Prairie wifing it .... sort of

I've decided to becoming a "prairie" wife of sorts. Now I'm not talking all out, no power, no tv, no air conditioner. I'm not that insane...just slightly nuts ;). I've made this choice to cut back a little more on the power we use and to be a little more green. There's just something about hand washing and line drying that makes you feel good...really good, like you're actually doing something that could save the planet while your taking care of your family.

Today was my first day in my "prairie" wife adventures. It's been an interesting day, I've learned a bit today that I plan to you use as I go along my journey. I plan to do this for at least a month so I can get a good idea of how much we'll actual save and to also see how hard it really is to do with 4 kids running around! I love a good challenge :)

Here's how today went! I got 2 loads of laundry done. Yes that rights only 2 but here is why. It's very important that your clothes and/or diapers get wrung out probably or they will seriously take ALL DAY to dry! Hand wringing is not the best way to get this done and today I was hand wringing! To get enough water our for them to dry fast you either need some super human arm strength, a old school hand wringer or the spin cycle of a washing machine! Now all I have is my hands and the spin cycle on my washer, which has nothing prairie like going on for it but I'm going to use it! If you can afford a wringer then by all means hop on that, but they are very expensive and until I can afford one spin cycle it is.

A wash board would probably be a good idea as well but it's not totally necessary. Either way you're going to be working your arms out. A wash board probably makes it a little easier to get stains off. Hand washing it's slightly more difficult but you can use stain removers and if your doing whites toss in some bleach. Also you can rub the stained spot on another portion of clothing or use a scrub brush.

I washed mine by filling up the bath tub with water (hot or cold depending on what was needed) and added soap to the water. It's important to make sure that you get the soap mixed in well with the water. The I added the clothes and got them all under the water and swirled around a bit then I kneaded then like you do bread dough. On a small load it takes about 5 minutes of kneeding the clothes, a large load takes about 10. Then I drain the water then refill it and swish and kneed again to rinse the clothes off. If there seems to be a lot of soap or even some remaining dirt in the water I would do the "rinse cycle" again. I then hand wrung the clothing out and then hung them out to dry.

It wasn't that bad besides trying to wring and dry the clothes. So there for the spin cycle I'll be using. I know, I know, it's not as green or money saving but it's better than using the washer to do it all!

So if you feel like hoping on the crazy train with me feel free or just keep on eye on this blog to see how the ride is going :)