Well, I could take a bath if I had a way of heating my water. Years ago, when I had small children, a yearly fall vacation was spent in a rustic cabin that had electricity but now plumbing. We had a big old galvanized tub, and that is what we used to bathe the children and to bathe ourselves. So I could do that, but I can’t imagine living without a washing machine.
Out at the family farm, we would heat wash buckets of water on the stove to have hot water to wash the dishes and to add to the cold bath water. Clothes washing was done by hand. There was a ringer washer out in the shed but it was too snake-y out there so I’d work the clothes harder in the kitchen sink. Hung them out to dry on the line but I hate stiff line dried clothes. They wrinkle so then more work ironing them. I’m also partial to machine dried fluffy towels. At the river house, we bathed in the river.
I don't think we have talked about washing clothes in a SHTF situation. My method is this:
To have hot water to wash clothes, put a couple of filled camp showers in the sun to heat up. Once that water is hot, continue:
1. Use dishwashing liquid for the soap. A very small bit makes a huge around of suds. Don't use much ‘cause you have to get the suds out.
2. Use 1/2 of the sink and have a clean plunger for that purpose. Get one now and put it away. Use the plunger to get the soap through the clothes. When you get tired plunging, wring out the clothes and put them in the other half of the sink with water in it.
3. Get the soap off the plunger, and use it to get soap out of the clothes. When you get tired plunging, wring them out and take outside.
4. There are two ways to hang clothes. Buy clothes line and pins at Walmart. String the line between two objects and pin the clothes on there.
4A. I bought a metal extending clothes dryer Christmas tree looking thing. Right now it's folded inside a not big box in the outside storage room. The metal bar in the center fits in the hole in the center of the iron table on the deck where the folding umbrella is right now. Once the bar is in the hole, extend the limbs of the clothes hanger and pin the clothes on all the extending bars. It's a steady and firm way to pin up clothes and they aren't going anywhere on those metal spokes.
That is the end of Clothes Washing 101.