Laundry day
Washing clothing in the van.
There are couple of ways to wash clothes when you live in a van. You can go to a laundry mat and pay to wash clothes. That can be handy when laundry mats are cheap and abundant. But well, where I live, they aren't.
Big bucket method.
Here's a trick that people living in camper vans and RVs use. Arranging this can be done if you put a bit of planning in to it. You will need a bucket of course, a container large enough to carry enough water to about half way fill the bucket and a source of water.
Get a big bucket or an Eski with a lid that prevents spilling or a bucket that is large enough that water will not spill over the edges. The bucket I use also doubles on occasion as a small bath. Put your dirty cloths in. Fill it about half to two thirds of the way up with water, add detergent and then seal the lid. Go for a drive. It is important that clothing is completely soaked, and laundry detergent is used. Ideally you should fill the bucket with clothing, water and detergent, drive for a while, empty the bucket of water, rinse the clothing under water and drive for a bit longer to rinse the clothing. The motion of your car driving and the vibration from your engine and the road will agitate the water and wash your cloths as you drive. You can wash your clothes on the way to work or back. All you need to do is dry them off some where. This could be a simple rope clothes line, in your van (but this causes condensation problems) or a laundry mat. Generally drying clothes at a laundry mat is cheaper than washing them.
I have tried washing clothing in a big bucket which proved to be extremely effective. This is after an hour's drive.
Rinsing out clothes in the van's sink.
Manual clothes washer
The other method I now use is to wash clothes in a small pressure washer unit. It is a manual clothes washer. Mine is called the "Magic Wash". Saturday's are normally laundry day. I pull into a camping ground on Saturdays to do laundry, fill up my water tanks and just relax.
Here's the manual clothes washer unit and the watering can I use to fill it. The lid and turning handle are off.
Laundry detergent goes in to the pressure clothes washer first.
Clothing goes in next. Though I think it may work better if you add water first then the clothes or if you add the clothes first then laundry detergent.
In goes the water. This can be tricky, as if the water settles on one side the clothes washer can tilt a bit, so I usually hold it steady.
I fill it till the water just covers the clothes. You need about a third to a quarter of it empty so that there is air enough to allow the water to slosh around inside. If you don't, the water won't move around when you spin the clothes washer.
The lid and handle go on. The manual clothes washer I use has a removable handle. That just makes it easier to store. The lid can be tricky to get on. The knob on the top screws down to make a water and air tight seal. You need to make sure you put the lid of the manual clothes washer on, turn it, then turn the knob to make a seal. It is easy to turn the knob, think you have sealed it then it pops off because you didn't turn it first.
Next you spin it. I usually spin it for a minute each way, switch direction a few times and then finish. Usually I don't need to spin it for more than a few minutes. Normally I don't need to crank it too long. The main purpose of cranking is to get the soap and water moving. So while I could spin it really fast, that would just stick the water to the outsides of the container by centrifugal force, making the water just stay still. So I crank it reasonably slow.
Next I unseal the manual clothes washer and pour out the water slowly. One thing to be aware of, putting hot water in these means the air will expand in it, so when you unseal it, there can be a rush of air, and hot water out. The pressure process though makes it work better.
I find that I do need to do a rinse cycle to remove soap or detergent from the clothes. That works just the same way, only you don't put any laundry detergent into the clothes washer.
End result, clean clothes. Well, clean except for the yellow item in front which was once washed next to a non colour fast black item.
