Have you ever heard of The Wonderwash?
I tend to have a preparedness mindset, so the thought of laundry alternatives has crossed my mind more than once.
Such as:
- If the power is out for several days, how would we have clean clothes?
- If the economy continues to tank and we have a deflation/hyperinflation state, could we afford to wash our clothes?
The idea of a major disaster that lingers for days or weeks doesn’t sound fun. Add 3+ small children into that scenario with no clean clothes and I have a feeling things would turn south fast.
One of my new favorite reads is The Survival Mom. She focuses on how to prepare your family for a major catastrophic event, such as a hurricane or other natural disaster. And she includes laundry in her preparations too!
Recently, The Survival Mom had a guest poster use and review the Wonderwash. I loved reading about her first-hand experience and her list of pros and cons.
Amazon also offers great reviews on the product.
I don’t have any laundry alternatives in place at the moment, but it is definitely on my to-do list. While I’m working all of that out, I will definitely be prepared in my Laundry Life!
What are your thoughts on alternative laundry methods? Do you think it is worth thinking about? Do you already have an idea in place? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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When we lived/worked in an eastern African country, we didn’t have a washer or dryer…the “emergency” method was a bathtub full of water, some laundry powder, and our hands (even at times, our feet). It wasn’t fun, it took up a chunk of our Saturdays, but it got the job done. If you don’t have a bathtub, a large bucket also works (talking from personal experience again). Let me just say that I LOVE my washing machine and I have never taken it for granted since we have been back in the States. 🙂 However, I know that I can do our laundry other ways if necessary. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. 🙂
Carrie, thanks so much for sharing that! I have been pretty kept all of my life in that I’ve only lived in the US and I’ve definitely had modern equipment to help me.
I DO love my washer and dryer and don’t take it for granted, but I cannot appreciate it in the same way one would who has washed clothes in the bathtub out of necessity.
You gave us great food for thought. Thanks 🙂
-Lauren
I actually thought about that last week and I think the first step to take is to make sure I’m never terribly behind on laundry (I usually am) because if something were to happen and I was already behind, well, that would be inconvenient.
Beyond that, I think I would lower my standards quite a bit. Victorians didn’t wash their outside clothes every day, or even every week, they just spot-cleaned and brushed. I toss things in the wash all the time that probably aren’t *really* dirty.
Beyond that, I think that I would figure something out—bathtub and bucket both sound doable, if less than ideal. I can’t see myself keeping a special device around to do laundry just in case of emergency, though; I have too much stuff in my house already that I never use. 🙂
Good thoughts! Yes, my #1 defense is also keeping up with the washing and not getting too far behind.
And I totally agree – I’m sure our standards of ‘clean’ would change if washing was not so convenient!
-Lauren
I love this conversation. I’m naturally attracted to a gadget like the one in the picture, and my “what-if” mindset immediately kicked in. But like Carrie said, we could make do if we had to. As a teenager, I did help someone wash their clothes in the lake, and it was a lot of work, but totally possible – even for a clueless teenager.
And in Shakespeare’s day, they took one bath a year. That’s where the term “June bride” comes from. People liked to get married in June because it was right after their annual bath!