#4 Cruising Sailboat Household Necessity

#4 A Bucket and A Plunger

Okay... so this isn’t really an "appliance" but it warrants mentioning anyway because it is a life saver!!!

Washing clothes - when you are miles from laundry facilities... how do you do it? Some cruisers purchase old fashioned washboards which make sense, except they can easily rust in the marine conditions. Other cruisers have the Wonder Wash hand crank washing machine, which uses hot water pressure to get the grime out of your clothing. While I have used one and believe it does a good job at cleaning, I also think it is small in its load capacity compared to its bulky body/frame and, therefore, hard to store if you have limited space. I have a cruiser friend that swears up and down that the Rapid Wash (a tin/steel plunger that costs about $18) is the way to go, but admits that rust can be a problem. Rust on our clothes or space hog? We were not satisfied with any of the solutions I mentioned above.

Our cruiser friends on ‘Blue Moon’ offered their washing solution when we were having dinner together one evening last year. Jo told us that she has plunged her clothing in a bucket for years with a simple and cheap toilet plunger! It seemed like it was worth giving it a shot since a plunger costs only $4 and we had the bucket on board already.

First, I purchased a new rubber plunger and told the crew it was off limits for any other job on board! Then, I mixed some liquid detergent with fresh water in the bucket (liquid detergent is a little more expensive, but I like that it dissolves). I began to plunge two or three items of clothing at a time. It was amazing! The plunger agitated the clothes and pushed the dirt out of the cuffs and collars like nothing I’ve ever seen before!

It’s so easy and convenient that you can do a handful of clothes every day if you want instead of doing several large loads at once. We hang our wet clothes out on the line on deck and they dry rapidly in the Mexican summer conditions.

Another plus for the rubber plunger method: it’s so easy a child or husband can do it. :)