Just how often does one need a full shower or bath ?

[De Leonist]

I've been asking myself this question a lot lately as I would very much like to get into simple living as a lifestyle. I know there are plenty of places in the world where one simply uses a bucket of water, a bar of soap and a wash rag to bath yourself. So is it really necessary to take full showers or baths on a regular basis to stay clean in a way that is socially acceptable (i.e. not having constant B.O.) or maintain proper hygiene. If not, what other options are available with out having a constant funk ?

[NYC_SKP]

1. This depends on many factors"

How thorough are these intermittent baths?

What climate?

What kinds of work is done typically?

The individual's chemistry...

and...

What are the standards of the community?

Hairy armpits for women are considered filthy in some cultures, yet they, along with some body odor for men and women, are perfectly natural.

You question is really dependent on the factors listed above and the community within you live.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. It's got to be daily for me.

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely ripe the next day. My housemate, who has a sensitive nose, will sometimes ask me to take a shower within 4 hours after I've had one, if she didn't know I took one, even if I haven't been doing any manual labour.

Even if no one else is around, I feel pretty nasty if I go two days without. Simple living doesn't have to mean living dirty.

If you've got enough water, learn to make your own soap, and you're set to 'live simple' and still be clean.

Otherwise, just start hanging with the moocher militia folks. They don't look like they bother to shower much.

[cbayer]

3. There are so many variables at play and the answer is unique to every individual.

One thing is for sure, people probably really over-shower in the US as compared to other countries.

And they tend to take really long, water wasting showers.

If people had to truly account for their own water usage, they would probably use much, much less.

[eShirl]

4. the most I've gone is a little over a month

but that's washing up with soap & water at the bathroom sink daily with a guest towel for an oversized washcloth, soaking my feet in one of those flimsy plastic hospital tubs filled w/ warm soapy water, and washing my hair in the sink every other day with 2-in-1 shampoo + conditioner

[Curmudgeoness]

5. You are right to ask, since we do bathe too often.

I am as guilty as the next, although I do conserve water while bathing.

I was told by a dermatologist that people should take baths or showers at the most twice a week. I did try this for a few months with sponge baths daily, but I suppose that I am just programmed to bath more often and I never felt clean.

I still bath daily (I take baths, not showers), but I do it in only about an inch of water. It is enough to feel clean....I am soaking the parts that I want really clean and I have enough water to soap up and rinse well, although there is a lot of splashing going on. When I did take showers, I did what they call a Key West shower (or that is what I have known it to be).....turn the water on and get all wet, turn the water off and wash yourself, then turn the water back on to rinse. There are lots of ways to save water without going without bathing.

So it that what you are aiming to do----save water? Or just being too lazy or strapped for time? I guess that matters too.

[eShirl]

6. or maybe saving the energy to heat water. n/t

[IrishAyes]

9. Key West showers? Good term though I never heard it before.

That's what we called Navy Showers for obvious reasons. Though Dad was Army, that's all we got at home because our big family (by today's standards) always had everything we needed if precious little of what we didn't.

[Curmudgeoness]

11. I first heard of the Key West shower

when a friend moved to Key West. She said that water was very precious there, and very expensive. All water had to be piped a long distance from the mainland, and no one wasted a drop. Well......potable water at least, since there is plenty of water.

[womanofthehills]

7. My bathtub and kitchen sink water my trees

I live out in the country so I use grey water to keep my trees healthy. I love to soak in a tub up to my neck while reading a book and this is a way I can do it and water my trees at the same time. I would call this a different example of simple living.

[Eleanors38]

8. I live in Texas without A.C. Any questions? Thanks & goodnight...

Seriously, by June, the tap water is not very cold, and needs only a shot of hot to make a luke warm bath. From there, it gets cool, which is great when temps push a hundred by noon. I don't use much water, wash my underwear & tees & soak blue jeans in the soapy water. I bathe every other day. My water use is under 900 gals/mo., which will go lower as Austin raises rates/fees because the utility is losing $ due to -- voila! -- conservation. But the sink and a wash cloth work well for sprucing up.

Ha! Key West shower. I remember 50 yrs ago when our family traveled that old Highway to the Sea (Flagler's converted rail bridges), and noted a single pipe running under the edifice: KW's mainland water supply. Back up was the U.S. Navy's desalinization plant (sub base). Explains the quickie shower.

[Curmudgeoness]

13. As one who lived in Houston

for 14 years, I am shocked that you can live in Austin without a/c. You must have an old house with a good attic fan??? I did not use the a/c nearly like the rest of the people I knew, but I don't think that I could have survived without a/c in the heat of the summer.

[Eleanors38]

15. I don't recommend it, but the trick is to begone by 10 a.m.

in the morning and to hole up in bookstores, restaurants, coffee houses, etc., and return home no earlier than 8 p.m. to start up vent fans. I turn in by 11:30 p.m. This year, I may get 2 cheap window units, one each for half the house, and use them periodically with thermostats at 85°. I have a ceiling fan in my bedroom as well. Limited SS will cause drastic economies: my water, waste water, elec., and all fees average $95/ mo., except in winter.

[Curmudgeoness]

17. Wow....those utility costs are impressive.

I am envious. And astonished, since when I was in Houston, the summer a/c bill was a couple of hundred at the max and that was 20 years ago. I don't know if you have ever tried this, but I had a/c go out in an apartment and it was going to take a few weeks to get parts. I got a box fan and put it in the bedroom window, turned it on after dark, and was really cool all night.

