Washing Clothes

I will admit some of the things I do that are on the cheap, I do only because I am single. I would never have considered, for example, washing by hand the mountains of laundry piled up back when I did have a family being raised.

However, for just one it truly is not so big of a hassle hand washing most clothes. Seriously saving an awful waste of water, electricity and maybe gas (depending on what heats up your water) also comes with saving an awful waste of wampum.

Depending on the variables of where you live, the number of loads and type of machine, of course, how much saved will be different. However, considering that on average a single load of wash by machine uses forty gallons of water, the relative sparing on water alone is significant. Again, good for the pocketbook, good for the environment.

Granting also that a whopping 95% of the energy used by a washing machine could be going just to heat the water, using that much less water extrapolates to that much less cash to heat it up. Of course whether by hand or machine, cold water rinse is a must. Whatever reason this is even an option on the dial is beyond me, temperature has no bearing on rinsing out soapy residue.

I'm not so stupid or committed to the cause as to consider washing sheet sets and bedspreads or whatnot by hand. Been there, done that, and I highly advise against it. There is only so far that I'm willing to go before giving in.

And just like with the family of four, no way the washing clothes by hand thing. Still, being more aware of the impact of doing the laundry on the wallet makes it worth considering how to do it better. Bears repeating, to always always rinse in cold water. Pay no attention to the hot water setting on the dial, too. Generally a pre-soaking in warm before a warm wash is usually just as good or better as hot water with no soak.

But for me a single guy, I don't mind hand washing my clothes and it makes me feel good helping save money and resources. It also keeps me from doing it so often, something that might also help for the machiners out there. Except for really dirty people, is it truly necessary to wash everything after a once-wear... or even twice or thrice, depending? Maybe that's too much self-divulgence but hey, like I said, I live alone with no one to impress but myself.

Either way, by hand or by machine, laundry is a to-do on everyone's list and one chore that can be rethought how to do it, lessening, at least, the financial and environmental wallop that goes with. And for those like-minded to follow suit with me and choose to wash by hand, a plunger makes an excellent agitator! A different one, of course, from the other one.

Thanks to Mr. Electricity for the stats I pilfered to use here.