Thursday 22 September 2016

Adjusting to Fall/Spring Mode: Hygiene

No pictures today I swear; as today we will be talking about how to keep yourself clean without running water. 

I know that there are all sorts of people who are have much more experience with this type of living than me, but this is my experience.

First of all, that juice jug (yes your typical 2 litre or half-gallon jug that usually contains juice) will be quite handy during Fall/Spring and into Winter Mode.

This is because this makes your potable water, portable. You can pump water into it and take it elsewhere around your trailer without having to lug the five gallon jug around.

Washing your hands is a necessity and still somewhat convenient in Fall/Spring Mode. What you do is pump some water into your juice jug and go to the sink.

First, pour a bit of water onto each hand, one hand at a time. Try to cup your second hand so as to retain a bit of water. 

Wet your hands by spreading that water around both hands. Now grab the soap and lather up (or pump the soap and lather up) and then scrub your hands.

Next grab the juice jug (yes with a soapy hand) and pour water over one hand. Then switch hands and rinse that hand. There, your hands are clean.

I say that this is convent because you can still use the sink and just let the water go down the sink drain . . . how convenient.  

Okay, now on to showering. To shower you first must boil a kettle of water. So get to it and boil a full kettle of water.

Since you have no running water, you have no hot water tank. As such, all of your hot water comes from a simple kettle that you can put on your propane stove. A whistle kettle is recommended.

With your boiling hot water in hand, now pour it into your juice jug a little less than half way. Fill the juice jug to an inch below the rim with room temperature water from your five gallon jug.

Next dip a finger in the water to see if the temperature is to your liking. If it is too cold, add more water from the kettle, if it is too hot, add more water from the five gallon jug. If it is just right, add an equal amount from each but fill the jug, regardless.

Next strip and take your: jug of warm water, shampoo and soap into the shower. Stand in the shower/tub area and first wet your hair then your body.

Keep your thumb on the lid to prevent the lid from coming off and so spilling all of the water (trust me). 

It is important to be sparing with the water so when pouring the water, pour as little as possible to get yourself wet, as you will need water to rinse off.

Next, lather up your hair with the shampoo; once done lather up your body with soap. Now rinse off your hair first, as the water will flow down your body and rinse it off, sorta.

Again, be sparing with the water and once your hair is rinsed, move on to rinsing off your body by pouring water over each part. 

If you have done it right you should have a bit of water left over to go back and rinse off whatever could use a bit of extra rinsing.

Now on to the least glamorous, yet essential parts of hygiene . . . the toilet. Okay, so you still can use your toilet, yet when you push the lever no water comes out to flush.

These RV toilets are essentially a bowl with a door on the bottom that pulls away letting whatever is in there just drop straight down.

To help the process, pour a bit of water into the bowl first from your trusty juice jug. Then push the lever to flush the toilet.

However, Star Trek is not the only place you will find Klingons . . . so use a typical scrub brush to scrub and nudge any bits that didn’t go down, to go down.

Rinse both the toilet bowl and the scrub brush clean with a bit of water from the jug an you are done. 

These RV toilets are not well designed and pale in comparison to typical house toilets, but they get the job done and guess what, it’s what you have, so do what you have to do to make it work. 

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward.

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