Whenever someone hears we have not owned a "conventional" washer or dryer for the past 10+ years they always are in awe and have so many questions for us. I have done posts in the past that answered a few of their questions but decided to answer them all in one complete post.
Doing laundry without a "real" washer or dryer is not that hard or time consuming. Not only that, but you save a lot of money on water and electricity by doing without them too. Some are amazed that we line dry all year long, even in the winter time but it can be done.
First things first is to make some homemade laundry detergent. I know a lot of people make their own homemade laundry detergent but mine is slightly different than others. Instead of Fels-Naptha soap we prefer to use Ivory soap. Ivory does not cause skin allergies or reactions as much (or at least in our experience) and Ivory is easier to find in stores and is generally less expensive. To read the directions to make our homemade laundry detergent, click here: link to our homemade laundry detergent.
I also make homemade fabric softener. It takes only 2 ingredients plus water to make it and our clothes come out soft and smell fantastic. With line drying, towels and other items can come out a bit "crunchy" but by using my homemade fabric softener, even the towels come out soft. To find the recipe for the fabric softener, click here: link to my homemade fabric softener.
Instead of a washer, we use a washtub and washboard, the old-fashioned way. We heat up water in the house and add it the the washtub and scrub our clothes on the washboard. Clothes that seem to delicate for this, we use a plunger in a bucket to get them clean. Our clothes come out clean and our whites are not dingy.
We dry our clothes on a clothesline all year long. Whether it is sunny, windy, or below freezing, we still line dry our clothes. If we have to wash clothes and it is raining out, we wash the clothes in the sink with the washboard and lay out the clothes on an indoor clothes rack but that rarely happens. Drying in the winter time when temperatures are below freezing is called "freeze drying" and was done long before there was electricity and absolutely no reason it cannot be done today. If you would like to read more about it, click here: Line drying clothes in the winter.
Hope you found this interesting and informative. Do you do laundry this way too or perhaps a bit differently? Regardless, I'd love to hear how you do laundry.
