the new old-fashioned way

A little while ago I mentioned that we would be home-washing and hang-drying our new cloth diapers. On Saturday, the second half of the diapering equation arrived - a Wonder Wash and Mini Countertop Spin Dryer from The Laundry Alternative Inc. we've been washing a load of laundry a day for the last two days - we haven't started the cloth diapers yet we want to get a good feel for the system before we add extra work.

So far things are great - two days and I am already feeling a groove. Morning is the best time to do it, meaning, eventually, getting up a smidge earlier to get it all done before our morning activities. Doing the previous day's laundry, two loads sorted by colour, take about an hour from sort and pre-treat to laundry on the line. Everything so far has been dry by the next morning - including jeans - and that is hanging in our hallway, not outside (we live on the west coast and the rainy season is upon us). Following the directions, I used about 20 gallons of water per day, including the rinse and six tablespoons of detergent. I also used about a 1/2 cup of vinegar in each rinse. The spin dryer runs three times for a full wash load - for up to five minutes for jeans and as little as one minute for a light load (soccer shorts, some undies and my fancy new top).

I will update when we start doing diapers too!

Note who is doing all the work and who is having fun... actually I was having fun too.

See?

Our dirty laundry

My right arm is going to be so buff.

Okay, Andrew, enough pictures already

Our retractable drying line.

Hanging to dry (note Sebastian's awesome new tee)

Sebastian refers to this as the car wash

Having our laundry hanging in the hallway certainly makes us want to take it down as soon as it is dry, but it is also out of the way enough to not be intrusive, and when there's nothing on the line it blends right into the background.