LAUNDRY

REVIEW: During COVID, we explored the Southwestern United States for four months, and the Lavario washer was an indispensable part of our camping gear. We purchased a portable washer & spinner to maintain our COVID-conscious responsibility to social distance by avoiding laundering at public laundromats. After being on the road for seven weeks, I learned a lot about washing clothes using different campsite potable water, spinning and drying clothes, and keeping them smelling fresh. Doing laundry for two people turned out to be a fun project. Once we figured out a routine, the laundering time averaged 20 minutes daily.

WASHING DIRECTIONS:
Start by filling up the Lavario tub with 6 gallons of water. That was plenty for any of the loads described above. Toss a half sheet of Tru Earth laundry and two tablespoons of Borax powder into the water, then add the clothes.

Grab the handle and give it ten up-and-down swishes. Let the clothes stand for a few minutes, then add ten more up-and-down swishes. That's all there is to it. NOTE: If we are exploring for a whole day, Dave and I will place the entire Lavario tub filled with water and clothes in the van so it can continue swishing until we return to camp.

After swishing as many times as you want, raise the Lavario basket of clothes out of the water and hook it on the rim of the Lavatoria tub, letting the wet clothes water drain back into the tub. Simultaneously, unscrew the stopper (located at the bottom of the tub) to allow all laundry water to drain out.

RINSING DIRECTIONS:
Replace the stopper and fill in another 6 gallons of water.
Add 1 cup of white vinegar to the rinse water and ten drops of your choice of essential oils, if desired. Swish up and down ten times, let stand, and repeat as many times as you wish.

Raise the basket of clothes out of the water and hook on the rim of the Lavario tub, allowing the basket of wet clothes to drain back into the tub.
Don't drain the rinse water out of the Lavario tub. Add another half laundry sheet and two tablespoons of the borax booster, and the tub is now ready for the next laundry load.

SPIN DRYING DIRECTIONS:
We decided to purchase the Ninja RV portable spin dryer to spindry the clothes, making line drying the clothes faster. The portable centrifugal spin dryer is electric but only uses 350 watts for 2 or 3 minutes. Our Ford Transit 150 van's inverter is 1200 watts, which works fine even on battery power.

Take the clothes from the Lavario wash basket and evenly place each piece in the spin dryer.Turn on and hold a few moments to ensure the basket spins evenly. (If not, stop the spin and rearrange clothes. Restart). Once the spinner is in high gear, spinning at 3200 RPMs, it will only take 3 minutes. Stop the spin, take out the nearly-dry clothes, vigorously shake them out, and hang them on the clothesline to air dry. Fold and put away.