Soda Bottle Handwashing Station

Beware today.  This post is a bit ADHD.

As part of homeschool, my children were required to memorize poetry.  The Random House Book of Poetry for Children was a favorite of theirs, one they often selected their poems from and one which we simply enjoyed reading as well.  Every once in a while they’ll recite a poem for fun.  However, the one that’s come to mind for me lately is called The Codfish, author unknown.

The codfish lays ten thousand eggs,

The homely hen lays one.

The codfish never cackles to tell you what she’s done.

And so we scorn the codfish,

While the humble hen we prize,

Which only goes to show you

That it pays to advertise.

It appears that I am a codfish.

I’ve never really advertised beyond the blog.  So for the past several weeks, after paying a whole lot of money, I’ve been striving to learn how to advertise on Facebook (supposedly the most profitable place to advertise), and sadly, doing very poorly with it. 

Amid all the struggles, I spent an inordinate amount of time on Facebook, much to my sorrow.  Of course, there is so much to catch the eye, because that’s how they suck you in.  Words alone don’t do it.

And so I came upon a method of having running water for washing hands, but one that didn’t involve leaving the water running.  It’s something that has bothered me a bit, knowing how critical handwashing always is, but how particularly critical it will be when things fall apart.  And if we don’t have an excess of water or indoor plumbing, we aren’t going to want to leave the water running to wash hands.  We’ll at least subconsciously wish to conserve water and as a result wash less. 

So I really liked the idea of this camping soda bottle handwashing machine which only requires the addition of a syringe (the size used to administer liquid medicine to children and which a lot of people will already have on hand) and a lighter.  Well, something to hang it, too.

If you watch the video, you see the following:

Start with an empty soda bottle (regular water bottles are too flimsy) with the lid on.

Use a lighter to soften the center of the plastic cap.

When softened, immediately push the tip of the syringe through the center of the lid.

(What is important here is that the plastic is stretched and forms a layer around the syringe so that it can’t leak.  Other videos don’t show that.  They also show cutting an X in the lid to make pushing the syringe through easier.  It does make it easier, but it also leaks.)

Then use a knife to remove the tip of the syringe at the end of the barrel. 

Fill the bottle with water, replace the lid/syringe, and hang with the syringe down.

Then use hands to push the syringe up so that water trickles out while you wash your hands. 

Supposedly pulling the syringe down stops the flow of water.

I really liked this idea.  I just couldn’t make it work.  I sacrificed two soda bottles that I had refilled with water, two of Aaron’s empty juice bottles (I’m really hoping he doesn’t see them in the trash or notice their absence), a water bottle (I thought it was worth trying), and two milk jugs.  (I also thought they were worth trying.)

I really wanted this to work.  Maybe a real engineer could make it work.  Maybe one or more of you will give it a try and make it work and tell me what I’m doing wrong.  (Well, ok, I didn’t use a lighter.  I used a candle.  I couldn’t find a lighter; I prefer matches.  So maybe that’s my problem.)

So then I went to try another method, easier and lower tech, to have something workable to report.  No such luck.  One method in the references below uses a golf tee poked into the bottom of a milk jug.  Because the golf tee is gradually tapered, it works well as a plug.  Just have a bit of twine to tie around it and secure it to the handle of the jug.  Add a nylon with soap for sudsing up.  But I couldn’t find a golf tee to test it out.  Probably because no one here golfs.

A third method involves a water bottle and twine to tie around both ends and hang over a branch or something similar.  Poke a hole in the cap.  Tilt the bottle downward to get the water flowing.  Move it up to stop the flow. 

References (and more importantly, photos):

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1183474956065356

https://momgoescamping.com/gravity-sink-designs/

https://craftingagreenworld.com/articles/camping-hack-make-a-handwashing-station/