Tiny Life Tales: Laundry - One Little Load at a Time

We get so attached to our modern conveniences, like dishwashers or washers and dryers, that we sometimes forget that they are "conveniences".

For almost a year now we have lived without our own personal washer and dryer...making our weekly trip to the local laundry mat. 

When we crunched the numbers and found that we could live in a trailer through the summer for less than renting I also took a few minutes to calculate up how much we spend at the laundry mat. 

We spend over a $100 every couple months at the mat! 

I have had my eye on manual washers for a while now and when I saw what we spend on cleaning our clothes J and I decided to order one...the sooner the better!

We found this little Wonder Washer on Amazon.com for $49! You gotta love Amazon! 

Yeah, it is small.

Yeah, you have to roll up your sleeves and do the work.

Yeah, it takes a little time (but really not that much when you think about all the time you spend sitting at the laundry mat waiting for the machines to do the job). 

I can say though that I have actually enjoyed it and love the smell of line dried clothes! 

The Wonder Washer fits perfectly in our tiny trailer tub!

I thought of doing laundry outside but here I can wash with hot water! 

Supplies: 

A gallon jar for measuring the water - a full load (5 pounds of clothes) takes 6 quarts of water.

Laundry Soap - a full load takes 2 tablespoons of detergent. 

A Tuna Can - to use as an agitator. The instructions did not call for this...but I found that it helps tremendously!

How it's done:

Place your water, soap, agitator, and dirty cloths in the canister.

Screw on the lid. 

Crank the handle for 2 minutes. 

Attach drain pipe (which you can see in the above pictures).

Drain dirty water.

Add 4 quarts of fresh water.

Making sure you detach your drain tube first or all your clean water runs out *voice of experience*

Screw on the lid.

Crank the handle for 1 minute.

Drain the rinse water.

Wring out clothes.

Hang them out to dry! 

J set up this line for me right outside out trailer! 

I believe it is far more convenient to use this little manual washer for a few minutes every few days than to spend hours at the laundry mat each month!

I have been impressed with how well is cleans the clothes too!

Have any of you had experience with the Wonder Washer?

I even have the cutest little helper!! Jael loves being outside while I hang the laundry out!

In 5 days this girl is 6 months old!!! 

Drop by next week and see how she has grown this past month!