Over the last couple of years I have been learning and researching laundry. Off grid Laundry. Pioneer style laundry. Homestead laundry. I am one of ‘those’ people who have a desire for all things old and ‘once upon a time’ way of doing things. I am also a planner and my thought process is” what is the back up plan when lets say 1. no electricity for a week and can’t use the washer or dryer. 2. wash machine breaks down and repairs are to costly or repair guy can’t get here for a week and charges my an arm and leg because of my distance in the country 3. you ran out of laundry soap and don’t have time to get town 4. frozen pipes. ”
All though homestead laundry can be done in different ways indoors or outdoors, it is wise to adapt your methods to the climate you live in, your time, budget, space, and equipment you have readily available to you. Like everything, a budget comes into play and for me that meant starting simply in my laundry preparedness mission. In west central MN, we usually don’t hang our laundry outdoors in the coldest winter months except my grandma Ella back in the 1940 and 50s.
My father had shared a story with me about my grandmother what she used to do to make money for the home. See, my dad’s father had passed away in a motor vehicle accident and that left my grandma to continue to raise the three boys and the other two were grown up and starting in the armed services. Grandma’s day began early before the sun rose and she would wash clothes. Not just her and the families clothes, but people in the community hired her to wash their clothes. She had her wash buckets and maytag wringer to complete her tasks and then she would hang the laundry up outdoors at the customers home all seasons. From there, she would go to work at the local restaurant cooking and doing dishes.
My first steps to being prepared were as as follows:
- learn how to make homemade laundry soap
- setup an outdoor clothes line
- set up an indoor clothes line
- invested in a mobile washer, a tall plastic garbage can, and clothespins
My new goal is to save for a wringer and a galvanized tub.
Growing up in a MN house with no basement, the gas furnace was located on the 2nd floor of the house, in the bedroom I shared with two sisters. It was always toasty warm in there and therefore the humidity was non existent. My creative mom had designed a clothes line to run from the door frame to above the window frame. Every Sunday was wash day for her and all the wet clothes were hung up on that clothesline. It created humidity in the two bedrooms upstairs but being young teenage girls, we were mortified if a friend came over to hang out! Geez Louise, who wants their laundry out on display right? It did save money on her electric bill because with a family of six, it could get costly and we did reap the benefits of the humidity. I, of course, didn’t think about that as a teenager.
I now have my own indoors clothes line. In my office. My workspace above the attached garage. Safe place to hang laundry until one day recently I came home and saw up into that office window laundry hanging! What if a neighbor comes over? I had that same embarrassing feeling as a teenager. Wait, I am an adult this perfectly normal do in Italy right? So, I can do it on my homestead.
This is how I created an indoors clothes line.
supply list:
- round hooks
- drill
- 3 inch screws to fit through 1inch wood and anchor into stud
- pencil
- tape measure
- scissors
- stud finder
- cotton clothes line
- solid board 2 feet long, 1inch thick, and about 3-4 inches wide. need two in quanity
The clothesline is also used to hang quilting strips on to keep my strips organized when I am sewing. Remember to keep things simple and start somewhere in journey to be prepared and to share with your families!