Answering Questions..Laundry
I occasionally think we must be running out of questions about preparing and the H1N1 and then I check my email and I have a new batch. My problem is that some come in the form of an email, some by phone, some in person and some as a comment on the blog. If I should ever hail to answer a question you have had please contact me again. I don’t mean to ignore the questions. I have also discovered a few in my spam, which really…frustrates me. So lets get to the questions.
What do we do about laundry if we live in an apartment and have to quarantine and can’t get to the laundromat?
That is a really great question. I sometimes get a little distracted and forget that many of you live in apartments. I’m sorry. Laundry may become a problem for any or all of us during any emergency if the electricity fails. A few months ago I posted directions for making a “washer” out of a five gallon bucket and a plunger. I think this is the easiest and cheapest way to prepare.
1. Purchase a five gallon bucket with a lid (home imrpovement center often have these cheap as they have logos on them and are free advertising)
2. Purchase a plunger.
3. In the center of the lid cut a hole large enough for the handle of a plunger to fit through.
4. Fill bucket 1/2 full with water.
5. Add small amount of liquid laundry detergent.
6. Add a few items of clothing.
6. Insert the plunger handle through the hole in the lid.
7. Agitate by moving the plunger up and down.
8. To rinse repeat the process with clean water.
This is best done on a floor which will not be damaged by standing water. If you do not have this then place the “washer” in the bath tub or shower. Have rope and clothes pins available to hang and dry clothes.
We were at a home improvement center this week and found clothes line pulleys. These are great to attach to a fence or across an alley to a neighbor’s balcony, be sure to return the favor. Towels and heavy items will dry in a few hours outdoors but will take a day indoors, so try to plan a method for outdoor drying.
In the case of illness you will need to use bleach to kill all the virus germs. This is why I recommend everyone have white sheets and white towels to be used in a recovery room.
About gloves for a sick room, they come in different styles: snug fit like doctors, etc. use or loose fit like some in the food industry use. There are also different grades of plastic. Does it make any difference what we should purchase for pandemic use? What do you recommend?
You should store medical style gloves. They come in several sizes. Store those which will fit family member snugly. You will need a new pair for each time you care for a patient and you may want a few more for times when you are in public, especially if using a public restroom. They are inexpensive so I have 100 stored per person. They are fun to blow up for Halloween parties or to fill with candy at Halloween so I know I can use them.
How would I cook without electricity. Are camping stove good?
I went to my trusted source, Karen, and here is her reply:
“The portable bake ovens are minimally successful but would be fine in an emergency. They are very small though and I have heard some complaints about their temperature accuracy. I would hate to cook for a family in one but if you are hungry you do what works.
I am recommending a solar oven. A good quality solar oven bakes bread with no problem, although it does take a little longer. A high quality solar oven will do everything but deep fry. I like the sun oven, which is what I sell, although there are other ovens available. Solar baking will be a pet project for me this summer. During my solar oven research I corresponded with a woman who cooks solar about 95% of the time. She does it for environmental reasons. Anyway, she swears by the benefits and ease of solar cooking. The benefits are numerous; one is that you do not have to store fuel. Draw backs are that the sun does need to be shining although I have seen people bake bread in the winter time when there is snow on the ground!
Draw backs on solar ovens are extended cooking time so you have to plan your meal and get it going early on.”
I would just add that a solar oven will work anywhere there is sun. If you live in an apartment or condo with a balcony or patio that gets sun, even a roof deck, you are set!
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One inexpensive and often free source that I’ve found for pails are the bakery departments of stores that ice their own cakes. Now not all stores will sell or give you their used pails, but it never hurts to ask politely. And if it’s a free source, I try not to ask too often as I don’t want them to think that I’m taking advantage.
The WalMart a mile away from me recycles theirs, but the WalMart on the other side of town sells their empty pails complete with lids for $1.
And not all pails are created equal. I’ve found the best quality pails with heavier plastic and wire handles I get from Food Lion and WalMart. I use those for both short and long term food storage. For short term, I use the smaller pails and the larger ones I use for long term with mylar bags inside.
