Washing Clothes by Hand 2

I just wanted to add to my post the other day about washing clothes by hand.  Our time without a washer and dryer has been longer than I'd hoped, so we've had to do some of what I call wholesale hand washing.  This is very much like what I put in my other post about hand washing, except on a larger scale.  There are a few variations.  The kneading-like method used in regular hand washing is a lot more difficult with a lot of clothes, but should still be used when possible.  One thing that I've found works quite well is to aggressively squish the clothes down while the tub is filling up, then do a little more kneading/swishing (I recommend squatting by the tub while you do this to keep pressure off your back and give you a great leg workout!), then..........let it soak.  Yes, soak.  It's easy and passive.  The thing I've noticed is that it works a LOT better if you agitate and THEN soak, then a little more agitation for good measure.  Here is a load primarily of my husband's work clothes (he works at a tire shop) which I squished and then let soak for about 20 to 30 minutes.

All together now:  EEEEEEWWWWWW!!!!!   I did not darken this in any way.  In fact, I think it looked worse in person.
So afteryou get the copious amounts of yuckies out of the clothes you pull the plug and drain the water.  Then I pile the clothes in the middle of the tub and kind of pushed to one side (so water can get past) and use a large cup to rinse out the side of the tub opposite of the drain.  Then I wring out the clothes over the drain, and place then in the cleaned out spot.

To the left are wrung out clothes, to the right the still sopping wet clothes.

After that I repeat teh process, including the soaking, and sometimes I'll do it again for good measure, especially with my husbands work clothes because as you can see from above, they get VERY dirty!  The next thing to do is find a place to hang it all!  Good luck, we usualy have to blocj some doorways as well as the shower, but hey, it works!