One thing that we try to keep in mind when planning our sustainable future is to avoid thinking “How can we do what we do now, but do it in a sustainable way?”. Initially, this is the temptation: to continue the status quo with less impact. It’s like buying a Prius when we should really just forget car-based transportation and ride bicycles instead.
What we’re looking for is a shift in ideas. How can we take this task, turn it on its head, and do it differently?
Recently, I’ve tried to figure out how we might wash clothes without resorting to using traditional washer-and-dryer appliances. They’re a wasteful use of energy and a complicated set of products controlled by computer circuitry. The initial costs are expensive and so is the maintenance. For us, this is unacceptable.
So how can this process be simplified without going back to the old, backbreaking, washboard technique?
I found three simple products that, when combined, will allow us to do laundry in a timely, efficient manner with minimal effort, environmental impact, energy use, or cost. Please note that we have not tried any of these. It is just a sample of the type of solutions we are looking for.
The “Breathing” Mobile Washer - $17. Yes, it looks like a plunger but the design actually pumps water through your clothes with ease. User reviews say that only a few minutes of agitation are needed to do a large load of laundry. It’s cheap, easy, and obvious.
Bio-Kleen Cold Water Laundry Liquid - $0.12 per oz. This clothes cleaning liquid is environmentally friendly, is not tested on animals, and does not contain any bizarre fragrances, dyes, or toxic chemicals. That means we can recycle the wastewater and use it for irrigation. It is also available in 5-gallon buckets, which fits our requirement that any consumables must be available in bulk. Each load requires only 1 oz of cleaner; at a current price of $77 for 5 gallons (640 oz) that’s $0.12 per load and it will last us at least 6 years.
Spin Dryer - $135. It’s a centrifuge for your laundry. With a spin rate of 3200 rpm, clothes are nearly dry in less than 3 minutes. The only thing left to do is hang them outside on a clothesline for an hour or two (sunlight is also a good sterilizer).
In the end, we may decide on something different, but compared to the complexity and price of a normal washer and dryer, solutions like these just make sense.
Awesome! Yes, I believe we will plan for this method of doing laundry. I was already prepared to give up a typical dryer for a clothesline but the spinner looks amazing, I am excited try it! :)
I love BioKleen products - we’ve been using them for about 4 years now. Of course, I’m also a big fan of handwashing and air drying . . . something I learned to appreciate while living in Italy (though now as a family of four, I do enjoy our energy efficient, yet still-energy-sucking washer and dryer).
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/make-your-own-laundry-soap.html
im sure you know about it, but just in case :)
also, am curious about how well the centrifuge spin dryer is on delicates?
This review at Cool Tools says it’s better on delicates than a normal dryer based on their experience. I’d imagine that this is true since it’s just centrifuging the clothes and not tossing them around like a normal dryer.
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/003059.php
The plunger device looks interesting; thanks for posting about it. I watched the movie at the original site and wonder how the differences from a regular plunger helps to wash clothes better (but I’ve never washed clothes with a plunger, so how would I know the difference).
I have a spin dryer from the Laundry Alternative. It really removes a lot of moisture from clothes. But it does NOT remove all moisture, and you won’t be able to fold them to put in drawers right away. They’ll either need to be hung on a clothesline, or put into a normal dryer. But the clothes have MUCH less moisture after being put through the spin dryer than when removed from the washing machine, so they’ll need less time in the traditional dryer.
It requires extra work to use: The wet clothes must be folded flat before putting them into the dryer — the heaviest clothes first, with the lightest clothes on top. It’s not that much work, but more than just hunking them in like with a ‘normal’ US type dryer.
And after removing the clothes from the spin dryer, then hung (on hangers or the clothes line), they’re wrinkled (at least for me), even though I “hand-iron” them after hanging them. So, after I put clothes through the spin dryer, I put jeans/shirts/dresses/skirts into the traditional dryer for 5-10 minutes to remove wrinkles (my traditional dryer is OLD and takes a long time to dry, maybe you’ll need less time), and line dry towels, socks, and underwear.
I just got my hand-crank washer from the Laundry Alternative, and I wish I had it during Ike recovery. Maybe one day I’ll order a plunger type washing tool to compare to the hand-crank 8^)