Underthings tumbling

As my month of reduced water and electricity consumption starts to wind down, it's Laundry Day, where we pop into my laundry room to look at how I've been cutting water and electricity use in that realm of the household.

But before we poke through my present dirty laundry, let's look at my dirty laundry a few years ago.  I wrote last time about the dish washing process at Punta Mona, the permaculture organic farm in Costa Rica where I spent the summer of 2009.  In many ways, the things I'm doing this month are things that I had to practice while at Punta Mona.  For example, my showers:  like at the Mona, I get in, get wet, and then turn off the power.  Then I shampoo and lather.  Turn on water to rinse.  Turn off, condition and shave.  Turn on water to rinse.  Done. 

For the love of God, please do not urinate in the showers!

Actually, the above description leaves out a Punta Mona step I've been including in my showers: every time I took a shower while at Punta Mona, I washed at least 1 piece of clothing, even if it was my bathing suit.  At home, I do this while the water warms up (which was NOT part of the Punta Mona shower experience).  Since I frequently shower post-running, I pre-rinse my running bra, running pants, and sometimes a shirt or underwear under the running faucet while it heats.  Then, after I'm all soaped up, I soap my clothes up.  And then when I rinse, I also rinse them too.  This process adds a little to my shower time, and I'm not sure it is the most effective method.  But it has cut down on how often I need to do laundry.

My home shower may be hotter, but Punta Mona's are much more scenic!

There are a few keys to saving electricity and water while doing the laundry.  The #1 key is: Do laundry less frequently.  At Punta Mona, I did this by washing one or two items in the shower with me, re-wearing articles of clothing several times before washing, and mostly going around in a bikini, knee-high rubber boots, and a raincoat.  Needless to say, the last technique doesn't fly in places outside the pool or beach up here in North America, and is particularly ill-suited for my city of residency, where the high temperature this summer has probably been 64 (though the raincoat is handy).  

Not that I had a whole lot of clothes to wash down there in Central America.  I had about four tanks/tees, two long sleeve shirts, a skirt, a dress, a sarong I wore to tatters, two pairs of pants, and two pairs of shorts.  I also had about five pairs of knee socks, five pairs of underwear, a running bra, and a bra-bra. and 2 bikinis.  When I had wash to do, I took it to the "Laundry Room," pictured below.

Highly sophisticated washing machinery

There's a little sink in the center of that far table.  Typically there was an empty plastic pitcher there too.  I'd fill the pitcher part way and dunk all my clothes in it to get them wet.  Then I'd use a little Dr. Bronner's soap (I recommend this one for the jungle) to lather the clothing up, using a little extra on stains and smelly-trending areas.  After that, I'd fill up the picture part way again and dunk the clothes for an initial rinse. Then I'd repeat that process.  If there was still suds after that, I'd hold the piece of clothing under the faucet's trickle and rinse it directly. 

When all was rinsed, I'd carefully carry my "clean" laundry to go hang it up to dry somewhere.  This often presented a dilemma.  First, Punta Mona is in a rainforest.  Therefore, every day, there's a high chance of it raining, and raining hard, at some point. Maybe even for three days straight. (Voila--the reason I mostly wore knee-high rubber boots, a bikini, and a raincoat.)  So there is some sense in hanging your clothes to dry in a covered location.   Draping stuff on the moderately covered railings of "the Backhouse," where we all lived, was a popular, though often insufficient, method for clothes drying. 

Home sweet home: The Backhouse

Lack of sun exposure and somewhat low airflow are the main reasons the railings were often insufficient clothes drying locales.  Rain isn't the only moistening factor in rainforests, mind you.  Rainforests are humid--the air is just wet.  It sometimes took up to FOUR DAYS for a sock or a pair of panties to dry.  For this reason, I often hung socks and underwear on line stretched across one of the windows of my room and I'd leave the door open to create more airflow

One could only hope to be the first to wash their clothes on a good sunny day (or block of day).  Then you might score some real estate on Padi's clothes line down by the beach.  Padi is the last member of a 40-family Afro-Caribbean fishing community that was located at Punta Mona's site up until the 1970s (learn more here).  He still lives in his house there and coexists fairly peacefully with the farm community--he's kind of legendary.  If you asked him kindly, he'd allow you to hang your clothes on his line, where they might actually dry quickly with its awesome sun exposure and airflow of the sea.  Otherwise, you'd be looking at a long battle against mildew city.

Paradise: dry clothes on Padi's line.

In attempting to adopt Punta Mona-style laundry in Seattle, there's really only one obstacle: I don't have a fantastic laundry line area like Padi. I also wear a lot more clothes, and heavier clothing (i.e. jeans!), so there's more to wash and dry, and some pieces dry really slow on the line.  It is also worth noting that some of my clothes stretch out a lot over a wear or two and I rely on the drier to shrink them back up to size (mostly tanks and jeans).

And while it rains a lot in Seattle, it is rarely humid.  So on a clear, warm day (should that ever occur), if I hang a few items up from the arbor of my patio, they will dry, even if they don't get that much sun exposure.  Better yet, I have lots of space and apparatus in my laundry room for hang drying my clothes.  It may not be as fast as Padi's line, but even in the winter, everything but a bulky sweater will be dry within 24 hours, and free of mildew odor.  During a normal month, I hang a fair share of my laundry to dry.  This month, I'm hanging even more.

This folding rack was free. It also requires reconstructive surgery before every use.

Basically, here are my laundry strategies for this month:

1. Invest in more running bras and wash them by hand in the shower to reduce urgent need to do laundry. (Check!)
2. Do laundry less, and only do full loads.  Thus far, I've washed three loads of laundry this month, and run the dryer twice.
3. Wash clothing with the cold water setting and use the appropriate load-size setting.
4. Hang dry all shirts except stretch-prone ribbed tanks, all bras, all running clothes, sweaters, and khakis.  Partially machine dry jeans, shorts, towels, and pillowcases, then hang dry.  Sheets, ribbed tanks, and underwear can dry in machine.
5. Combine dark and light loads into a big load for machine drying; use the appropriate load setting.  Remember to clean the lint screen well for efficient drying.  Set the timer for shorter time spells, so I don't keep drying dry clothes.

The metal rack also folds in half for smaller loads.  Great for pants!

And that's my laundry strategy this month.  It isn't perfect, but it's pretty decent.  I prefer it to mildew underwear and walking around town in my bikini, that's for sure.

The Hammock Update!

Happiness is a comfy hammock.

Because it was warm and sunny and Sunday, plus I had a wee bit of a birthday hangover, I spent four hours (!!!) in my hammock reading yesterday.  Fantastic and relaxing!

Next time, I'll write about my electricity use in all other areas of the house, and watering outside.  Also, a note about my upcoming monthly challenge: August is "Reduce my superfluous web browsing" month, which mostly boils down to "No Facebook month."  I want to balance my removal of Facebook with  the addition of intentional communication to friends in any form outside Facebook and other social media sites.  If you would like to me to be the recipient of a phone call, a postcard, or a heart-felt personal email, I'm taking numbers and addresses.  I'm hoping to send or call someone ~every other day.  Send a note or leave a comment below!