Rub-A-Dub-Dub Laundry Without Electricity

The emergency preparedness goal for November is all about sanitation.  Fun..I know!!  But in all seriousness in most cases it isn't the emergency that kills people, it's the sanitation afterwards.  Our goal is to have emergency portable toilets with all necessary items stored inside. Read more about luggable loos HERE.  For this post I want to focus on having the supplies on hand to be able to do your laundry if there was no electricity, or if the water mains were broken.  I have written about the porta-potty before and doing our laundry, but reviewing never hurt anyone, right?  There are actually several options that will help make doing laundry by hand easier.  


One way is to use a contraption that looks a lot like a toilet plunger, but it is made for your laundry.  It has sections throughout the bottom to help the water and soap move through the clothes.  It is quite simple and inexpensive.  Add a bucket, gamma lid (with a hole for the handle) and you are ready to do the laundry.  The washer plunger costs about $14 and can be found at Emergency Essentials or in a complete bucket set at Honeyville.


After the plunger, the only other item you will need will be the laundry detergent.  Making your own laundry detergent is easier than you think, and it is a lot cheaper too!  There are many recipes and videos online.  I found a video that is easy to follow, but feel free to google and find what works for you.

If you feel finding all the ingredients for a laundry bucket kit are too time consuming.  There are several options out there for you.  Tami Girsberger has an amazing company of preparedness items all ready to go!  You don't have to hunt for all the items you will need for a porta-potty or wonder how to decide which bags or sanitizer are the best.  Tami has tested and compared all the products in her kits and has selected only the very best.  Tami has done all the research for you.  Check out her porta-potty HERE and her laundry bucket HERE.  She really has found the best products to go in her kits.  Take a minute to look through her site, it is amazing the time she has spent in her research to find the best products.  Her website is preparemylife.com and Tami was also at the Self Reliance Expo that I attended in Oct.  Click HERE to see the cool products she is coming out with next!!

Tami Girsberger's complete laundry bucket!!

Honeyville Grain also sells Tami's complete buckets for laundry and portable potties for $69.95 each.  You can see the buckets in person and look at exactly what goes in them.  Check them out at the Salt Lake Honeyville location 635 N. Billy Mitchel Rd. 

One other option would be the manual washer from Emergency Essentials.  It is called the wonder washer and you would be able to wash several items at once.  It runs about $47.00.  Click HERE to see more info on the wonder washer.

Doing laundry and having a portable toilet are not hard to put together but you do need to see what works for you and your family.  Don't wait for an emergency to try and make laundry detergent or assume you'll have garbage bags for your toilet.  Have all the items for these kits put together and ready to go!!!

"Be faithful, Unencomber your life, Lay up in Store"  Keith McMullin