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Agitator or Wash Board Washing Machine

A wash board or a hand agitator are probably the best way to do laundry at home during a power outage or emergency.  They get your clothes really clean and allow you to wash a lot of clothes at a time.

EQUIPMENT — 

• 3 plastic storage containers with or without lids.  Be sure that they are all the same style and size so they will nest and take up less room.  They should also be large enough to hold your  wash board and agitator.   That way you can keep all your laundry supplies together.

• Wash boards are a great way to scrub really dirty clothes or clothes with stains.   Be sure that you purchase a glass washboard and not a metal one.  The glass is much easier on your hands and will not scrap the skin off your knuckles as you scrub.

• Hand agitators are available in metal and plastic.  You can also make your own out of a toilet plunger.  To make one simply drill holes in the rubber part of the plunger so the water will slosh in and out as you work the plunger.  I like the home-made plunger because the handle can be removed for easy storage.  The plastic agitator is easier on your clothes.  The metal one tends to wear your clothes out quicker during the washing process.

• A bar of Fels-Naptha soap and a cheese grater. Fels-Naptha soap is found in the laundry aisle of your favorite  grocery store.
  

Step #1  PRE-TREAT CLOTHES: Pre-treat clothes by rubbing a bar of Fels-Naptha directly on the stains and place them in the bucket.  Fels-Naptha will take out most stains.

Step #2  WASHING & RINSING PROCESS:

• Take the lids off the buckets and line them up on the floor or a low surface that allows you to use the washboard and agitator without a lot of bending.  Fill the first two buckets with water.  Choose your temperature according to the  fabric colors and fibers.
• Using the larger grate screen, grate about 1/4 c or more soap into the container.  Put the soap in the wash bucket.  Use clear water for the rinse bucket..
• Agitate the clothes in the wash bucket with the wash board or agitator.  Ring them out. 
• Rinse them in the rinse bucket. Ring them out.
• Use the third bucket as a laundry basket for carrying the clothes to the line for hanging.

Tags: emergency preperation  washing  laundry  washing machine  garbage bag washing machine  laundry without electricity  washboard  buckets 

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