On our last few days of cargo van living, Brett and I decided to take some videos of our daily activities for the blog. We thought the videos might be especially helpful to other chronic illness sufferers who are practicing or considering extreme mold avoidance. Hopefully they will be interesting to all my readers but just in case they aren’t, I will be alternating between normal blog posts and video posts.
I decided to share the video of how we did our laundry first, since perpetual laundry is basically the cornerstone of mold avoidance. For my new readers, who aren’t as familiar with my story: laundry is a huge part of mold avoidance because many patients have found that decontaminating (rinsing off and changing into clean clothes) when you are exposed to problematic molds is really important to prevent worsening symptoms.
Please note that this is our more luxurious outdoor laundry set-up. For several months we didn’t have access to power and had to agitate and wring out the clothes by hand.
By the way, Brett and I made a beautiful PDF of my favorite resources for suffering souls. I created the content and he made it look fancy with his superduper graphic design skills. It’s available for free to my email subscribers. Click here to sign up and receive 5 Resources for the Suffering Soul.
13 Comments
Wow! I loved watching this video and getting a glimpse into your life! And it was so neat hearing your voice. I look forward to future videos! 🙂
November 22, 2017 at 3:38 pmAww… I’m glad you liked it Charis! 😊💕
November 24, 2017 at 3:42 pmThank you, Ana & Brett. Looking forward to the next one. Where did you get the white plunger thingy? Although we are still in a house, if Marty or I go into town we always strip, shower, and change when we return home. I always shower in the morning before I enter Petra’s room. Currently we are using a top loader washer and the matching dryer. But our next move, as we hopefully progress more and more towards extreme mold avoidance, I expect we will be doing as in your video. I have wondered about a few things concerning laundry and mold avoidance. Since there is SO much washing, and sometimes the clothes aren’t even getting dirty but they are just being washed because of contamination concerns…would it be okay to just quickly rinse the clothes in water and hang dry in the sun? Did you ever do this? What detergent did you use? Were you just as careful with pants and jeans as you were with tops? The reason I’m asking this is because the cleansing process after being “hit” was to rinse hair, exposed arms & face, and change shirt, but I don’t hear of changing pants or shoes?
Thank you!
Nanette 🙂
November 22, 2017 at 7:43 pmGood to hear from you Nanette! I think of you and Petra daily. Those are some great questions.
The link to the plunger thing is here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01H8HLB32/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1511563409&sr=8-2-spons&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=laundry+washer&psc=1
It sounds like you’re doing a great job so far! If the clothes weren’t dirty usually we’d just wash them with a capful or two of Downy Free & Clear. If they’re dirty we add some Castile soap. Yes, we did and still do wash our pants daily but I usually only changed shirts when I was decontaminating multiple times per day. Now that we have a small washer and an apartment we shower when we get back from going out and change the entire outfit. We don’t wash our shoes but we leave them by the door and only wear indoor shoes inside. Shoes that Brett wears to church (a moldy building) we’ve been keeping outside on our porch.
I hope this helps! We’re cheering you on and praying for you and Marty and Petra. 💕💕💕💕💕
November 24, 2017 at 3:49 pmYay! Excited to watch these videos, Ana. The laundry one was great, and it was fun to hear your beautiful laugh. 😀
November 23, 2017 at 5:08 amAww! Thanks Ruth! You’re so sweet! 😊
November 24, 2017 at 3:51 pmHi, Ana =]
November 26, 2017 at 12:59 pmThank you for your blog.
I was wondering where you are in this video with access to big takes off water.
Also, did the spinner ever get moldy?
Hi Gloria. 🙂 We are at the ranch and the ranchers were letting us use their tank of water and power outlet.
https://anaharriswrites.com/day-103-it-doesnt-hurt-to-ask/
December 13, 2017 at 1:53 pmThis visual glimpse into your life was soooo cool to see! Thank you for sharing this.
It’s been a while since I’ve read this blog; I’ve had fun today marathoning all the posts. I’m so glad you and Brett are doing much much much, and, Ana, glory be to God, you are healed!
November 26, 2017 at 5:48 pmOh I’m so glad Maria! ❤️😊
December 13, 2017 at 1:55 pmHi Ana,
December 13, 2017 at 12:20 pmI saw in a different post that you found a hand wash machine? Would you please be able to send me a link for it? Thank you:)
This is the washing machine we have. Though I don’t know how practical it would be for camping. Hope that helps! 😊
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002UYSHMM?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd
December 13, 2017 at 1:51 pmThank you! We actually do a level of mold avoidance. We have a hand spinner right now. Do you know why this washing machine is safer than a regular one?
December 13, 2017 at 7:28 pm