Comments on: solutions for modern living

By: leafnest

leafnest — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:38:17 +0000

i received an email from my mother asking that we shower & wash our clothes as soon as got to her house. two weeks of mostly daily showers later, & we finally left & get to smell normal again. i’m going to write more about this sometime. i find it fascinating to remember how i was before & compare, to remember what “normal” people must think of us, how impossibly silly it all seems…

By: haveyouseenthisgirl

haveyouseenthisgirl — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:24:14 +0000

hey,

found you through carrotquinn…I’ve only read one log entry and I already know I’m going to like you!!! Yay for not showering or shaving – I’ve just spent a month on a farm in spain with no showers and it was great – you learn to really appreciate a good pit smell after a while!

I’m off to read your archives…stories about squats and hitchiking? Love it…

By: anton

anton — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:42:28 +0000

I think you’re talking about these nuts:
(German) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waschnuss
(English) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapindus

Seems like an interesting thing. And they’re from India, not Africa. Unfortunately the German article says since the use in Europe is increasing, the prices in India increased between 2003 and 2008 by factor 6 and people there have to use cheap chemical washing powder. Seems like everything has a bad side too…

By: doodle

doodle — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:04:47 +0000

ts–thanks for pointing out what i forgot to mention: solar shit is really easy to build yourself from trash. like everything! hurray!

jill–it is a shame! will you be repelled? disgusted? astounded that i actually don’t smell very bad at all? hahaha.

and since i think it might interest a few other people as well, i wanted to answer your email question here too

Q: “I’m intrigued by this lack-of-laundry detergent idea. What kind of nutshells do you use, and what kind of bag do you put them in? I assume this method does not help remove actual dirt from clothing, no?”

A:i am not sure exactly what kind of tree these nuts are from, but i am under the impression that they grow in africa. if anyone has one of these trees, please send seeds because i really, really, really want one. i liberated a big bag of them from the fancy health food store in town. the bag you get at the store is just full of the shells (i wonder if you can eat the nuts too?) and you can put them in any sort of cloth bag (they give you a few tiny linen bags in the pack), or even just in a tied-off sock. you could put them directly in with your laundry, but then it’s hard to find them again and you can wash up to 15 loads with one little bag of six shells. (they say up to 5 loads on the package, but i have experiemented and found that it’s more like 15.) and they do actually get dirt out of clothes as they create a slightly soap-similar whatever the hell in the water. no shining whites or anything, but coffee stains, dirt stains, tomato sauce, all the usual stuff that ends up all over whatever i’m wearing by noon, is always gone after a wash.

By: Jill

Jill — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:06:38 +0000

How funny (and sad!) that I haven’t smelled you in almost four years! And I don’t remember what you smelled like (it was in DA’s, so for all I know you smelled like beer, drunk people, tears, and dirty floors).

By: ts

ts — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:56:35 +0000

In theory you could leave a black watering can in the sun, or paint a watering can black, and get the same effect. The black bag concept is just to absorb the heat from the sun to heat the water- solar water heaters (in their simplest form) are actually ridiculously easy to construct for this reason. You could build a rain water solar heated shower with a decent amount of pressure with a little ingenuity… potentially warm enough for winter showers, even, and the water is free (from the sky!).