There have been many options throughout history. It could be stream drive, wind driven, solar powered, horse powered, or peddle powered like this one. What resources do you intend to use?Pedal-powered washer could make a big difference in developing nations
Your legs are stronger than your arms, and any crank or peddle stroke can be motorized, if you have power. Of the two, peddle would be easier on you..
I remember an off-grid clothes washing system that Grandma used to use. It consisted of a laundry stove, (a black iron two burner that you could stand on to open the basement window) big enamelware kettle, wash tub, scrub brush, bucket, wash board and clothes line. She had a mangle (manual clothes wringer) in the basement, but I never saw her use it. Off grid clothes drying is easy. I used a clothes line year round to dry clothes until the cloth diaper load got to be too much for she-who-nust-be-obeyed. As long as my trees are still there and water keeps evaporating, I can always go back to hanging stuff out to dry. HD
Or Freezing..... Up here if you have no Power, you just hang'em, and then beat the Ice, Off, before you bring them in.......
Yeah drying is the easy part but washing is a little more complicated. Here is a basic setup video I found showing how to do it in an emergency. doit
When I was a kid, we lived in an old farmhouse that had a kerosene heater in the kitchen. We'd wash clothes with a washboard and dry them on a line. My Mom's favorite joke was when she'd ask one of us to go out and get a clothespin off the line, which meant that we stunk so bad that she wanted to put the clothespin on her nose! William Warren
geez as a kid on vacation in yooper land, mom would hand you a bar of soap, send you to the lake, you soap up the clothes, jump up and down, spin a round a few times, shuck the clothes off, hang on dock. then proceed to wash your own self. Hopefully you remembered to bring your swim suit in wit cha.
We have an old washing machine similar to the one in the bottom picture... not quite THAT old but same design. It still works, actually. I told the Mr. he needed to make a treadmill like these so if the zombie apocalypse came, the dogs could handle the laundry for me. For some reason, he went straight to the liquor cabinet....
Does anyone have any ideas for what detergents can be used? I mean if you loose access to the general store. What can I grow/produce at home to use as soap? I know in movies like Fight Club they made soap from fat. Is that the only way?
For awhile in 2008 i was living out of my truck. I had been laid off and wanted to save money. I tried to wash a weeks worth of clothes by hand using a couple of plastic containers i think were 20 or 25 gallons large. I took me forever to get the soap out so i am definitely looking for a new way to wash. Has anyone had and experience with the plunger type washer that you use with a five gallon bucket