Life Without A Washer And Dryer

One of modern life's conveniences that is taken for granted is a washer and dryer. While the earliest form of clothes washing machines can be traced back to the late 1690s, washing machines in peoples homes as an appliance didn't really take hold until the 1940s. For all practical purposes, people simply didn't have them before the 40s.

But people have had dirty clothes since the first fig leaf was placed over the stuff. So, what did people do? They washed clothes by hand. This is a good thing for us since we won't have a washer and dryer on the boat (too much power is required, too much space is taken up, and too much water is spent for our size/type of boat). Well, I take that back. We will have 2 little washer machines; the KJ and Dy models.

Our clothes washing will involve a bucket, a scrub board, and little legs to add power agitation. :) For drying, we will be using solar power and wind power for this (e.g. hanging the clothes to dry).

The tough part will be when we are in colder climates. Washing clothes when it is cold hurts and will mean that we will rarely do laundry the good old fashioned way. Fortunately, in the colder climates, we won't be going through clothes as frequently.

Cloth that has been soaked in salt water is particularly tough to clean and dry the old fashioned way. As a consequence, we will be working hard to keep the towels used for drying things covered in salt water separate from those used to dry things that were covered in fresh water.