It's amazing how living in a foreign country broadens you. Before I came to Russia, I thought the title of this post meant that being clean was an important form of virtue. Now I know better. It means that cleanliness is almost as impossible as g_dliness to obtain.
I survived a week living on two pairs of underwear, three pairs of socks, and no undershirts. I survived not having access to a razor (I am using my electric until it runs outof juice). But I do not know how I will survive the latest disruption to my attempts at cleanliness.
Two days ago, I came home, quite bedraggled and looking forward to a soak in a warm bath--only to discover that our hot water had been turned off. Worse, the cold water that is available is absolutely ice cold. This has made showering difficult, as I cannot keep water in contact with my skin for very long. Yesterday, I just washed my lower body and my underarms; today, I decided to skip the attempt at washing altogether.
Worse, though, is that Saturday night and Sunday, I absolutely have to do laundry in the bathtub. How I will achieve this without warm water, I do not know. I may have to content myself with washing my socks, underwear, a couple of undershirts, and maybe two or three shirts that do not have serious stains, more to improve their smell than to get them spotless.
I had lunch yesterday with one of my fellow teachers who is making do without a washing machine. He told me getting things really clean is next to impossible. He confirmed my experience with socks. So far, my attempts at washing socks have not yielded good results. The socks come out feeling oily, as if I had been wearing them for three days camping in the woods. At least I know this is normal and not just poor washing on my part.
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What are you using for laundry detergent? If it's a bar for washing your hands, I'm not surprised your socks would feel oily.
If you get some laundry detergent, don't put too much of it in the bathtub. Just enough to get bubbles over about 10-20% of the surface. Be sure to put the detergent in the bathtub and stir it around before you put your clothes in.
It doesn't matter whether the soap is dry or liquid. Too much dry soap and it will fail to dissolve, so you'll have little bits of soap left on your clothes when you dry them. Too much liquid detergent and it won't rinse out and will leave an oily film on everything.
Find a long dowel like the handle of a broom and use it to agitate the clothes. You can't get them clean just by putting them in soapy water. You have to make them and the water move around. And it's going to take some time. Remember, the washing machine runs for 30 minutes for each load.
Liquid soap is best for getting stains out. Put just a little on the spot, then rub it against itself. If the stain hasn't disappeared when you rinse it out, then repeat the process. It may take you 10 minutes or more to get out a stain, so try not to stain your clothes. (Duh!)
You probably should rinse your clothes twice. Get some kind of container to hold them between rinses. You have to pick up each piece of clothing and wring it out thoroughly before putting it into the container. When all the clothes are in the container, let the water out of the tub, run a little to rinse any soap left on the bottom and sides of the tub, then fill it again. Put the clothes back in the tub and start using your pole to stir everything around. And then you wring it all out again so you can do a second rinse.
Only the wringing out takes a great deal of strength. But all your muscles will hurt as you do it. It's hard work, but women did it for millennia before the Industrial Age freed them.
Finally, where to hang your clothes to dry. Ask around. You may be able to take them up onto the roof. There might even be a clothes line stretched from one promontory to another. If there is, you'll probably need clothes pins. If not, consider buying one of those collapsing clothes racks. You can put it up on the roof, if the weather permits, or set it up in your apartment for the duration.
I strongly recommend that you go through this process every other day. That way, you won't have too much to hang out, and the work with the pole will be easier.
There's probably a lot more I could say, but this is surely enough for now.
You're in a country that is barely out of the third world. You'll have to make some adjustments. Think how grateful you will be when you come back to the land of washing machines and driers.
Mom
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