While you wait.

In-between talk of laundry and poop, meet HighlyUncivilized.  He writes a blog full of homesteading hacks and interesting conservation and environmental ideas.  Check out this worm tower - brilliant!

I've been trying out the no-poo lifestyle for about three weeks, and I would say it's generally a success.  I'm still using baking soda every time I wash my hair, followed by a thorough rinse, a spritz of water/vinegar mixture, and a second rinse.  I've read that many people don't use even baking soda after the transition period, but I'm still using it.  My hair is pretty short (max 1.5" after a haircut), and not oily anymore, so I don't have split ends or oily roots to worry about.  I don't style or blow-dry it.  It's free-range hair.  

The first time you try it, you will be weirded out by having no suds.  It will feel the opposite of clean.  Just give it a nice massage with your fingertips. [Do NOT use the plug-in muscle massager that promises to get the kinks out.  It's not talking about your hair.]

The only downside I see right now is sensory deprivation.  I'm used to my hair smelling like something - a tropical rainforest, a lemon grove, a rose garden - during and after its fauxpoo.  Not that I can get it to my nose to sniff, but it's just there.  Baking soda leaves me smelling like nothing, which is better than what I went in smelling like.  That might not be a complete bummer, either, because Annie and I have a hard time agreeing on shampoo scents, but we want something cruelty-free and preferably without SLS or parabens.  And cheap.  Can This Marriage Be Saved?   If we can't agree on a scent, maybe we can agree on having no scent.

Some of our face-friends read this blog, and I fear their fear.  If I weren't writing here, I wouldn't talk about my toilette at all.  If you're no-poo, do you tell your friends?  Or do you wait until they notice how environmentally-friendly, preservative-free, and frugal you look?

Three things that work as advertised.

I get tired of feeling cynical about commercial products, but they just won't give me a break. Or, they break. Here are three exceptions that I'm feeling pretty good about right now:

Fujitsu ScanSnap


Light, portable, and extremely intuitive. You can process your image any way you want it, right on the spot. Send it to iPhoto? You got it. Email it? Done. Several pages of a document? No problem, tell it when you're finished and it'll make it one file. I processed thousands of paper photos to digitize them, and I would have done it in half, maybe one-third the time with this puppy. Bus-power gives it extra ♥♥♥.

[Disclaimer: Annie bought this, and I just now choked up a little when I saw the price. Still, if you want a quick, small and convenient way to deal with paperwork on the road, I stick by my recommendation.]



Canon Pixma iP100 mobile printer

It's billed as a travel photo printer, but does a bang-up job on regular print jobs, too.  I have to print several times a week, and lugging our old HP up and down from the overhead storage was oppressive.  Losing my grip and dropping it on a cat was never popular.  It's light (made to be portable), but does the job well.  Not bus-powered, unfortunately, but I can't have everything.  Doesn't scan, but see above.




Mini countertop spin dryer


This is small, but effective.  I got this after I led you through a madcap laundry day in the Duck, and I like it a lot.  It isn't a dryer, as the description reminds you, but clothes come about halfway between just out of the conventional washer and completely dry, after two minutes of spinning.  Downside:  it doesn't hold a lot at once.  A pair of jeans, or three shirts.  But, if you like to do your laundry as you go, or you don't dirty a lot of clothes, this "downside" turns into an advantage, because its compact size makes it easy to hoist up onto the counter for a quick wring.

Another "downside" for me is that it isn't manual, so a little electricity is required.  It uses a nominal 0.75A, so if you ran it for an hour you'd use about 0.75Ah, or (for the gridlocked) 0.08 kwh.  Each 2 minute spin would use 0.003kwh.  If you pay 13¢ per kwh, like we do here, that would cost you 0.04¢/wring-a-ding (someone check my math).

If you get one, do read the instructions.  Especially the part about removing the shipping brace on the bottom.  If I hadn't seen a video it wouldn't have occurred to me to flip it over and take that thing off.

I haven't given up on getting a hand-wringer.  I emailed my man, Grant, at Get Prepared Stuff, because he offered me a used mangle at a good price, and I wanted to take him up on it.  Tragically, I never heard back from him, so I think our brief affair is over.  Some other woman is fondling the mangle that should have been mine.

Everything a bucket should be.

Careful!  Mime trapped in Triangle.

What's sadder than a washing thing that doesn't wash?

No one even repairs these Bendix units, and certainly not a 15-year-old model.  But, what good is one of these in a boondocking lifestyle anyway?

I picture this going to the curb to make room for my shiny, new Laundering System.



Now THAT'S a bucket.  We got it at Lowe's in the mop section.


I started with about 2 tablespoons of detergent (in this case, body wash).  I didn't want to try soap because of its different properties from detergent.  This smells nice, and is cruelty-free.

I lathered up some water before I put in a pair of jeans, four pairs of underwear, a bra, and three socks.


Rapid Washer.                                    

 

    

I used it like a plunger to agitate the clothes.  I was a little upset myself.  I agitated for two hours minutes - long enough to feel like a little workout.

The soapy clothes go into the wringer section.  This is a good idea, but the clothes aren't very wrung.  I filled up the section with more clothes, which worked better but not great.  I left the clothes in the wringer, dumped out the wash water (about two gallons, I guess) and put the soapy clothes back in the bucket.  They really weren't very soapy, because I didn't add a lot of suds in the first place.



I added clear water until the clothes were mostly submerged, and plunged again.  Repeat the wringing, which still wasn't very wringy.  I could pick up the smaller items and wring water out with one hand.









I'm expecting a folding metal rack, but my patience was at its end and I couldn't wait any longer to try this out.  You will not see any of Pants' pants here;  in fact, no undergarment of hers has ever been seen by a non-spouse or neighbor.

Conclusion:  I like the bucket-washing system, but I think an old-fashioned mangle connected temporarily to the rear bumper would be a good summer alternative to the mop wringer.  The wringer is okay, but probably not the best option available.

Pros:  electricity-free, off-grid, good exercise, feels satisfying, inexpensive, simple, repair yourself, boondocking-friendly
Cons:  inferior wringing capability.