The Kroger pails I’ve gotten have plastic handles and the lids don’t have rubber gaskets, but that wouldn’t matter it you were going to use them for making a laundry bucket or for storing non-food items.
I am so glad that you covered the laundry question! I have often wondered how we would handle that situation. It’s cheap and sounds much easier than a washboard. The kids could do the aggitating and burn some energy. Two birds with one stone.
This year where I live it has rained and rained and rained. Last year and the year before I had used my solar oven many many times by now. This year on the first day of summer it rained all day. Since the first of January I have probably used my oven twice. Last year I probably used it almost every day since the first sunny day in May by this time.
The best solar oven is the brand that is used at the base camp of Mt. Everest. That is the kind I use. I have used it in January when the outside temperature was 14 degrees F. There is about a four hour daily window when the oven can be used in the winter. There is about a 12 hour daily window when it can be used six weeks on either side of the summer solstice in my area. For me with daylight savings time high noon is 1:30 p.m. That is when the oven is the hottest. Bright clear days right after a storm in winter or summer when there are no clouds are when the oven is hottest. My oven will easily get to 425 degrees F. during these times.
I use cut squares of pressed board to tip my oven further than it would normally tip in order to use it as early as 8 a.m. and as late as 8 p.m. The squares are stacked front and back by increments as I turn the oven every 15 minutes if I am trying to keep it at maximum temperature. I can also cook in the middle of the day at position it to the place where it will have the highest heat about midway during the time I am gone.
My oven is not large and will only use the same pans that are used in a toaster oven. It takes me 3 hours to bake one normal batch of cookies. Normally that would only be two regular cookie sheets in a kitchen oven. By the same token the oven is easy for me to lift and carry. I would not bother if it were any bigger as I have arthritis. It weighs 21 pounds and that is my limit.
So, if one wanted to cook for a larger group of people one could have more ovens. I gave an oven to all of my children. If we have a get-together we can cook a lot with all of the ovens. If you have a big family at home maybe you could get or make more ovens. Ovens can be made with cardboard boxes. You would also need to have enough extra pans with more ovens.
On cloudy days, especially if there is an extended rainy season you do need to have other options. That is what preparedness is about–as many options as you can possibly create for yourself ahead of time.
As an alternative to the bucket/plunger would be to do the laundry in the bathtub and have people do the ‘grape stomp’ on them. Great fun for kids. Remember, however, in times of electric outage you may not have water either – electricity powers the water system.
Solar ovens – well, I live in Florida so usually the sun it out more than not, however, after Hurricane Charley we only had a gas grill. It was the kind with the side burner and regular grill. It was truly a life saver as we had to use it for several weeks. The MUST do with any grill – gas or charcoal- is to use it OUTSIDE away from anything combustible. People seem to get ‘stupid’ in times of emergencies. We always had an extra propane tank for the grill so we did not run out.
Back to the solar oven – I recently found a recipe/instructions for baking a pie in it. Next on my list to try. Currently we have cooked muffins, bread, biscuits, chili, sloppy joes, pot roast with potatoes and carrots, lasagne, BBQ ribs & chicken, any kind of chicken including whole ones, pork roast, tuna casserole by adding extra water to cook the macaroni, beef stew, clam chowder, vegetable soup coffee and tea. While we’ll probably never recoup the cost, about $250, knowing we will be able to have a normal life during an emergency is priceless. And, we also use the solar oven almost everyday.
When I lived in Europe, we had washing machines in our apartments, but no dryers.
We hung all of our clothes indoors to dry (we didn’t have balconies). We hung them on a drying rack.
While I have a dryer now, I also use my drying rack several times a week to dry items that cannot go in the dryer.
In Europe, though, everything was hung up that way, including towels. Towels are stiff when done, but they are clean. We only had one drying rack, but it would have been really helpful to have had 2. They fold up and don’t take up a lot of room, so even in my tiny apartments I could find a place to put it.