Laundry for Four

When T and I moved from the city to (what was) our nine acre property on the island, we thought that we were simplifying our life.  My experience has been that when some tasks or aspects of your lifestyle are made more simple, other things become more complicated and/or time consuming.

Although life aboard is (generally) very simple, one of the inconveniences I deal with on a weekly basis is laundry.  

I make a point of doing our laundry no more than one day per week.  The port has a laundry facility but it is VERY expensive ($8 to wash and dry a medium sized load).  

My in laws, who live nearby, have been very generous in offering the use of their house and laundry room.  On laundry day, I take K and M to their house during K's nap time and push through two to three loads of laundry: 

 

 

Because we do not have constant access to a washer and dryer, I try to stock the boat with at least one weeks worth of cloths.  

We do keep the Wonder Wash manual washing machine and Mini Countertop Spin Dryer aboard.  These machines can be purchased on the Laundry Alternative website.  I have experimented a little with these machines and seen good results.  However, I could not imagine doing all of our laundry manually.  Maybe that will change when both of the kids are potty trained and M stops puking on himself (and me) multiple times a day.

Wonder Wash Demonstration: 

 

I am very meticulous (retentive) with organizing and folding laundry.  All of our clothes need to be folded and categorized very specifically in order for them to fit well into their respective shelves, drawers, and netted hammocks.  Once all the clothes are folded accordingly, I tightly pack them into our laundry hamper so that I am able to unload everything on the boat from bow to stern.  K's things (belong in stern stateroom) are packed on bottom, then kitchen linens, then M's clothes (midship), and finally my and T's things (bow).