Clothes When You Are Living Off Grid

Reader Contribution by Aur Beck and Advanced Energy Solutions Group
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When you are Living Off Grid you don’t have tons of chances to get dressed up but rather need hardy clothes that last. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have the one or two classy outfits for weddings, funerals, or going out, nor does it mean you can’t have style but since you will be, in general, not dressing to impress you are looking for clothes that will last the long haul.

As I was growing up we washed most of our clothes by hand really scrubbing them over rocks in a creek or over a wash board (yes they have a purpose besides mounting them on a wall or to be used to make music) which is very hard on clothes thus most of our clothes were of thicker cloth usually either cotton or for pants and long sleeves the canvas variety.

When we live off grid we need to produce our own energy for doing laundry to both run the washing machine and pump the water but also to heat the water thus we figure out that having fewer clothes and rewearing the clothes a few times/days means doing less laundry. Thus spending  thousands less money for our home energy system. How many times do you wear something before you wash it? I know our work and/or winter coats got washed only when being put away in storage. Yes they would get filthy looking but who are you washing them for if you care about appearances? So by having fewer clothes and not caring about appearances as much when you are working on your homestead you greatly reduce time and energy maintaining appearances.

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