Living Without Electricity

Going without electricity is different than off-grid living. Off-gridders still consume electricity, there's just no "physical and symbolic connection to the outside world", as the Amish might say.

We use a little electricity - battery operated lights, radios, a cordless drill, cell phones and even a laptop. We don't have a washer, dryer, refrigerator, freezer, TV, arc welder, towel warmer, etc.

A lack of TV is certainly no hardship, at least from what I can gather. Three of my coworkers recently had a lively and mind-benumbing discussion of how awful the overhyped final episodes of Lost and Seinfeld were. They wasted their time watching this drivel in the first place and made it worse by complaining about it. (And, I'm wasting more time by writing about it!) Anyway, listening to people enthusiastically recount commercials and TV shows only reinforces my decision to go without. Good riddance.

But - a washer and refrigerator are handy. We don't seem to miss the refrigerator but we occasionally dream of having a small propane or - it must be equally silent - an electric one. However, if pressed, I'd pick a washer over a refrigerator. We overwash as much as we overeat and overdrive - we're used to wasting a lot of chemicals, energy and water thoughtlessly washing clothes. It's easy to wear a shirt or jeans once and toss them in the laundry. Often they don't really need to be washed after only one wearing.

Such are the things you notice when you live closer to the earth. Source reduction is an important strategy when you wash clothes by hand. So the first rule of living without a washing machine is rather obvious, but typically ignored: Only wash the dirty clothes!

The next rule is to limit the use of soap (we mix up our own, but that's another story). Just the average residual detergent in clothes after one washing is sufficient to clean them again without adding any additional detergent. Try it. Washing by hand - specifically rinsing by hand - quickly teaches you to use the minimum amount of soap. Otherwise, you'll waste a lot of time and water rinsing and wringing.

There are a few clever methods to hand wash. Plastic 5 gallon pails can be loaded with clothes, add a little soap, fill with water, then snap on the lid. Place the bucket in the back of the pickup when you drive into town and let the motion agitate the clothes. That's the way John Steinbeck did it when he travelled with Charley in the 1960s, and it works great today. Alternatively you could drill a hole in the top of the lid and use a plunger that has holes drilled in it. Someone actually sells this setup for $40 - minus the hole!

Wringing clothes by hand isn't advisable. It's a lot of work, rough on your hands and not efficient. The ideal solution is to get a $200 hand wringer from Lehman's and, for nearly the price of a washing machine, you can have fun with a tool that'll last forever. We're dreaming of one because we already have the washtubs - I rescued a nearly new one that someone discarded!

A less elegant approach again uses those ubiquitous plastic pails, three of them. The bottom one has a drain hole in it. The middle one has many small drain holes in its bottom. The top one is unmodified. All you do is load up the middle one, nest it in the bottom one, and use the top one (with a lid on it) as a seat so you can squeeze out the water.

One could also use a mop wringer, just smush the clothes in there and squeeze the handle. Something about that isn't appealing to me, however.

Drying is easy, just set up a good clothesline and you won't miss the dryer at all. Mother Earth News has an excellent plan for a clothesline that we can't wait to build.

As for lighting, it's also way overused. We rise and retire with the sun and have several little lamps around. When it's cold we use our propane-fueled wall lights, they are silent, put out a lot of heat and cast a nice light. I'm amused at the common practice of using a flashlight when simply taking a walk at night. A light is rarely necessary unless you are deep into the woods - which isn't too smart at night. A wide trail or logging road can easily be followed by looking up and using the treeline to guide your path. Once you get used to it, your flashlight batteries can last many weeks before needing a recharge
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