Old Fashioned Laundry

how Pioneers did thems warshing

Congratulations... to us! We've survived one year of laundry minimalism. Brian and I have successfully mastered part II of Old Fashioned Laundering. Have no idea what I'm talking about?

Part I: Wash
Part II: Dry

Part I may never be conquered, mainly because unlike the pioneers we don't use scrubbing boards. But we have switched to using all natural detergent. After a not so pleasant experimental stage using washing soda and baking soda and vinegar and essential oils we have settled for letting someone else make the detergent. What we're using (see image on right, buy it here), its ingredients: Saponified 100% coconut oil, sodium borate, sodium bicarbonate, pure essential oils and vegetable glycerin.

Chemical free is the way to be! While I don't intend to spout that one brand of nature-made detergent is better than the other, we really like this one because it makes our house smell like lavender. The whole damn thing smells zum clean. This is made possible because we hang dry our laundry (unless we are feeling lazy and like rich people). Yup. Monday is washing day, break out the clothes line. I can feeling the grass roots getting stronger. Hence, we have declared complete independence from our 20th century dryer contraption thingy. All hail hard work!

Not so quick explanation: Last summer after returning from our vacation at the lake we proceeded to wash said lake clothing. A week or so later I was looking at our energy bill and holy cow. lots of warshing = lots of money. Like think in terms of a doubling our bill. The worst equation I've ever seen. Called up the energy company man and he said it most likely was from our dryer use. In other words using our dryer doubled our bill. Even worser equation. lots of drying = 2x moneys. WHHHHAAAA?? Yeah, that's what I said too. Our solution = boycott dryer use. But in order to give you unbiased facts our bill has fluctuated just as inconsistently as it did the year before (sorry but I have a degree in sociology and using the dryer is not mutually exclusive with energy bill, of course there are other factors that affect the bill like heat use, oven use, outside temperature blah. blah. blah.) But the point is we can now call ourselves: minimalist part II launderers. And no, that title can't be shortened. I tried and it just doesn't work.

Need not,
Brian and Josey