Tuesday, October 16, 2007

How To Do Laundry When There Is Little or No Water

Whether you are camping or in a crisis event such as a natural disaster, laundry can be a challenge when water is in short supply. This cheap and easy no-soap, no-rinse way of getting your clothes clean really works!

Here's how it's done:

Add about 1/2 cup of ammonia to a sink or bucket of water, swish things around, let the clothes soak for up to a half hour. Scrub where needed, swish the clothes around, and repeat scrubbing and swishing until the grime is lifted. Remove the clothes from the water, wring out, then hang dry. No rinsing is needed. Use a little more ammonia for heavily soiled clothing. Repeat if needed.

Somehow, the ammonia seems to help prevent redeposits of dirt and grime onto the clothes. The ammonia smell will evaporate as the clothes dry, and they come out smelling and looking fresh and clean.


NO WATER AT ALL?

Brush off the worst of the dirt and grime. Turn underwear items inside out. At night, lay the clothes outdoors where the dew will fall on them. Early in the morning, hang the clothes up in full sun for a few hours.



This copyrighted material may be reprinted by you for noncommercial use, if the following credit is given:

This article is an excerpt from Mrs. Tightwad's Handbook #1: HOW TO SURVIVE DISASTERS AND OTHER HARD TIMES. For more information, see the left sidebar on this site: http://purecajunsunshine.blogspot.com/

1 comment:

tatonka said...

Thanks for the info, very useful