How to Hand-Wash Clothes Self-Sufficiently

Do it your way.

There’s no need to explain yourself — whether you are trying to go greener, you're tired of losing socks to the black hole in the washing machine, or you love the thrill of taking baths in sweaters — hand-washing clothes is often a good idea. But it can get really messy. Here’s how to do it right.

Get Wet

Find a water source and a place you can fill with water: a bathtub, a plastic tub and a hose, a bucket out by the river. Cold water is ideal for most clothes, but hot water will remove the grass stains from your jeans and the dirt from your socks best. If you're going to need hot water, the bathtub is a good pick, unless you live by a really, really warm river.

Sort Your Clothes

If you think the colors of your clothes will bleed (new and colorful clothes), sort them and only wash similar colors together (darks vs. lights). Otherwise, sort by weight (e.g., pants and sweatshirts vs. shirts).

Suds

Powdered detergent (boxes) works best if premixed with a little water and then mixed in; liquid detergent (jugs) can be poured in directly.

Soak and Mix

Toss your clothes in and stir them around making sure everything is completely wet. Mix everything around with your hand or a plunger (a clean one, please!). Let them soak for twenty or thirty minutes depending on how much you've thrown in — bigger loads should soak on the longer side. Don't forget about your laundry: too long in the detergent can be bad for your threads.

Rinse and Repeat

If you're doing this in the bathtub, drain the water and let the clothes sit for a moment. Run the tap or the shower over them until they aren't soapy.

Anywhere else, dump the water from the container but keep the clothes clean. Replace the water in the tub/basin/bucket with clean water and mix the clothes around to knock the soap off. Repeat this step a total of three times or more, until you can't detect any more soap.

Drain and Dry

Drain the clothes a final time and let some of the water dry off. Hopefully, you've got a nice dry, sunny place to hang the clothes on a line. Clothespins or plastic hangers work best. Alternatively, you can toss your clothes in the dryer. Careful with relatively new clothes: The highest heat might shrink your garb.