Wash Day.

We found and bought a working wringer-washer!!! It was on Kijiji for $125, which we had as cash in our pockets, but when we arrived to pick it up it had a $75 sticker on it! Bonus!!!
Up into the van it went (on it's back) and when we set it upright and wheeled it to the kitchen door it poured oil all over the mud-room floor. Gasp! Thankfully it leaked onto a floor that will be ripped up come spring, but then we were worried that we had wrecked our "treasure" before we even got to use it! Geoff did a bit of figuring and research, bought some all-purpose grease, managed to get some into the right spot in the washer and "Bob's your Uncle!" we were in business.

The first time we used it it took all four of us to get the clothes cleaned. What a hub-bub and circus we had going on in the kitchen that day! Honestly we should have set a camera up in a corner and recorded the whole event. It would have been hilarious to watch! No instruction book. Old knobs and cords that are a tad temperamental. Not the most ideal set up in the kitchen.  Emergency "kill-bar" that makes a dreadful bang when it's hit. Jeans getting stuck. Water going EVERYWHERE!
But it wasn't the laundry-mat costing three dollars a load and it was a pile of fun!

I can see why pioneer women had each day of the week set aside for certain chores.
When your chores are labour intensive you need to dole out the work.

Using a wringer-washer is many steps up from doing the laundry in the creek and whacking the clothes on a rock. It's better than lugging water from the well, heating it on the stove in a galvanized wash tub and skinning your knuckles raw on the scrub board.
But it's definitely more involved then the big modern boxes the rest of you use. ;)

Monday has become "Wash Day".  Thankfully it gets easier with every use. Although every Monday presents a new challenge to figure out there is a rhythm starting to emerge and I think if you were to sit and watch the process now you would think we flow rather smoothly. Actually the "we" could easily be "me", I only include others so they can take responsibility in cleaning the clothes they dirtied. :) Not to mention, added The Youngest, "Many hands does make the job faster and lighter". Very true.

First up is wheeling the machine to the sink so it can be filled with water. Thankfully we bought one of those slightly-more-expensive but handy pull-out faucets. "Wash-Day" would look a little different if we didn't. Our water pressure is so low that this is the only stage where I can walk away from the process for a bit. While the tub is filling I get everything else ready and then still have time to kill.

Getting other things ready includes - pulling out.....
- the re-purposed rubber-maid container (it is now the rinse tub),
- the baskets (lack of room means some clothes go outside no matter the temperature!),
- the clothes pins,
- the plastic-hanger-drying-thingys
- the rag towels to catch all the stray water.
Also need to sort the week's pile of dirty clothes, set up the drying rack (cause it's winter) and put my long hair into a bun. Gotta be safe around that wringer!!

Here's hoping this video of our "set-up" works so you can get a visual of what we do.

The process is pretty simple. Fill the tub once with hot water, do the whites first. Use the roller-bars to wring out that first load into the rinse water. Put the mediums into the slightly cooler, albeit a little dirtier water. Wring the rinse water out of the whites while the second load is being agitated and hang it up. Wring mediums into rinse water. Add some cold water to the washer to replace and cool down the water, add the dark load and while that is being cleaned, wring out and hang the second load. Wring, rinse, wring out the last load (the one that contains all the jeans and threatens to steal away your "religion" :p) Hang to dry. Pump water out of washer. Wipe clean. Empty rinse tub, one jug at a time. Wheel washer back to starting point. And Ta-da! one weeks worth of dirty clothes, one tub of wash water and one tub of rinse equals three loads of wet, but clean clothes.

It's that easy. Tongue in cheek of course. ;)

Of course there are pros and cons to everything.

Some cons of using a wringer washer are I can't really multi-task. There is no walking away and doing something else while a machine does it all for me. Well, it never does it all anyways. They haven't invented a machine to fold and put away yet have they?!
Weather is un-predictable and hanging clothes that are freezing faster then you can hang them is a bit of an inconvenience. The drying part, at least in the winter, takes up my whole kitchen for the whole day.

You have to tuck away your OCD-self on laundry days. It looks like a clothing store blew up in here on Mondays so expect that if you drop by. My pride is also put away along with my OCD so if you do stop by, I can handle it.

But there are more pros than cons. Not only does it use less water and hydro, making it cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but I no longer "forget" and find musty loads of laundry in the washer a day or two later which then need re-washing. Nor will I ever find a half dry and/or really, really wrinkled forgotten load sitting in the dryer, demanding another go-round using even more energy. When Monday is over the laundry is DONE. It's not in stages all over the house. And while I can't multi-task, I am also not trying to figure out what to do with my spare time! I don't have to decide between activity A or B (or C, D or E either) I know what I am doing Monday and must plan my other tasks accordingly. It's hands on and good for the brain trying to plan out all the steps needed and it's not hurting me physically either. It's more demanding of my muscles and fat-stores, then the "just-drop-and-go" type of machines. And since I can't have a regular washing machine in this house (yet) it saves me running to town to clean our clothes.

I'm glad God provided us this "miracle".  Like who finds wringer-washing machines these days?! God does, that's who! :)

But I have to tell you..... the best thing about Wash Day is Tuesday!
I spend all day Tuesday appreciating how tidy and spacious my kitchen is without the laundry hanging all over it.

To enjoy life's ups you gotta have the downs!! 

I realize that when it comes to the "downs" of cleaning clothes, ours are self-inflicted, but that's OK we aren't sorry about our decision to buy an antique clothes washer.

Well, most of us aren't, The Man-Son still makes comments like.......

"Hey Mom, there's this really great invention they've made......"