Turning my old, heavy duty top load washing machine into a high efficiency model

[Kaleva]

10. A possible 3-peat with the washing machine rinse water

Last edited Wed Aug 29, 2012, 06:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Today was laundry day.

I captured the wash water into a large plastic container and used that to wash the laundry basket, some other plastic containers and the garbage can. All of which I rinsed with some the rinse water I captured later. The rest of the wash water I used to do some dusting and wiping down in the basement. As I've never done that since I've owned this place, it didn't take long to use up the rest of the wash water for that purpose and I still have a long way to go. But if I do that every time I wash clothes, it'll be done in time.

The neat thing I realized about the rinse water which I captured to use as the wash water next time I do laundry is that I'm going to get three uses out of it. First as the rinse, then as the wash water and finally used to wash the garbage can and such and for wiping down the very dirty horizontal surfaces in the basement.

Thus even though I'll be cutting my consumption of water for laundry in half, I'll be getting much more done with the water.

Edit: If I was using a biocompatable laundry detergent, I could get four uses out of the water. First for rinsing the clothes, then a clothes wash water the next time I do laundry followed by general cleaning in the basement water and finally using it to water the garden ,and other plants outside.