We use a 10kg twin tub washing machine to wash our clothes (and everything else). I find it saves water and is much more flexible than a front loader. It is terribly dry here (and everywhere else) at the moment and we are struggling to save every drop of water. Along with our policy of tipping animal water pots onto deserving gardens or trees before refilling, we also recycle our washing water onto the garden, a twin tub allows us to do that easily (relatively).
Top view of the spinner
Top view of the washer
The procedure is as follows;
- Sort all washing carefully into piles; first by colour and use, then into cleanest to dirtiest.
- Resort after various family members add their assorted contribution to random piles. Sigh, and try not to swear.
- Fill the machine to it’s highest level and throw in some home-made washing gel.
- Fuel up the generator and get partner to start it for you (or a daughter in a pinch).
- Throw in the first load of clean-ish washing and wash for 6 minutes.
- After the wash is done put the clothes in the spinner, making sure the drain hose takes water back to the washing tub. Throw in the next dirtiest load and continue.
- When all loads are washed, drain the washing water into buckets and carry out to the garden while the tub refills with rinse water (to which I add a cup of vinegar).
- Rinse loads of clothes, being sure to return rinse water to the washing tub for each spun load.
- When all loads are rinsed, drain rinse water into buckets and carry out into the garden to slake the thirst of garden beds and trees.
- Peg out the weekly accumulation of clothes, towels, sheets, dog bedding, cleaning rags, etc.
I know this seems like a lot of work, and it is, but it completes two tasks at once; washing clothes and watering the garden. The machine takes 100 litres to fill for washing and the same for rinsing, so in total I use 200 litres of water per week to do the washing and the garden gets 200 litres of water to help keep it alive and growing.
I don’t enjoy washing; I would prefer us all to wear nothing and air dry after a shower, but it is a fact of life and must be done. Doing it this way means we can live on much less water (which is a valid currency in the bush) and also get my load-bearing exercise for the day to help prevent osteoarthritis (not to mention the water for the garden). Did I mention that I hate to waste anything?
This is what 100 litres of water in buckets looks like
This is the weeks total of washing
How much water do you use doing the weekly washing?
Oh i love washing and love this idea … our current situation doesn’t allow for it, but maybe oneway. And we do a shitloads of washing (I’m a freak like that) and use a shitload of water … it’s bore water and not terribly good for the clothes.
Yes, we had a house with bore water once, it is rough on fabric. We do a lot of washing too, it’s hard to keep anything clean in a humpy.
where is the water level? i have a hom hum washer?
In a twin tub washer, the highest water level is when the tub is filled to just below the overflow. Usually there is a hole covered with a plastic grate or similar to mark the overflow. Most people tend to have front loaders now, I find these don’t save water at all (despite what the advertising says) as it is really difficult to reuse water in them and they are not designed to open part of the way through a wash cycle. Top loading machines can be adapted to reusing water, with some fiddling around, but they are just not designed to save water like a twin tub.