This actually started as an experiment for the purposes of backpacking, in conjunction with the clothing experiment. Basically, I had recently heard that ultralight backpackers often went backpacking with only the clothing on their backs (modulo jackets and stuff). I so I tried it, this is the beginning of my clothing experiment.
Now, I had always carried Dr. Brauners peppermint soap backpacking, because you can wash your hair with it, brush your Teeth with it, clean your pots with it, or even wash your clothes with it. Since I was testing washing my clothing regularly, and wearing only one set, I wanted to see how clean I could keep it with what I would have on the trail. So, I washed my clothes with Dr Brauners by hand every night in the sink with Dr Brauners and let them hang dry overnight. Not surprisingly this didn't work. It actually DID keep my clothes clean, but they started to smell funny and sour. Also, Dr Brauners doesn't really get the oils out of the clothing, so the get a little bit slick feeling and funny from not really ever getting the body oils out of them.
I had heard that baking soda worked as shampoo, and I'd heard that shampoo worked to wash clothing, so I figured baking soda aught to work. Well, it DID get rid of the smell, but my clothes didn't seem clean at all. Okay, this made sense, since Dr Brauners IS a surfactant, and baking soda just gave me something gritty,that absorbs the smell and the oils. So the obvious thing to try is...
This actually works PERFECTLY. If you think about what a laundry detergent is, this is basically it. I was using Arm and Hammer, which is really just a surfactant and baking soda. This works so well in fact, and it requires so little that I've just continued using it. I've been doing this for well over a year now and I've never had a problem. I started using it for washing clothes in the washing machine as well! Why do I use it rather than normal soap? Well, it's less stuff to store, keep track of, and replace when it runs out. If you look at a normal container of... well... just about anything, some very small percentage of it is "active ingredient". Almost all of the Dr Brauner's and the baking soda is "active" so it's literally less stuff to push around.
When I first started this experiment the idea was for backpacking, so naturally I was washing by hand. On and off I tested washing by hand with my soap combinations and with normal detergent (as a control, and to use up some I had lying around). Washing by hand in a sink is surprisingly easy, the main trick is to use enough soap, but as little as possible. Washing is fairly easy, rinsing is more work. This is a LOT of work for something like jeans, but since I was washing clothing that would dry overnight they don't absorb much water, and thus not much soap either. This means washing is much simpler. You COULD use a washboard, but this is much harder on the clothing again. One of the great things about washing by hand is that there's no agitator, and nothing gets washed longer than it needs, this means that clothing lasts much longer. The first shirt I did this with lasted a full year of continuous wear before it was too worn LOOKING to wear normally. Even then it was still okay for anything but work.
I continued washing by hand for a long time mostly because running laundry of 1 set of clothing was extremely silly. If I was doing bulk washing like every else (and when I do now for some reason... towels or whatever) I would use a machine. As I mentioned washing by hand is quite annoying for absorptive things. The main example I ran into was SOCKS. Socks are really annoying to wash, and they are always dirty. After doing this for a year or so I went to washing my socks with a machine again because washing them by hand was just too annoying. As a note, washing my set of clothing by hand normally took me around 30-45 minutes.
Well, I told my parents about experiment and they thought it was cool and all. A while later my dad ran into a hand crank washing machine from Gleason's for $40.0. It's pretty small, very light, and easy to move. I figured why not give it a try? So I did. the lid actually broke on me quickly, but was easily repaired with some good pipe glue (for PVC and similar pipes). This thing is great, because it cut my washing time in half. You put the soap and the clothing in with hot water, crank it about 60 times once per second, and take the clothes out. You then have to rinse them. It works well with very small amounts of soap though, so it cuts down on the time needed to rinse as well.
Well, I decided I love the one set of clothes thing, and it seems very silly to run entire loads of laundry for that. So now I wash my clothes regularly using the crank. I still run a load of laundry every couple of weeks or so using a machine where I wash socks, sheets, towels, and anything that got extra soiled like clothes from caving. I'm using peppermint soap and Dr. Brauners for all of the above
By mbrewer