Hello Hivers
I'm so glad to have found this community! I think there is much I can learn from you all and hopefully some things I can share on my journey to living a more natural lifestyle.
My husband, myself and our 3,5yr old daughter moved out of the city a month ago. We needed to get away from the frenetic energy and the everything that came with it. We now live out in a small town in the countryside called Oudtshoorn, a hot and dry place, but with space to breathe.
An Oudtshoorn Sunset - Photo by me
We moved to a house that we are renting that we really love. It has a much bigger garden and provides far more peace and stillness than where we previously stayed - exactly what we needed after the last year of lockdown in a cramped, noisy space. Our previous apartment was tiny, didn't have a bath (only a shower) and only had space for the washing machine so we gave up our dishwasher and I washed dishes by hand for the year. It's definitely not my favourite housework chore, so when we moved here I was very glad to be able to have space to run the dishwasher again.
What we didn't know at first was that the arrangement in the garage was setup for a frontloader on a high shelf (we have a top-loader washing machine) and when we tried to run it, the drainage pipe was too high and we flooded the garage. Fun times lol.
I made the mental decision that maybe this was just the universe trying to get me to swap out the "by hand" chore of last year to something different, so I decided to handwash our clothing in the bath.
This was a win-win situation but I didn't know it at the time. Our bath drainage runs onto the lawn and as we are under level 4 water restrictions, watering with grey water is encouraged and something I try to do as much as possible.
What I discovered shocked me!
Our family is not the type to stay hermetically clean, I think that over-sanitizing can really be quite harmful (my personal opinion here).
We will wear an outfit of clothing for two days if we are just pottering around the house, but I think that our washing machine has been deceiving me for a while and laughing at me while I'm not looking.
Photo by Ekaterina Belinskaya from Pexels
https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-front-load-washing-machines-4700418/
The first batch of washing that I washed in the bathtub, I used cold water and a normal amount of washing powder. I didn't take photos of what I saw happening in front of my eyes because I would actually be too embarrassed to admit with photographic evidence that the water literally looked like mud!
This is clothing that we had been washing in our washing machine on an eco cycle thinking that it was coming out clean. We were wearing this clothing being none the wiser to the inefficiencies of the wash cycle. It didn't smell funny or anything and didn't look dirty when you took it out of the cupboard, but the water in front of me didn't lie.
I thought maybe it was just a fluke and that it was something that had dye that ran. Nope. I did three more batches of clothing with similar results.
Okay I must admit that finding this out shocked me. I mean we buy these expensive appliances which require special washing powder to do this work for us and make our lives easier and save us time. This particular model is a well known brand of machine, trusted around the world to keep our clothing clean while providing eco-wash cycles to reduce the water and power consumption.
So I wasn't impressed with the washing machine, but I was actually very happy to find this out and witness it first hand. With so much in our world being taken over by machines, with the whole craze of "smart homes" which actually terrify me, I still believe that they will never be as efficient as we are at doing certain things, not all things granted, but some things.
It has made me happy in a strange kind of way. I have wanted to move us closer to the way people used to live for a long time.
My dream (distant but hopefully attainable) is to eventually have a piece of land to homestead on and move away from the reliance on shopping centers and the big boy conglomerates. We have already started that in small ways. We grow our own organic herbs, we have started supporting smaller family owned shops and businesses and we have increased our recycling and decreased our waste that goes to the landfill substantially over the last year. Now we are recycling our grey water from the laundry to water the lawn and with the rise in the cost of water, that is a big saving on it's own.
It's not massive compared to what we want to achieve, but changing your habits and lifestyle take time and every effort is a step in the right direction. I'm very glad I took this one and I have a funny feeling that I might never go back to machine washing our laundry. I find it quite therapeutic now and our clothing feels softer and smells even better.
Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
I think the next step I'd like to challenge myself with is making my own washing powder too. These are also all things that I want to teach our daughter so that she can learn more self sustaining ways of living from an early age. Of course anything that has to do with soap or bubbles is a hit with her, so this should go down well.
So I'd like to challenge those of you who want to run and experiment to wash some of your clothing in the bathtub and see if you have similar results and to share them.
If you'd like to read my other posts about our experiences in the Little Karoo so far, you can check them out here https://hive.blog/@andrastia/posts
Until next time
Go well
Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
Thanks for the reblog @littlehyper-nm
Much appreciated.
That's our life goal, we are almost there! When we were in SA, we did not own a washing for an entire year, my wife @lionmom and I were washing everything in the tub, working so hard for it. Whereas her mum, in less than 10 minutes, could do the entire load without breaking a sweat.
We are becoming softies hahaha. Damn...I forgot about washing in the tub, thanks for the memory throwback!
Ain't that the truth. We gotta get back to our roots and the basics I reckon.
So good to see that more and more Saffers and expats are on Hive. It's awesome.
How are you enjoying Hive so far?
Hive is fantastic! I am finding such interesting people and posts and learning so much. I think I'm hooked heehee. It's not just about posting for me, I mean sure I might have some interesting stuff to share that could be useful and possibly slightly entertaining, but the sense of community on Hive (that I've experienced so far) has totally been a breath of fresh air compared to what "antisocial media" is. I get a vibe that people actually give a damn here and if you have a question, people are very happy to help you figure out things. As a newbie, I have felt really welcome. So yes, I think I am here to stay :)
The only problem I have found so far for me is carving out time to read and connect. I feel like I am missing great stuff all the time. My toddler, husband and three businesses keep me very busy.
Inspiring read 🙏 It has actually crossed my mind sometimes, like 'how effective is my washing machine?' But then I also thought 'it must be more effective than washing my clothes by hand at least'. But after reading your post, maybe not...I don't have a bathtub though so I feel it's a bit tricky to wash larger items by hand, like towels and linens.
Hi Mamrita
Thanks so much for the reply, I'm glad you enjoyed my post. I totally get it and I thought the same, having total confidence in my washing machine but this sealed the deal for me. Yes, I agree that hand washing without a tub is near impossible. I would love to one day hand wash in the shallow end of a lake or river like they still do in some places.
Have a beautiful weekend and stay well :)
I've been handwashing for 10+ years, and I agree with what your results. The few times here and there I've used a washing machine, the results were never as good. That being said though, from experience, hand-washed clothes wear thin much faster, especially if you use a nylon brush for your scrubbing.
Cool that the greywater accidentally works out in your favor. Thanks for sharing.
@NaturalMedicine supports wellness of body, mind, soul and earth on HIVE.
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Hello Justin. Thanks for the message. I'm so glad to hear that it isn't just me. My mom in law was shocked to hear I've started hand-washing our clothes and immediately suggested we get a different type of washing machine, but I think she completely misunderstood my reasons for wanting to hand-washing now over using a machine.
The wear & tear I can handle, I'm good at mending things so small tears and so on can be patched until they fall apart, my daughter grows out of her clothing before it gets to that point and I recycle those into quilts or hand them sideways to people with kids - then at least I know that we got the best wear out of them.
I honestly don't think I will go back unless I become physically unable to hand-wash.
Thanks so much for reading and replying. Have a lovely week 🌸