I have been looking at one of these for a while now, and I finally decided to go for it. It’s not even waist high and looks like a kids toy.

“But, Shawn…what is it?” one may ask. “Why,” my reply would be…”it’s not a kid toy even though it looks like one. It’s a portable clothes washer and it’s awesome!”. Actually it’s a washer AND a dryer! It even has a “gentle” setting for my merino wool garments.

I was tired of going to do laundry but a real adult washing machine is just too expensive and more than I really need on a regular basis. Honestly, I wash all of my merino wool clothes by hand and those things can actually be worn a few days before washing. With this I can do those easily and I can also wash jeans in this…albeit a single pair at a time. But, I have just discovered I cannot fit a pair of jeans in the dryer. They won’t fit. That’s going to be a drip dry. Still almost no trips to the laundromat except for blankets, sheets and such.

Oh, another really cool thing? I can put it in the storage area in the trailer and take it on adventures! No launderettes or washing in a dishpan (unless I have no power). That’s if I wanted to take it along; I’d have to think about that.

I did buy a plastic bucket and a screw-on lid for laundry on the road; put water in the bucket, a little detergent, and screw the lid on. Secure it in the bed of the truck before leaving in the morning.

When you stop for something halfway through the day dump out the water, rinse the bucket, wring out the clothes & toss back into bucket, add rinse water and seal it up. Finish up the process when you stop for the day.

This little washing machine was a little over $100 so it will pay for itself quickly plus no driving so more savings.

How does it work? It’s awesome! Think of it this way…it’s one step up from a wringer washer, but it’s a modern step up. You fill the water manually, turn the water off, turn on the washing function and add a wee dram of detergent. Seriously, not much – as in a spoonful. It took me several loads to try to dial in the soap and after rinsing the first load 4 times and the 2nd load 3 times I dialed it waaayyyy back and I didn’t even put much soap in that first load!

Let it wash for however long, drain it, squeeze the soapy water out and put a few things in the dryer. It is like those little spin dryers you see in public pools to dry your swimsuit. Spin it for a few minutes; it doesn’t take long and they come out very dry! While that’s happening you rinse out the washer side, drain, then it’s the center control back to normal, fill with water to rinse. Take dry clothes from dryer and rinse. Repeat as necessary then finish drying.

It’s basic, but man it works incredibly well. It does what I need. I got it down pretty well on my own as the directions are pretty horrible. They really tried, but the English translation wasn’t very good so I had to get what I could out of it and fill in the blanks.

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I’ve been doing some meal prep the last few days. I was missing doing some cooking but went kinda crazy. Breakfast items, Italian chicken breasts, taco-seasoned chicken breasts, 9 servings of pasta. Yeah I’ve gone nuts on it and have a few more things to make.

The Italian chicken is a bit spicy but it’s really good; it’s my own recipe made on the fly with stuff off my shelves. I’m going to use it in an updated version of my chicken caprese sandwich. Stay tuned on that.

I had chicken tacos for dinner tonight and it’s good but a little too salty; I shoulda cut back on the seasoning mix a bit, I need a battery for my scale so I could not weigh the chicken and I underestimated the weight. It might be okay to someone else since I don’t use much salt and watch what I eat. I am hypersensitive to the taste of salt.

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The weather has been just stifling – I got out and got some mowing done the last few days and hope to get out earlier tomorrow and finish it up. It’s so wet with dew early though that it’s difficult to mow. Today I stopped in the nick of time – I went inside, got a shower, and in that short time it became unbearable outside. It’s like someone turned on a blast furnace. I had to go to town and get a few things for the new washer and a few groceries and it was horrible being outside; I shoulda masked up and will start doing that. It was miserable out in the few stops I made.

It had been cooler in the evenings for a little while but with this current heat bubble it isn’t cooling off much at night. With no rain the grass oughta slow down some.

Oh, those big-ass weeds I’ve sprayed the hell out of? I discovered it is ragweed. Yep, 10 feet of allergic misery and I’ve been in the middle of a bunch of them spraying while the pollen from grasses has also been off the charts.

Those are some tough weeds and they’re not going anywhere without a fight. I have some brush killer to take care of woody, brushy stuff like poison ivy and oak and just might be good for some of the tough woody-looking plants like the ragweed. The stalks are huge.

It may be machete time after that.

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That’s all for today. Thank you for checking out my blog post for today.

Shawn