Doing Laundry In The Bathtub

Use a stick and agitate it for the same time as your machine would.

Why don't you just find a river and beat your clothing against rocks?

The Covid has turned you into a char woman! MARY!!!

First tip: like at the laundromat, take your clothes off first (especially if you're going to agitate them with a stick). Then you can agitate your stick while your clothes get clean!

Do what your washer does - do you know how that works? How you can choose water temps, agitation level, and time? Seems easy to figure out.

No stick. Come on now. You put a few inches of warm water in the tub, add detergent and the clothes. Then you stomp around in the tub for about 10-15 minutes. It does a lot more than a stick.

This was in a documentary where a Manhattan couple tried to drastically reduce their environmental impact for a few months.

OP; Just get to Old Navy, and buy new clothes.

Wear a mask! Thoughts and prayers....

Unfortunately, Old Navy stores are closed. You have to buy those duds online, bucko. But you can still wear a mask if you want!

Wow never thought of stomping around. Guess I can watch the I Love Lucy grape stomping episode for technique tips. But only a few inches of warm water? I pictured it being more full than that.

OP you seem oddly desperate for attention

Can’t you buy a new washer or get yours fixed?

Sure I would normally get it fixed but don't want some random repair person coming in my house who has been in who knows how many others people's homes as well.

Bucket and a washing wand. I have another brand but it's no longer on Amazon. Bought a few years to save my delicate hands for hand wash items.

But what if the proposed repairman is hot, R12?

use drastically less detergent- you will not rinse in the same manner as a machine. also, if you stomp be super careful. everything is slimy, you're gonna fall.

Shhh, rescue-chick. That's half the fun of this tale!

After washing your clothes in the bathtub 2 or 3 times, you'll probably make some concessions and have a repairman come in. Just follow him around with a can of Lysol and spray liberally.

i had to resort to doing this for 6 months.

for one thing, how dirty are your clothes?

for two: spot treat, spot treat, and spot treat.

for three, is your dryer still working or are you also relegated to line-drying?

my basic method is this: fill the tub enough to cover the clothes and a few inches more, not to the top of the tub. put a very small amount of detergent in--this is not a bubble bath, and you need less soap for cleaning clothes than most people realize.

take the pre-treated and pre-sorted clothing and lay them out flat. wash from light to dark, from hot to cold water (start with moderately hot and light clothes and work your way to darker ones that need less-hot water). you will have to change the water for washing a few times, or whenever you have concerns about sanitation (cleaning rags, underwear).

don't bother stirring with a stick, unless you are cleaning a truly dirty item or you have a sanitation concern. lie the items flat in the bottom of the tub and yank them around by hand, trying to draw as much water through them as possible while keeping them mostly flat. this is NOT letting them wad up and agitating them around, but shifting them back and forth in the water so that the momentum of the water does most of the work. turn them over and do this again from the other side. pull them out like you are going to put them on a clothesline (not wadding). if you need to do a lot of them, pile them into a waterproof bin relatively flat. only things you should really twist to dry are towels, bedding, and certain clothing items that recommend twisting.

rinse them the same way.

hang up and let drip. turn the bathroom fan on, or open the window if possible.

Tori, swallow your pride and ask Candy for a new washer. How could she deny her grandkids clean clothing?

Washboards are still being sold. Try dollar store, hardware store or Walmart.

Your washing machine spins more water out of your clothes than you'll ever be able to do. You'll destroy your dryer by putting clothes that are far too wet in it.

r21 is correct. Hang them to drip dry for a long time before putting them in the dryer to finish them off.

Wow this sounds like more work than I thought, maybe I'm better off figuring out how to repair the machine lol.

You think that’s tough — try taking a bath in the laundry machine.

One more piece of advice: Be prepared to run extra dryer cycles, as the laundry you get out of the tub will be wetter than the laundry you get out of a washing machine. The washing machine spins laundry to get most of the water out at the end of its process, you can't do that with bathtub laundry. The only way to get that much water out of bathtub laundry is to wring each piece out, and that will damage your clothes, it'll "bacon" the collars of knit shirts and make some things half a size larger.

I know this, because I've had spells of being dirt poor.

OP, maybe your spin function (on the washer) still works. If yes, use it.