. The rutabagas, celeri root, etc., especially when they’re big. Also for garlic cause I just place all the cloves and crush them at once instead of one at a time (yes I know I use “too much” garlic, no I won’t stop, it is the perfect food).
Yeah, I have a tiny kitchen, so I don’t really bake at all, I don’t have the room, I did have a rolling pin at one point though, I just can’t remember where it went. I don’t think I’ve got scurvy, but my dentist did recommend I have less lemon since the acid is bad for your teeth, so…maybe?
And it’s actually a weird coincidence that I have a bottle of wine at all, I don’t normally drink wine, but I was making a recipe earlier this week that needed wine in it, otherwise I don’t think I would’ve had a replacement at all. Barely used it in the recipe (it asked for a full bottle, which would’ve tasted awful), so I’m glad I found a use for it beyond that.
If you can afford it a small manual washer should be able to get the job done better. They sell for less than a hundred bucks if you don’t mind lower quality
I’m disabled though, little strength, barely any use of my right arm, and not full use of my hands.
I promise you turning a crank or pushing a plunger will be easier than what you’re already doing
For improved rinsing and agitation there are tools for people with arthritis like this: https://wringmaster-com.myshopify.com/cdn/shop/products/3-3_530x@2x.jpg
Used against a collander or bucket with holes that may assist in removing excess water.
Washboards normally require two hands, although you could modify one by tying the end you’re supposed to hold to an anchor if you have one. They are the other big tool for getting water in and out for effective cleaning and rinsing.
Wringing laundry out requires tools. Options since Emma’s are not what you’re looking for:
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A quickgrip clamp clamped down, clamp the clamped clamp to one end of your clothing article. Use another quick grip clamp on the other end as a lever to twist more easily, if you mount it on a wheel of some kind it’d be easier
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old style double roller. Probably hard to make yourself, estate sales? Old people in your community might have one lying around.
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bump
I also wash my clothes by hand, I’ll experiment and see if I can’t find a method that could work for you, I’m thinking laying them out on a dish drying rack or oven rack (or similar) and then running something like a rolling pin or a glass over them to wring them out, I imagine it would be fairly slow going, but better than nothing, I’ll let you know how well it works in a couple of hours after I’ve tested it.
I’ve never washed by hand but I will bump this so you get some help
thank you.
bumping
What about one of those plastic swimming pools so you can use your feet to do the washing?
my feet are healing from recent surgery so i don;t think so.
