Hand Washing Our Laundry...

Our current adventure, has been hand washing our clothes. I know, sounds insane huh? I have 4 children and a perfectly good washing machine...why in the world would I want to wash clothes by hand???? lol I'll give you my reasons:

1.) It's a skill that I think we should all know how to do. A homesteader (whether in the city or the back 40) may have the need to go without power. There are outages, solar system malfunctions etc.

2.) The ability to be self-sufficient in one more way. Not depending on that electricity or machine...

3.) Not using electricity means a lower electric bill....frugality is a beautiful thing!

4.) Conserving water...and the water isn't going down the drain. It can be re-used in my gardens (we use a natural laundry soap that won't hurt our plants)

5.) The clothes get truly clean. You'd be surprised with what the machines leave behind that we think are "stains". They're not...they just need a little elbow grease!

6.) The clothes will last longer. They won't get the abuse from a machine and won't wear out as quickly. Also, how many times are clothes thrown away because of stains...that if they'd been hand washed/scrubbed may have come out?

7.) No soap residue left behind. When you wash by hand, you are rinsing until the water comes out clear from the fabric. Soap attracts dirt...it's how it works. If there is soap residue left behind, your clothes actually get grimier quicker! Not to mention can get a grayish hue over time.

8.) No soap residue...no, that's not a typo :) With no soap residue, there's less skin irritation.

9.) Excellent exercise! I love real-life exercise...so much better than sweating in a gym :)

10.) Fun family activity. Seriously, my kids had a blast! They are now asking "when can we do laundry again?" lol.

And if all of that isn't enough, I like being conscious. So often these days we have machines that do all of the work for us...we lose the consciousness...we're not as aware.

Scrubbing those clothes with my own two hands.... hanging fresh, clean laundry out to dry and hearing it snap it the wind...it brought me an immense satisfaction I would have never even known about.

I believe we should savor every task we do. If it's plowing a field, pulling weeds, washing dishes, changing a diaper, correcting a spelling test, cleaning a toilet...do everything to the very best of our ability, but enjoy the task that God is having us do in that moment.

Colossians 3:23
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men..


So anyhow, here is our laundry day in pictures :)



Our scrubbing bucket...yes that's a plunger and a cd tower :P Yankee ingenuity people:) Here is what I'd eventually like to get for the agitator instead of the plunger..and eventually a washboard instead of the cd tower :P


Here's a view of the grungy water..that was with only a couple of minutes with the plunger!


Arianna really enjoyed spot scrubbing...


Adam liked the rinse buckets...


So did Cassidy...

Our clean laundry snapping in the wind...

Here's my supervisor Harley Bear...He was trying to get into the buckets so he had to watch from in the house...that's his window...grrrrr.... lol

But who could get irritated with this face? lol



And this is an add on from tonight...it was just too cute and when I was loading the pictures I had to add this one....

Adam "helped" me with the bread tonight...


After it had risen, the finger prints were lost...I'd almost hoped they'd cook into the bread like one of those plaster hand print things :P