Feel silly asking but anyone experienced at hand washing clothes?

[Louise88]

My washing machine broke, my mums going to give me hers in a couple of weeks time do I suppose I need to hand wash until then, thing is I've never hand washed clothes before! How do I do it? I know you buy hand wash soap powder from shop but do you have to wash items individually or can I stick them all in the bath and wash all together?

I feel really stupid asking all this

 

[vaniilla]

try to see it the same as washing them in the machine, separate them as normal and then fill the tub with water and detergent, leaving them to soak a bit will help a lot. Add enough clothes so that they can all be fully covered with water and leave them 30m. You don't need special detergent, most (except for tabs) will have dosage for handwashing on the back. Brand new plungers is what many use to wash them but using your hands does the same thing.

 

[suzib76]

Have you got a launderette nearby? It's much easier


My gran used to scrub the clothes on a washboard, I'm not sure just a soaking in the bath would be enough for me. You could just wash the absolute minimum needed and just do a few washes when you get the machine, but yeah you need to soak then scrub the dirt out, you can do that by rubbing pieces of the fabric together, and then rinsing, make sure the clothes are really well rinsed as ts horrible if there is still soap in them. You don't need to buy any special detergent though, just whatever you have will do

 

[KayBea]

ide go to a laundrette or round my mums & do my washing there if i were you

much easier!

 

[lau86]

I was also going to say in your situation I would use a launderette, I hve hand washed things on holiday but it takes ages and I never really felt they were clean

 

[Tegans Mama]

I would be taking my washing to my mums if I was you, I can't live without properly clean clothes

 

[sue_88]

Laundrette!

 

[Louise88]

Haha thankyou for the replies, unfortunately I have no family in the town I live in and I can't drive so taking them to a family members house isn't an option and there's no launderette in my town either lol if I want to be really lazy though I could post an ad on gumtree and pay someone to take away my dirty clothes and wash them for me this next 2 weeks is going to be horrible! The dirty clothes are already mounting up!

 

[lau86]

Oh right, that's a shame... In which case I would probably hand wash as little as possible and just wear every bit of clothing I owned in the meantime!

 

[KayBea]

do you get on well with a neighbour? maybe ask them in return of some money or maybe cake? our washing machine broke when LO was about 3 months old. - reflux bsby so 4 changes of clothes a day!! it took the landlady 3 months to replace it so i asked my neighbour if i could use theirs (they are 80 odd) in return of home made carrot cake and a few hours cleaning each week (running the hoover round & doing bits they couldnt really do).

xx

 

[Indi84]

I had to hand wash for a while years ago my dad left my mum (I still lived there) and we struggled with bills for a bit and the washing machine broke!
I hated it tbh but once you get into the swing it's ok. I let clothes soak then would kinda scrub then together then rinse with loads of water. Wring them out as much as poss or they take ages to dry!

 

[summer rain]

There's a portable non-electric washing machine on eBay it's about £40 including courier delivery, and you can always keep it for holidays etc as it is meant to be very well made. Also you'd easily spend £40 very quickly if you were using a laundrette. Just search for 'portable washing machine' it's the blue one with a foot pedal on the front. Xx