[permaculture] Green Washing clothes

Paul d'Aoust paul at heliosville.com
Wed Sep 19 01:52:09 EDT 2007


On Tue, 2007-18-09 at 20:49 -0400, KNat wrote:
> Paul d'Aoust wrote:
> > So how do you folks do it? The first time I ever washed any substantial
> > amount of clothes by hand was this summer (at a PDC, actually), and a
> > couple of my older shirts disintegrated, whereas they'd been
> > threadbare-but-intact through many mechanical washes. Is there some sort
> > of technique I'm missing?
> >
> > Paul d'Aoust
> I'm not a bend over the tub type. But a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger 
> have taken me many miles (and 2 month stretches) with the boy scouts. We 
> did have a wash off with one of these 
> http://camping.about.com/od/campinggearreviews/gr/wonderwash.htm. I 
> voted for the bucket because it was better for carrying stuff and 
> doubled as a chair with emergency water by the fire (without the 
> plunger). Spin dry was a net bag on a rope. I've had more clothes 
> self-destruct from leaving in sun too much than from bucket washing. How 
> did you dry?
> 
> Kathyann

ah, so you don't need a lot of violent agitation and scrubbing, eh? I
think that's what caused the deterioration.

I let them dry on a line, actually. (Well, I tried to let them dry; the
Bullocks' farm on Orcas Island is a rather damp place.)

Paul




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