Washing all clothes by hand?

[MPJJJ]

Right now we are renting a washer and dryer from Rent A Center, and it costs more than we can really afford ($20 a week), and it is tearing up a lot of our clothes, not to mention the irritating manager who calls us to 'make sure you're keeping on top of things' and came TO MY DOOR to harrass me because we owed them $2!

So I'm thinking about sending the darned thing back and just washing our clothes by hand in the bathtub, and hanging them to dry in the basement. Probably the only thing I couldnt wash is our blankets, but I can send those to the laundry mat...

We are a family of 5...

So what do you think... would it be worth it?

[Yooper]

I have done it before and it sucks. The biggest issue is getting them wrung out enough to not make a lake under them on the line. Washing them is not bad. I used the bathtub and just stomped around with my feet But I think I would try going to your local appliance place and find out how much a financed set would cost. Or maybe even just a dryer. Last time we checked the bottom level ones were around $200 each. That would be much less than $20/week and you could sell them later if you don't think you will need them for too long.

[numom499]

we did this a long time ago when we werwe a family of 3 for about 2 months...it was not fun, the clothes took forever to dry. However, if at this point, you have more time thatn money, I would getrid of the machine and do it...RAC sucks, IMO, they are taking advantage of people.

Canyou just wash clothes at the laundry mat and hang them to dry? (will dry faster because they will be spun)...or do that every other week or so?

Try really hard to rewear things, etc....stuff like underwear is not too hard to do by hand. hth, sorry you're in this predicament.

[nichole]

i don't think i could do it but i have a lot of laundry: change clothes often, lots of kitchen rags, diapers. i feel like i have to run the washer all day to keep up.

i have washed diapers by hand and it was easy but they took forever to dry

could you finance a washing machine /dryer. at 20/month you could be buying one, no? it is not like going to the laundry mat or what you are doing is free so why not put that money to a new washer

[srain]

Your biggest problem would be not having a spin cycle. If I were you, I'd buy a used washing machine ($100 tops) and skip the dryer. (To save up the money, if you can't shell that out all at once, you could hand-wash necessities like socks and underwear for a couple of weeks, while rewearing other clothes.)

[rgarlough]

Can you try find a free used one? I know when I bought our new washer and dryer, I had a PAY a recycling fee... So I put them at the end of the driveway and a woman picked them up for her son and DIL. They both worked just fine but we're big enough for my growing family. Harvest Gold isn't everyone's color of choice... but they were still good!

I'd try freecycle, craigslist and ask around to everyone I knew!!! I'd also just get a washer and hang to dry.

[AmyB]

You can wring clothes by hand by twisting them but it causes them to wear out faster. A hand wringer from Lehmans costs $119. http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/prod...eyword=wringer

If you wring by hand for 6 weeks you'll save enough to buy the good wringer that won't wear out your clothes.

--AmyB