Not too
long ago I was having dinner with a friend when he offhandedly asked me if I
showered at my landlady's house. It
struck me odd that he would even think I would, let alone that I might need to. The guy had spent the whole day umpiring
little league and obviously he must have spent too much time in the sun so I
didn’t give him too much of a hard time.
I could
have told him that I stand outside and use a garden hose, but instead I just
laughed at him and said "No, I use my own shower."
Then it
occurred to me that a lot of people might wonder how on earth someone can
shower with only six gallons of hot water available at a time so I figured I'd
tell you how we do it. You see three of
us need to shower or bathe and it does take a little bit of coordinating to get
it all done sometimes.
One
thing that is nice is that a six gallon hot water tank recovers pretty
fast. And our shower head is designed to
restrict the water flow enough to conserve water but still shoot it out so you
feel like you are in a regular shower.
It's pretty nice.
Depending
on what is going on we typically rotate between night time and morning
showers. So all three of us needing to
shower at the same time rarely happens.
I have it pretty much down to a science and can get shampooed, soaped,
shaved and rinsed in less than ten minutes with hot water to spare. Using a combination shampoo with conditioner
in it saves time as well as having everything I need ready to use in the shower caddy. My youngest isn't as organized
and finds that rinsing off, then turning off the water while shampooing and
soaping, then turning the water back on to rinse works best. Most people I know with RVs tend to do it
that way.
For
baths it is much easier. I fill the tub
and boil a kettle full of water to add to my bath water. Once the hot water runs out of the tank I can
add the kettle to the tub with more cold water to get the level up to where I
like it. Sometimes a girl just needs a
good soak in the tub.
Definitely
personal hygiene has not been an obstacle at all for us in the tiny house. All three of us trying to walk through the RV
at the same time however, is a whole different issue. We still try do see if we can do it too. Some people just never learn.
This post made me laugh. You are quite witty! :)
ReplyDeleteWe do things to try to save water too. We also use a combo shampoo/conditioner and I know how to give the kids each a quick one, two, three in-and-out shower while getting them squeaky clean from head to toe. For myself it takes a little longer (Ok, I'll admit I go slow on purpose because that is the only ME time I get!) but I can go faster when I have to.
I think you and the girls do well and are all very considerate of each other. You make a great team! :)
Thanks Dawn. It just hit me funny that he would think we needed to shower at someone else's home. Sounds like you've got a great system for getting the kiddos showered.
Delete