Hand Washing Pro!
I have the hand washing laundry thing down to a science! We had a Haier portable washer that I purchased used off craigslist for $50 for 2 years. It was amazing...until it broke. Of course it broke about the same time that WE were broke. So I took up hand washing our clothing while scrimping to save for another "portable" washer. Small changes to your clothing routine will have you hand washing and never looking back. We never did buy another washer and we aren't planning to until I go back to full time work.
Clothing that is worn but not "dirty" (for example church clothes) should be taken off as soon as everyone gets home and hung up to be worn again. Unless your Husband works in the trades or on a farm, jeans and work pants cam be worn 2 or 3 times between washing. Shirts can often be worn twice. Underwear and undershirts should be washed each time they are worn. I like each member of my family to have 10 "sets" of underclothes. Our exterior clothing is minimal.
Get yourself a light colored toilet plunger (new and clean, of course) and an adjustable pole like the painters use. Screw the plunger onto the extendable pole and adjust the pole so that you can comfortably stand and work the pole up and down (like you are churning butter).
I like to make laundry day a bit of a production and get it all done once a week rather then set up and do laundry everyday. If you and your family don't have a weeks worth of clothing, you will have to have two wash days a week.
Now get a 5 gallon bucket (or two) and a large plastic bin (or two). I found 3 large clear plastic storage bins at a garage sale for $1 each and I have 2 buckets. Each bin is for sorted colors, one for whites, one for light colors and one for dark colors. I wash my towels and sheets after my clothing. Fill the bins with water at the temperature you want to wash your clothing in. You can attach a hose to your kitchen or bathroom sink or fill a bucket and pour the bucket of water into the bin, then refill the bucket and repeat until full.
Use hot water for more soiled clothing, sheets, towels, and underwear. Use warm water for less soiled clothing. The bucket (or buckets) are used for new clothing that "bleeds" color or clothing that shouldn't be washed in a large load. For example, my daughter has a butterfly tee shirt that is full of glittery butterflies...if i wash it with the light colored clothing, I would have glitter on everything!
While the bins are filling with water, sort the laundry and add it to the correct bin. Set aside any laundry with stains that need to be treated or grimy sleeves or collars. Where I live the water is very "hard" so I add a cup of baking soda (buy in bulk from costco) in each bin. Swish it around to dissolve it and add your laundry detergent. I have used both powder and liquid detergent and both work well when hand washing. You can use home made detergent if it saves you money.
Let your clothing soak while you work on stains and grimy clothing. I fill a 5 gallon bucket about half full and get the stain wet, then use a dollar store scrub brush to gently work out the stain. For greasy stains (especially collars) I use a tiny bit of dish soap, it really cuts through the grease. Once you have worked out most of the really grimy parts, add the clothing to the color sorted bins.
Now to really get clothes clean, you grab your plunger and agitate the clothes in the first bin. Really plunge the heck out of them! Push down and smoosh the clothing around. I like to "agitate" our clothing for "2 songs" (about 5 minutes) per bin. When you are done agitating the first bin, move to the second (leave the clothing to soak in the first bin), and finally the third. Then go back to your first bin of clothing and lift out a few pieces to check to see if they are clean. I like to spot check the knees on our child's jeans, and the necks and cuffs of hubby's shirts. If those areas look clean, great! If the laundry doesn't look clean, plunge away for another few songs. The water in the bins will get pretty dirty looking, don't fret this is normal. If you have ever looked into a top loader washer mid cycle the water is fairly dirty there too. Once you have agitated your clothing clean, it is time to rinse.
I take the dripping clothing out of a bin and set it into the bathroom sink, then I dump the bin (and dirty water) into the bathtub. I quickly rinse the tub with the hand shower sprayer. Then put the wet clothing from the sink into the bottom of the bathtub and walk on all the clothes to squish out most of the wash water. If you can find a used "spin dryer" inexpensively, I highly recommend it! I love ours. But I did laundry for years without one. Once you have smooshed out the water (or spun it out) put the clothes back into the bin INSIDE the bathtub. Fill the bin about half full of warmish water and agitate with the plunger, swishing the clothing around in the clean rinse water. You are going to rinse several times, so you don't need the water level as high as when you wash. Pour out the soapy wash water while kind of holding back the clothing with your hands. Then fill the bin half full with cold water, agitate, and rinse again. The water should be running almost clear. On the third rinse, I like to add a small amount of vinegar to the wash water as a fabric softener. Then rinse a fourth time. Your clothing is now CLEAN! Wring out each item separately (or use a spinner). To wring out clothing, I like to stomp on it in the tub first, then individually hand wring (or spin). In the summer, spring, and fall, I use an outdoor clothesline. In the winter I have a folding drying rack for each room in the house that I set up directly over the heating vents in the floor. We are paying for the heat anyway and it dries our clothing and humidifies that air too!
Then move onto the next bin! You are now hand washing laundry!!! When all your clothing is done, I set up two final bins and one bucket. One bin for sheets and one bin for towels. The bucket is for your kitchen towels and napkins. I like to add a touch of bleach to the bedding and towels as an added disinfectant. Oxiclean works well too if bleach scares you. Wash and rinse the bedding like your clothing. When it is time to wash the bath towels, there are a few extra steps since they really absorb the water. You have to wring out (by stomping on it in the bathtub or spinning) each towel between each rinse. However, since you are clean when you get out of the shower to use your towel, you can use the same towel for a week. Make sure you get your family in the habit of rehanging their bath towel after each use and you will only have to wash bath towels once a week (so for a family of four, you would have four towels). Kitchen towels and napkins, I usually wash just like clothing (in a bucket separate from clothing) since they are thin. In our home, each family member uses one cloth napkin for all three meals. That way if you have four people in your family, you only have four small cloth napkins per day to wash (or 24 for 6 days, the 7th day is wash day). We use the smaller "cocktail" size napkins and they work just fine for three meals (really how messy are your hands and mouth if you are eating with silverware...)
I know this is an old thread, but I hope this step by step info helps someone save the laundry money for something else!
