Wash Clothes on a Road Trip with a 5-Gallon Bucket [Laundry]

If you're heading out of town by car and need to do laundry, here's a simple method originally from John Steinbeck in his book Travels With Charley: Put your dirty clothes in a 5-gallon bucket with lid, cover the dirty clothes with water, add a little detergent, and secure the bucket somewhere in your vehicle that won't tip over during the drive.

Every bump or curve in the road agitates the bucket and when you stop for a meal your clothes will be clean and ready to rinse. Pour out the greywater, wring the soapy water out of your clothes, place them back in the bucket and add clean water again as you drive for another hour or two. This is your rinse cycle. As you pull into your destination you can use a clothes dryer there or just carry a DIY clothesline to dry your clothing.

Traditional skills blog The Art of Manliness recommends using half the normal detergent you'd normally use for a load using this method. If you plan on dumping your greywater outdoors I also encourage you to use a biodegradable detergent (we like Ecos?you can get it online or at Costco) so you're not polluting the environment.

While not for everyone, if you're travelling on an extended road trip this method of laundry might prove useful, especially if you'd rather not spend an hour or two of your trip at a laundromat. Photo by Paul Joseph.

How to Do Laundry on a Road Trip Like John Steinbeck | The Art of Manliness

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/KcmMJhJSz9E/wash-clothes-on-a-road-trip-with-a-5+gallon-bucket

wolf creek arizona diamondbacks arizona diamondbacks jorge posada alex rodriguez alicia witt alicia witt