I am looking for a lifehack that will allow me to take care of my personal hygiene when there is no water in the tap. I have access only to 2 liters of water a day to wash myself.
How can this be done most effectively?
4 Answers
Wash how much of yourself? If it's just the "smelliest parts" like crutch and armpits, you can do it with very little water. This is a variation of the 'bucket wash' used when camping, which I have just tried.
Pour 1L of water into a jug.
Start with soap or gel. You only need a few drops of water to apply them.
Immerse a face flannel in the jug, and squeeze out some of the water back into the jug. Rinse off the soap or gel. This used 0.25L water.
Wring out the flannel (not into the jug). Wet the flannel again as before, and repeat the rinsing off the soap/gel. This used another 0.25L water.
Wring out the flannel again (not into the jug).
Finally rinse out the flannel with the remaining 0.5L water. Hang it to dry in the sun, where it will sterilize.
Pour the soiled water onto the roses.
You can do this twice a day (perhaps on other parts of the body) and still use only 2L.
answered Jan 18, 2023 at 20:06
One thing to keep in mind is that one can wash things in dirty water, so long as it contains enough soap to bind with whatever oil is present.
The clean water is needed only for the final rinse, to get rid of the soap and dirty water.
(That's one reason that modern dishwashers are so water-efficient.)
- Soap yourself with a small amount of water and then rinse it off into a container.
- Repeat as many times as needed, reusing the rinse water, adding new water only as necessary.
- Wipe off as much surface water as possible.
- Rinse with clean water.
And for most people, most of the time only "the smelly bits" require soap.
answered Feb 20, 2023 at 20:33
I haven't had a shower or any complaints for 3.5months- as a vanlifer, minimum water to both heat&use is premium. It's about doing bits at a time.
I use a glass of water to brush teeth or shave. I use a small basin & dedicated sponge with about half a litre of water as a bidet to wash the undercarriage sequentially (absolutely essential& doubles as loo flush) and I can use up to a litre in a basin to wash grubby feet. My van has a limited tap&sink installation for hand hygiene. I also use dedicated drying towels for further hygiene.
I do a full body wash after regular exercise sessions, but this isn't every day. Using a basin and jug and up to 2 litres of water, I start with hair& shampoo head, neck& ears& rinse repeatedly till squeaky clean.
The shampoo water goes into another basin which I stand in, before adding about the same quantity to the rinsed first basin, and I've got a quality sponge that I use to first wet my whole self neck downwards, put on shower gel for the underarms& hairy bits& give it a good lathering. Then the sponge is repeatedly dipped& squeezed into the water as I work it. Then I repeat as a rinse cycle. I wash my feet in the shampoo basin separately with more gel. I'm left with up to 5 litres of satisfyingly mucky soapy water- muckier in hot weather!
I genuinely feel clean afterwards& have not noticed any extra body odour or clothes not lasting as long or anything. Of course I have access to sinks etc in work, but often wash myself in parts when I get home to maintain hygiene.
When we were kids in summer, my mum used to sit us at the edge of the sink on a towel and do a similar semi body wash to clean off the sweat&dirty arms, legs& feet- she was trying to save on heating water so one basin did 3 kids.
Apparently they do something similar to all this on the ISS, so if it's good enough for orbiting spacecraft...
You can use even less water if you have baking soda and coconut oil. You can rub on and towel off all dirt and smell from your body parts with a mixture of 1 part baking soda to two or three parts coconut oil.(coconut oil is anti-bacterial and soothing to skin, baking soda is a mild exfoliator) To "wash" hair, use straight baking soda powder. Powder it on, rub it in the scalp especially, brush or blow out as much as you can and follow with a liter or less of water to rinse, then dry. You will be pleased with the result!
