The five gallon pail washing machine works great - at the last Canadian Scout Jamboree that I attended, literally hundreds of these were in use.

"Camp Suds" is the brand of soap usually recommended up here as the least injurious to the environment.

James
Ottawa, ON
'91 Weekender

> Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 17:13:33 -0800
> From: camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: A gadget to do your wash on the road
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> 
> I don't do much in the way of road trips but an annual event for me in
> September is to camp for two weeks on the bank of the Deschutes river. I
> don't camp where there are any facilities or amenities other than a
> place to park the van, pretty scenery, and quiet. I don't take two
> week's worth of clothing, so I had to find a way to wash up me
> unmentionables and suchlike. I found that a five-gallon bucket, a Gamma
> Lid, and a toilet plunger do a fine job of laundering the clothes.
> 
> Like <http://fivegallonideas.com/washing-machine/>
> 
> One load requires a wash and two rinses. I do have plenty of water to
> work with, having that river right there. There doesn't seem to be any
> such thing as a soap suitable for laundry that is 100% harmless to the
> environment -- even dumping the wash water on the ground it's gonna soak
> in and probably cause all kind of trouble for the local bitty little
> critters and plants and fungi and soil bacteria. I use Woolite which
> seems about as gentle a soap as I can find.
> 
> For drying, a clothesline works. Of course, nothing dries slower than
> cotton.
> 
> --
> Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
> 1984 Westfalia, auto trans,
> Bend, Ore.