Washing Day for a family of five on the road when you are free camping and as frugal as us, can be no easy task. First things first if items of clothing can be re-worn, do it. Sure we still like to look clean when going out and about but our clean threshold has lowered. Now if it were just us no worries but with three young kids washing can add up quick; a 6 year old boy and red centre dirt (say no more).
Drying rack is useful, $10 for this one from a variety store and folds away.
For the first leg of the journey we did our washing by hand as it was evident that laundromats were not cost effective on our tight budget. There was only so much wringing clothes out by hand before we started exploring our options.
Our energy system which will be touched on in the future gave us options, but in short it involves a battery, solar panels and a dc(12v)<-> ac(240v) inverter. We could have run with hand wringers and bucket washes but we decided to Glamp it up. So we hit ebay and for less then $200 scored this lil NEW! caravan twin tub. There are many to choose from that are cheap we elected for the product with two copper motors (not aluminum), which is a sign of quality.
Less $200 New from ebay, BARGAIN!
Maybe small but it’s a grunter.
Although it’s small it handles everything we throw at it, including sheets and even a double doona cover. We opted for the dual motor version the washing motor draws 250W and the spin dry motor is half that, to put that in simple terms thats a quarter of the draw of your average toaster while running.
Wool wash is brilliant as when you are on the road often the rinse stage of washing is skipped due to water availability. Using Wool Wash gives a great clean without the need to rinse.
One of the best parts is it’s running costs, FREE! with power from the sun and water from a tap we save ourselves a fortune everytime we use it. This little machine has proven to be such a good investment not for the obvious reasons but also for time.
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