Laundry day

So today is the day my ‘hamper’ is full, mind you it does not take much to fill it. A pair of pants, a top, some socks and underwear and maybe a tea towel and its time to do laundry. I pulled out my R2D2 unit and got my utility water ready.

In my bus I have a large bpa free water container with a spout that I use for bathing and for washing whatever needs washing. When I do laundry i use 3/4 of this large container so need to refill it before I hit the road again.

Fill up the unit to approximately half full (there is a line inside the tub to guide this measurement), add soap to the top in the 5ml divot in the white steel ball lid, cover up and start pedalling.

I love this thing. What I do is step on the pedal a few times to make sure all the clothes are wet then let it soak a bit, pedal a bit, soak a bit, etc. Which I feel gives the clothes time to de-stink and get clean. Overall I pedal for about 20 minutes total without the wait times.

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I usually brace the other side with my other foot to keep the machine steady. You can pedal this unit pretty fast especially when you’re spinning the clothes dry after a rinse cycle and it needs to be stabilized, which I do with a hug type hold. I also don’t put my full weight on it as it is not designed to hold up a person. So I’m careful to be aware of not stressing out the housing of the R2 unit.

Wash cycle, one normal water level rinse cycle and one small quick rinse to remove any excess soap and its time to hang them on the clothes line in the bus! While I drive, these clothes dry in a couple of hours and I’m able to take them off the line.

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The bus got a full cleaning out as well, taking everything out, sweeping and reorganizing for the next leg of my trip. And… my bedding all got washed! It’s all fresh, and I’m all fresh, Seamus and I are almost ready to take off towards Saulte Saint Marie, Ontario, then on to Tobermory and down beside the lake to London Ontario.

 

 

The most useful ‘on the road’ item in seamus

Several years ago I pre-bought a foot pedalled laundry tub on a hope and a prayer that it was not a scam. And thank goodness, it turned out to be one of the coolest things I have purchased (other than Seamus, because Seamus is the coolest thing I have ever purchased (my ipad is a close second to that) and gone into debt over (house exempt as I have to live somewhere)). And if all those brackets turned out to make sense, we are all doing well!

I know you’re wondering how I manage the call of nature while on the road for extended periods of time, and if you weren’t wondering you should have been, and if you were wondering but didn’t want to admit you were wondering, don’t be so worried about what’s proper because we all need to do these things or we would likely explode. Before your mind wanders too far ahead and thinking I’ve somehow turned my foot pedalled laundry tub into a toilet, well, I haven’t but it does play a small role. As a matter of fact, so does the famous Pampered Chef microwave veggie steamer pot. This steamer has become my chamber pot (you’ll be comforted to know I no longer use it for cooking veggies, it’s been permanently re-purposed).

This is the laundry machine: I call it R2D2

Inside the machine there is a stainless steel ball with a little lid at the top to add in clothes and when I was laying in my VW bed I realized that the hole in the steel ball is the same size as my veggie steamer chamber pot!

The only issue was how to keep the steel ball from rotating or shifting while I ‘hovered’ over it to use it as a support for my chamber pot, so towels were stuffed along the sides to keep the ball still.

Voila! Now it’s a little chamber pot holder for hovering over when my body needs to release some excess water.

Additionally to this purpose, the laundry tub serves also as a laundry hamper for my dirty items waiting to be cleaned. (Post on doing laundry coming in a few days as my ‘hamper’ is getting full!). Below you can see dirty (and cant smell thankfully) items of clothing.

All in all, it has three main purposes now and life would be much more difficult without this Yirego miracle. And as an added bonus, if we have a zombie apocalypse and a power outage, I can have april fresh clothes while I’m running from those brainless creatures.

As for my morning ‘constitution’ I drive to the nearest restaurant and order something small on the menu as a form of payment for using their washroom.

Mystery solved. Washing my hair is a bigger pain in the hole but the morning ritual of sponge bathing is a cinch and takes only about 10 minutes in total before I’m fresh as a daisy and ready for another day.