Our new place doesn't have a washer and dryer in the place. It does have a laundry facility that we have to pay for. In my quest for ever more frugalness, I took an idea from the documentary "No Impact Man."
I placed my clothes, as Mel wanted no part of this till she sees how it turns out, into the bathtub filled with cold water and homemade laundry detergent. Only afterwards did it occur to me that I could have finished up our regular laundry detergent. I did this yesterday morning and I let them soak all day. When I got home from work I tried the "walking around on them to agitate them" method and nearly had a heart attack from the cold water. Afterwards I wrung them out and placed them on our meager clothes line on the balcony.
I noticed that some of my work clothes needed a lot of agitating as they were covered in dirt. I think a brush being added to the process might help. Can you still get washboards? I also only used one tbs of my detergent. My friend Seth threw in a load as well and together it was just too much. I need to keep the loads small and manageable. Not only was it just a time suck I ran out of clothes line space. I hung the clothes up near evening so of course they are still wet this morning. Which means I really need to plan ahead.
Another concern is the amount of water I am using. I'm only using the amount of water needed to soak the clothes so I am very sure I'm saving there. However, the rinse has me thinking I could do better.
The jury is still out on this one. But people washed their clothes before there was washing machines. I just need to figure it out.
As for the homemade laundry detergent I used this recipe from the No Impact Man website. I added another tbs of liquid Castille soap. I think when I make it again I am going to use liquid soap and just dissolve the washing soda and Borax into the bath water as it is running.
Laundry Detergent
1 cup soap flakes
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax
Soap flakes can be made by grating your favorite pure vegetable soap with a cheese grater. Mix ingredients together and store in a glass container. Use 1 tablespoon per load (2 for heavily soiled laundry), wash in warm or cold water.
This standard recipe can be adjusted for soft water by using 1 cup soap flakes, 1/4 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup borax. For hard water, use 1 cup soap flakes, 1 cup washing soda, and 1 cup borax.
Note: Borax should not be ingested.
Tips: Add 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar to rinse as a fabric softener. For a whitener, use hydrogen peroxide rather than bleach. Soak your dingy white clothes for 30 minutes in the washer with 1/2 cup 20% peroxide. Launder as usual.
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2008/05/lv-grn-make-you.html
I placed my clothes, as Mel wanted no part of this till she sees how it turns out, into the bathtub filled with cold water and homemade laundry detergent. Only afterwards did it occur to me that I could have finished up our regular laundry detergent. I did this yesterday morning and I let them soak all day. When I got home from work I tried the "walking around on them to agitate them" method and nearly had a heart attack from the cold water. Afterwards I wrung them out and placed them on our meager clothes line on the balcony.
What I learned
Another concern is the amount of water I am using. I'm only using the amount of water needed to soak the clothes so I am very sure I'm saving there. However, the rinse has me thinking I could do better.
The jury is still out on this one. But people washed their clothes before there was washing machines. I just need to figure it out.
As for the homemade laundry detergent I used this recipe from the No Impact Man website. I added another tbs of liquid Castille soap. I think when I make it again I am going to use liquid soap and just dissolve the washing soda and Borax into the bath water as it is running.
Laundry Detergent
1 cup soap flakes
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax
Soap flakes can be made by grating your favorite pure vegetable soap with a cheese grater. Mix ingredients together and store in a glass container. Use 1 tablespoon per load (2 for heavily soiled laundry), wash in warm or cold water.
This standard recipe can be adjusted for soft water by using 1 cup soap flakes, 1/4 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup borax. For hard water, use 1 cup soap flakes, 1 cup washing soda, and 1 cup borax.
Note: Borax should not be ingested.
Tips: Add 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar to rinse as a fabric softener. For a whitener, use hydrogen peroxide rather than bleach. Soak your dingy white clothes for 30 minutes in the washer with 1/2 cup 20% peroxide. Launder as usual.
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2008/05/lv-grn-make-you.html
I love reading about your experiments. But what comes to mind is opportunity cost, i.e. maximizing your time doing fun stuff NOT LAUNDRY, blech! Assume this adventure takes an hour of your time each week and yields one load.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the washing part in machine=20 mins and costs you 1.50
Line dry= low energy impact and maybe 10 mins to hang, especially if only doing one load a week (but where is the room?)
But then again this comes from a mommy that would lose it without a washing machine.
Love the ingenuity!
You are very right about the concept of opportunity cost. But I always cringe when people use it. I feel it is one of those buzz words that has gotten too much credit and is too easily applied the wrong way. If you make $100/hr then anything you do that isn't earning you $100/hr is a loss of opportunity. Which is almost everything in life. If you look at it non-monetarily and say you could be surfing, I say true but you still have dirty laundry. For me I view opportunity costs as a static measurement. It is only good when you have set parameters. But if you change the paradigm you change the parameters and therefore the opportunity costs. I'm starting to babble so let me wrap it up. I think I can do it for as little effort as going to the laundromat and cheaper. I just need to think about it differently :) But it's fun trying!
ReplyDeleteSo if I hear you correctly, change your paradigm-make laundry fun, learn something new- Then the time you spend doing it isn't an opportunity lost. I can't wait to hear how it goes!!!
ReplyDelete