Comments on: Can Washboards Make a Comeback?

By: Reduce plastic waste :: PlasticLess.com » Blog Archive » Looking to the Past

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:48:33 +0000

[...] ideas. at least not this time. Some old ideas that I have covered on this blog in the past include washboards and unsliced [...]

By: Dynamic Plastics

Dynamic Plastics — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:53:19 +0000

I’ve had a small laundry rack that I could put in my bath when I lived in an apartment. The trick with washing is to do it as you take it off. That way it just never gets ahead of you, and handwashing is a cinch. When you have to deal with a mountain of washing handwashing suddenly is not such a rosy option

By: Cas

Cas — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:15:19 +0000

Nice find! Not quite related to washing clothes but… a couple of years ago, my mother found an antique stapler. It worked without any metal staples at all. It simply cut and folded the edge of the paper in such a way that 2 or 3 sheets could be “stitched” together. Very eco-friendly!

By: Cousin Yellowstone

Cousin Yellowstone — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:47:32 +0000

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve never seen a home here with a drain in the floor, and it sounds like an excellent idea. I’ll mention it to any environmentalists I meet who are designing new homes. My current home has only a small bathtub and no other place where wet clothes can be hung without making a big mess. I wash most of my clothes in a machine, depending on the spin cycle to get the clothes dry enough that they can be hung inside without dripping. At least I avoid machine drying clothes. Still, I realize there’s room for improvement in the way I do laundry, so your suggestion of a washboard intrigues me.

I’m glad you don’t hang sheep carcasses in your home! I used to live near a sheep farm, and am firmly of the opinion that sheep deserve better than to be shipped hundreds of miles then slaughtered.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:25:00 +0000

When I lived in Malta, my neighbor had a stand alone clothes spinner. I have no idea if these are available in the USA. The hand cranked clothes wringers from the old days had real rubber parts and any that I ever saw in antique shops had degraded long past the point of being unusable.

In warm places where hand washing is still normal, homes typically have a small yard with tile or concrete floor and a drain. Mine also has a big hook for hanging up a sheep carcass, but I haven’t been using it.

My wife just told me that her grandmother had a small laundry rack that was designed to sit in a bathtub.

By: Cousin Yellowstone

Cousin Yellowstone — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:36:32 +0000

I don't mind washing clothes by hand. What I can't handle is drying clothes after hand washing them. I squeeze and squeeze, but as soon as I hang them up, they drip copious amounts of water onto the floor. Can you suggest a way to get more water out of clothes before hanging them?