based on this post, where we were discussing laundry options, including spin driers. I had mentioned some YT videos wherein people used salad spinners for light drying work.
OK, picked up a salad spinner at a thrift store for 25 cents for this experiment.Washed 4 days of socks (3pr shorties, 1pr crew) and underwear (boxer briefs) in a bucket with a Breathing Mobile Washer plunger-style thingy. The washer works great, by the way. After washing I hand-squeezed the items tightly, and wrung them gently. I limit wring to (hopefully) extend the useful life of the items.
The socks balanced and spun easily. Underwear required 2-3 attempts to get them balanced enough to spin decently.Wrung weight –> spun weight:
- socks batch – 18.4oz –> 15.7oz = 2.7oz additional water spun out
- underwear batch – 28.1oz –> 25.8oz = 2.3oz of additional water spun out
I suspect in the desert stuff dries so fast the water reduction would be unimportant. In areas of higher humidity it might make some difference.
I had read in Lenny Flank’s book Electronic Nomad that he uses a weak bleachwater solution for bucket washing/sanitizing/defunking, and uses soap only when the clothing is soiled. That made a lot of sense to me.
It also reminded me of a weak bleach-based sanitizer used by homebrewers; a pH-adjusted no-rinse solution I call 1ozBWV. It’s a mnemonic for:
- 1oz unscented bleach
- in 5 gallons of water
- 1oz of white vinegar
in that order! You really, really don’t want to mix the ingredients full strength or you can chlorine gas yourself. Which would be a Bad Thing.
I use half a bucket of water which means the B & V will be 1/2oz each.
a boondocking retirement 