Van Dwelling, Washing Clothes As You Drive
Greetings sisters in Christ!
How is your day going, are you strong in the Lord??? We are pressing on here, being faithful and praying for you all. Thank you, to those of you who are praying for us as well:-)
I did an experiment on clothes washing for van dwelling (travelers) and have the results to share with you but first let me share a few details. When we're in the van full time, we're at the mercy of laundry-mats and sometimes they are way less than desirable. (Think dirty machines, neighborhoods that we're not welcome, having to buy laundry credit cards because they don't take quarters etc.) I've been wanting to find a way to try doing some laundry on the road without using a lot of water and I found an idea that worked the first time and it involves using soap nuts. I've known about them for years but never took the time to try them. It's a berry nut from some other country (you can look up the details on it) and you use the shells from it to make a surfactant that washes your clothes. Apparently it's great for killing germs and you can make hand soap, shampoo etc from it. Maybe I'll try that soon but for now I'll share the clothes washing with you.
I paid $19 for 1 lb and you can use them several times over before they become ineffective so a bag like this should last us a very looooong time.
To start out with I asked brother Jim if I could have his waterproof bag.
People use these for hunting and backpacking to keep items dry. They are relatively inexpensive to buy and come in various sizes. I put about 1 cup of warm water in it, dropped a few soap nuts in and let it sit about 5 minutes to activate them.
I put a few small pieces of clothing in it, poured in just enough cool water to cover the clothes and then a bit more so they moved freely. (About 1/2 gallon.) I added 1 drop of lemongrass essential oil, swished them around a bit then rolled the top and secured it.
(Edited to add that if you don't want to use soap nuts, you can use baking soda instead. I've done both and either work great. I also like to add essential oils such as a drop or two of tea tree and then whatever scents I like, perhaps lemon, bergamot, cinnamon, rosemary etc. )
I set them in the van upright with something holding the top so it didn't tip over...and down the road we went. The bouncing of the van agitated them. By the time we got back later this afternoon (about 3-4 hours) they were done. Once I opened it I swished them around for a couple minutes, drained out the water, squeezed the excess water from them and set my soap nuts aside to dry. I dropped the clothes back in the bag, poured in about 3/4 gallon of water and rinsed them. After squeezing them I hung them to dry.
The verdict? I'm sold! They looked, felt and smelled clean! I'm pretty impressed for a first time shot at it and am planning on doing this while we travel, provided we find water along the way. (Oftentimes the big truck stops offer free water spigots at their pumps or after a while you become pretty adept looking for it.) I like using these soap nuts because they rinse with little water. It's not like you accidentally put in too much soap and now you have to use a bunch of water to rinse them. I didn't use much water and they rinsed out well.
I'm pretty confident that if I were to use brother Jim's bigger waterproof bag that I could do a medium load, the problem is where to hang them to dry so I'll probably stick to small loads. When I'm not using the bag, it folds down small and takes up very little space!
People use these soap nuts in their washing machines and some with large families say they save a lot of money doing so, you can look into that if you want to.
Things like this give us a bit more freedom on the road, being tied to one less thing of the world, and that gives us peace. Hopefully someone finds this helpful and I'll update in the future how it's going.
I leave you with a picture I took today, to God be the glory.
Have a joyful day and praise God in all things we do.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.
Psalm 115:1
Love,
Sister Deb
How is your day going, are you strong in the Lord??? We are pressing on here, being faithful and praying for you all. Thank you, to those of you who are praying for us as well:-)
I did an experiment on clothes washing for van dwelling (travelers) and have the results to share with you but first let me share a few details. When we're in the van full time, we're at the mercy of laundry-mats and sometimes they are way less than desirable. (Think dirty machines, neighborhoods that we're not welcome, having to buy laundry credit cards because they don't take quarters etc.) I've been wanting to find a way to try doing some laundry on the road without using a lot of water and I found an idea that worked the first time and it involves using soap nuts. I've known about them for years but never took the time to try them. It's a berry nut from some other country (you can look up the details on it) and you use the shells from it to make a surfactant that washes your clothes. Apparently it's great for killing germs and you can make hand soap, shampoo etc from it. Maybe I'll try that soon but for now I'll share the clothes washing with you.
Here's what they look like:
I paid $19 for 1 lb and you can use them several times over before they become ineffective so a bag like this should last us a very looooong time.
To start out with I asked brother Jim if I could have his waterproof bag.
People use these for hunting and backpacking to keep items dry. They are relatively inexpensive to buy and come in various sizes. I put about 1 cup of warm water in it, dropped a few soap nuts in and let it sit about 5 minutes to activate them.
I put a few small pieces of clothing in it, poured in just enough cool water to cover the clothes and then a bit more so they moved freely. (About 1/2 gallon.) I added 1 drop of lemongrass essential oil, swished them around a bit then rolled the top and secured it.
I set them in the van upright with something holding the top so it didn't tip over...and down the road we went. The bouncing of the van agitated them. By the time we got back later this afternoon (about 3-4 hours) they were done. Once I opened it I swished them around for a couple minutes, drained out the water, squeezed the excess water from them and set my soap nuts aside to dry. I dropped the clothes back in the bag, poured in about 3/4 gallon of water and rinsed them. After squeezing them I hung them to dry.
The verdict? I'm sold! They looked, felt and smelled clean! I'm pretty impressed for a first time shot at it and am planning on doing this while we travel, provided we find water along the way. (Oftentimes the big truck stops offer free water spigots at their pumps or after a while you become pretty adept looking for it.) I like using these soap nuts because they rinse with little water. It's not like you accidentally put in too much soap and now you have to use a bunch of water to rinse them. I didn't use much water and they rinsed out well.
I'm pretty confident that if I were to use brother Jim's bigger waterproof bag that I could do a medium load, the problem is where to hang them to dry so I'll probably stick to small loads. When I'm not using the bag, it folds down small and takes up very little space!
People use these soap nuts in their washing machines and some with large families say they save a lot of money doing so, you can look into that if you want to.
Things like this give us a bit more freedom on the road, being tied to one less thing of the world, and that gives us peace. Hopefully someone finds this helpful and I'll update in the future how it's going.
I leave you with a picture I took today, to God be the glory.
Have a joyful day and praise God in all things we do.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.
Psalm 115:1
Love,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...