vacuuming

VACUUMING
Just to prove to you that I actually listen to my loyal minions when they contribute to the comments section, this week will mostly be "nuts and bolts" articles. That's what you wanted, that's what you are going to get. Okay, honestly I prefer these kinds of articles myself. I guess I just kind of forgot there are a few other subjects I could cover on living off grid. Perhaps you think I'm really reaching for ideas. Perhaps it is all obvious to you. If I'm lucky, it helps you out a little, something you haven't thought much about. Today, cleaning your carpets without electricity. Later this week I will cover shoe first aid, 12v systems and talk more on sewage. Just to keep things from getting too practical ( you might start thinking this is Backwoods Home Magazine ) I'll also cover the oil capping conspiracy.
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I don't think a lot of us give much thought to cleaning carpets. You go to Wal-Mart and spend thirty of forty bucks and buy a cheap China vacuum and a few times a week you suck up the Cheerios you spilt and the dirt you tracked in. If you really put a lot of thought into it you might spend the extra ten bucks now and get a bagless unit so you don't have to worry about replacement bags later. Once or twice a year you might rent a commercial steam unit for cleaning the ground in baby puke and for when the dog went scooting across the floor either trying to get at his worms or when he didn't feel like licking himself clean. And that's about as much thought as you give cleaning rugs.
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I gave a lot of thought to doing everything off grid long before I moved. Mostly it was because I was getting paid to do it by writing this blog and my booklets, and also because I was more determined than ever to stop paying rent at the trailer park. The owner was so greedy he gave Jews a bad name ( as in, he was the epitome of the stereotype ). He got almost twenty grand just from me. Okay, you are buying a service, I get that. I am all for the free market. But charging all the market can bare, plus pushing that envelope, plus making peoples lives miserable in the process, was much more than was necessary. Just one example, I had to park my van in storage elsewhere because he thought it looked trashy. That cost me another $600 over two years. So moving off grid not only became a perceived necessity as the economy tanked, I had been motivated for some time by being ripped off by a landlord. Most of my ideas worked out, some I still had to modify. Some didn't work at all, but they were a minority. As I told you already, my last job included going to the dump every day. I trash picked a huge amount of very practical items ( and had to throw away a lot of crap when I moved, most electricity centered such as desktop computers and videotapes ). One was a sweeper vacuum.
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The sweeper vacuum is a non-electric vacuum. It is nothing more than a small box on wheels attached to a pole. Inside are two rods with brushes spiraling around them. You push it forward and the brushes spin, sucking trash behind them in a small holding area. When done, you flip open the compartment and empty out. And, entirely coincidentally I'm sure, there now happens to be a sweeper vacuum on my Amazon products page, linked from www.bisonpress.com. It's only $15. This isn't a perfect machine. It mostly picks up particles rather than dirt. But I love mine. It picks up all the cat liter the two jerks in charge throw out of the box when I'm home ( even sometimes when I'm not ) as if to tell me that 1) the box is two small even though I upgraded from a liter box to a tote for more room and I can't fit a larger size under the table, 2) how dare I only change the liter once a week, 3) why can't I scoop out the turds more than once a day?, 4) they preferred the old diatamacious earth liter to the new clay liter even though the store selling the old style is 330 miles away, and 5) you are our bitch and you will clean up after us.
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For dirt, you are going to have to do the old fashion take-it-outside-and-beat-it-with-a-stick routine. All of my rugs ( with underlying blankets for insulation ) are small enough that I can take them outside and flap them around or beat them against the side of the truck to get the dirt out. My living room rug is too big and heavy for that and is in desperate need of a cleaning. This is where a porch railing or a roof rafter in a barn would come in handy, but I don't have those. I think what I'll end up doing is draping it over the side of the pickup bed and beating the side hanging over the bed. The truck is beat up enough I don't have to worry about dings or dents. This points out why spring cleaning came about. Proper cleaning is impossible in a non-electric/poorly heated house year round, so you wait until it is warm enough where you can wear little clothing ( it's going to get filthy ) and do a deep clean. My shower stall/tub has a nasty build up of soap scum. In the winter, even if you heat up the water, you have to worry about either hauling out extra water or worry about it freezing. So it waits for spring, as do the rugs.
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Almost all fabric is covered. That makes it easy to take the cover and shake it out. You don't have to worry about deep cleaning a stationary item. I don't want a generator, as I love my peace and quiet. And it's another item to maintain, then watch break, then stress about replacement. I could run the car and attach an inverter to it if I didn't want to suck up a lot of solar power. But a 800-1000 watt inverter is hideously expensive ( okay, that's relative, but to me it costs way too much whereas my 200 watt only cost $30 and it runs all the small items like DVD, TV, computer and hair clippers I use ). I can do without a conventional vacuum cleaner. The sweeper was free, a replacement is cheap. I could simply use a stiff broom to clean, and I do use that for spot areas such as the steps. But the sweeper makes it look so much better. I don't care too much about looks, obviously, but cluttered is one thing and looking dirty is quite another.
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