Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Washing Day

It's something we all gotta do, and I usually have trouble keeping up with it..


Our twin tub saves on both water and electricity. Water has been in short supply here since last winter was very dry. And yes, while our electricity is 'free' from the sun, it's actually more like pre-paying for it, and of course it's limited by the size of our system and available sunshine (we do get plenty of sun!).

We got the twin tub at a clearing sale one hot summer day a few years ago now. I'm not sure if I remember correctly if it was $60, but I'm sure it didn't cost more than $80. It was so clean, it hardly looked used!

I give my Mum credit for suggesting using the Sunshine bar of soap for washing. (She told me that she had to use it when I was a baby, or I would come out in a rash.. why doesn't that surprise me?) I just grate it up and it dissolves no problem. Oh, I see they changed the name, it's Sunlight now. I think it's just over $3 for 6 bars. I wasn't happy using the 'greywater safe', 'eco friendly' liquids and powders full of salts and phosphates on the garden.

Soap works just as well for us as laundry powder or liquid. Rinsing is much easier because there are less bubbles, I'm getting away with just one single rinse, I'm not even using vinegar!

The Breathing Mobile Washer is a blue hand-held thingy I got online and was kindly sent to me by Marty's Mom in the USA! It's great for washing (especially if I want to wash on a cloudy day) and I use it for rinsing the clothes in the bucket below. That way I can have a second load of laundry going while I rinse the first load. I think I might have this down to an art! ;)

Anyway, that's how I'm doing the laundry and saving money and resources. The less money we spend, the more time Marty and I can spend together.

Marty has only two weeks left of work, something we've been looking forward to for some time now. Now that we've paid off the farm, we're going to give this thing another shot. One last solid attempt before deciding if our future is here or if we'd be happier somewhere else, doing something else entirely.