How to survive without a washing machine

While some families can’t survive in a caravan without all the bells & whistles, our family of 2 adults 2 kids have managed to caravan for the last 20 years quite simplistically.

One example of this is… we have never had a washing machine in our caravan. Before you ask, yes, we frequently camp off grid with no power or water.

I use a plastic screw top container, which is cheap (can buy from any hardware store for around $10), light weight, and multi-purpose. Mine has a capacity of 30 litres. I can fit 4 adult size sets of clothes in easily (i.e. one day worth of clothes for our family).

Every morning, if not raining, clothes from the day before go in to my container. I fill with just enough water to cover clothes and add some wool wash (no rinsing required).

If it’s a travel day, I secure the container in our caravan and let the moving van do the agitating. If not, I soak a bit and hand agitate. I then hand-wring and hang out to dry.

This process takes about 15 minutes a day! Minimal effort.

Once a week I change our beds. We use sleeping bags with inners so this involves washing the inners and pillowcases (4 inners + 4 pillowcases fit in my container) in the same way. I air the sleeping bags only.

ADVANTAGES

• Did I mention, minimal effort? The hardest part is hand-wringing the clothes. I have heard of other families using large lettuce spinners or similar, but we haven’t every done this as it’s another item to carry.

• Weight – 1 container is much lighter than a washing machine.

• Saving water – having spoken a lot with other families whose caravans do have washing machines, I am confident this method uses much less water.

• Container doubles as a vessel to catch water off the awning when raining. If you let the first flush of water run off, the rest of the runoff is usually clean enough to then wash in the next sunny day.

• Container is also useful as a dirty clothes basket and for carrying wet items in a secure place on a travel day.

DISADVANTAGES

• More about drying than washing, but if washing builds up due to bad weather, we usually head to a caravan park or laundromat (as we tend to need a dryer too anyway)

• If you use sheets and doonas, this probably wouldn’t work as well as bottom sheets + top sheets + doona covers takes up a lot more space.

• If you have young kids that wet the bed or potentially get ill in the night, this method can be painful (been there, done that). In these scenarios, I’m sure a washing machine would be MUCH easier. For us, these events were few and far between, so we coped on the odd occasion it did happen.

Feel free to share your washing tips in the comments section below!

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