Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A Solution to Hand Washing Clothes

Blog post by Tina Winterlik © 2012
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The whole time we were in Zipolite (6 months) I hand washed my clothes. Thankfully the sun was strong most of the time and they smell so lovely when they dry in the sun. Some days it did rain and then that could be a problem.

When |I fell and hurt my hand I was really messed up. It was quite a while before I could wash them and then I had an even bigger pile to do. (Note the splint on my hand in the video.) Mostly we had light clothing so it's not that hard to wring them but my jean shorts and some of Angel's shorts and skorts were hard and well just the number of items it took it's toll on my hands. Not to mention that I have a history of tendonitis so my hands hate the wringing part.

One day I hope to live off the grid. Here is a fabulous idea.
http://www.thedogood.net/health/2013/03/pedal-powered-washing-machine-costs-less-than-40-to-make/#.UVPAwVeP7ON

I know that this could come in handy for the people of Zipolite because when the tourists arrive there's a lot of laundry. When my landlady's washer broke it was really hard. It's $300 just for a small washer - an old fashioned kind, nothing fancy, so if they could rig this up, I am sure it would help.

Note, this is not how they do it, they use the cement basin beneath this tub but I am no go at that so I just wash it in the tub, rinse in another, wash, wring,  rinse, wash, wring, rinse....and then rinse, wring, hang to dry.