[IrishAyes]

10. Really fine suggestions and questions upthread.

Though I'm a mountain lover, I was stuck in the desert long enough to have developed strict water usage habits. When I first retired to this tiny MidWest town, after a month or so the water department came out and checked my meter because it couldn't possibly be running right or (ahem) unimpaired.

That said, I do love a long deep bath - one reason I bought a shorter garden type tub that allows me to immerse myself w/o actually using that much water. Hot as tolerable in winter, pretty cold in the summer. Since I run around outdoors wearing crocs in the summer, my feet get dirty so the dogs' outside water pan is a square one - before coming back indoors I take off the crocs and stand in the dogs' water pan to cool and rinse off my feet. Molly Maguire and Brigid don't seem to mind. They probably like the taste.

But then I live alone except for them. If you're around other people much, you really want to be more considerate. You can rub cornstarch in your hair, leave it a few minutes, and then brush it out. That's how I clean my dogs in the winter. If you run out of soap, baby wipes work great for the stinkies and you can also just add some witch hazel to the 'bird bath' water and not have to rinse.

One more thing I do for the dogs that's also advisable for people: I take a brewers yeast tablet twice a day (they only get one). Besides many other benefits, it helps reduce BO and also discourages fleas and other bugs. I probably don't get more than a couple mosquito bites a summer.

[Curmudgeoness]

12. LOL, I have also had my water meter checked.

Four different times. They replaced it twice. I have been in the same place for a long time, and I don't have the problems anymore. I suppose that they gave up and finally believe me.

[Kaleva]

14. For many months, I recycled my shower water by using it to flush the toilet.

I put a stop in the tub drain and after taking a shower, I scooped the water out into a 13 gallon container and then covered that with a lid. The water supply line to the toilet was shut off and after flushing, I'd refill the toilet tank with water from the container.

[Eleanors38]

16. I started doing this as well after my plumbing malfunctioned...

Even after repairs, I still use a 2 qt plastic pitcher to scoop up bath water to flush down yellow water. Sometimes, however, the bath water goes south in a hurry in the summer, so I don't let it sit too long.

[Kaleva]

21. I put the shower water and water from the bathroom sink into a 13 gallon container...

that had a lid. The sink drain was disconnected and the waste water drained into a bucket under the sink. After I flushed the toilet, I filled the tank back up with the water from the container. I urinated in a separate container which I dumped every night into the compost pile or diluted and spread out over the lawn.

[RebelOne]

19. When I lived in South Florida, I would shower once or twice daily.

The humidity is so bad that if you were outside for any length of time, you would be covered in sweat. When I moved up here to North Georgia, except in the summer, I can get away with a shower every other day.

[Kaleva]

20. You can really reduce the water used by only having it on wetting down and rinsing off

[kg4jxt]

22. sailor's solution

My wife and I lived on a sailboat for many years and we had only 100 gallons of water storage capacity. We used rainwater and we had a small water-maker (reverse osmosis). Anyway, we had to conserve.

Although we had a stand-up shower stall on the boat and even a water heater, we took most of our showers on-deck with an agricultural sprayer. We used a 10-liter size (big enough for a reasonable amount of water, but light weight enough to be easily manageable). We kept it wrapped in dark cloth in the sun to warm it up. For shower time, pump it up and wet down. Soap up and then rinse. The spray wand on ag. sprayers is too long for comfortable showering, so we cut it shorter only about 6 or 8 inches seemed about right. Release the pressure when done, so it does not leak. An ag sprayer used like that would last a few years.

Now we have a regular household shower and on-demand hot water. We recycle all our gray water and we have a hot-water bypass so the cold water in the hot pipe goes back to the cistern before we turn on the shower. We still are conservative with water, but we use more than we used to - but it is all rainwater we collected ourselves, so we're ok with that. Anyway, we REALLY appreciate a good shower now. But if water gets scarce, we would go back to the ag sprayer in a pinch.

Now I shower daily, but sailing - when I was not working too hard and getting sweaty - I would only shower every two or three days. My wife would not go so long - always a daily shower. I suspect there is a gender difference, and of course personal variations. That is just our experience. Except LOTS of sailors use ag sprayers for showering even if they have regular shower facilities aboard. Naturally those ag sprayers are devoted to showering; not ever used for pesticides or etc.!

[kristopher]

23. A daily Japanese bath is a ritual of joy and health.

It cleanses the body, refreshes the mind, ministers to aching muscles, invigorates the appetites, and calms the spirit in a manner unique to my experience.

[De Leonist]

24. Not that I disagree....

But in some places in this country the water supply is stretched this as it is. If we don't need to bath daily I don't we should. Now having said that I do like one idea that the Japanese have with regards to this. Public Bath houses. I think that would be an awesome thing. Now I don't deny that we Americans may not have the level of comfort with naked or near naked strangers that the Japanese seem to have in that context but I don't think it would be such a bad idea.

[kristopher]

25. It isn't as wasteful of water as you might imagine.

You sit outside the tub to wash and rinse, using a ladle and hot tub water. You then use the tub for soaking.
The next day, you top up the tub before heating the water.

It is possible to be very frugal if you want.

The water quality in the tub is good for about 5 days, or longer with a circulating filter.

In areas with scarce water you can use the bath water (remember, it has no soap in it) for any number of purposes from gardening to laundry. Ours is set to drain into a small tomato and cucumber garden plot.

This is the propane convection water heater we use.


http://www.islandhottub.com/prophtr.html

We've adapted a 150 gal stock tank as the tub, but it isn't filled to that capacity - perhaps 120gal is how much we put in. You can google this for a picture:
Rubbermaid® Structural Foam Stock Tanks, 150 gal. Capacity

You'll want something pretty deep (36-42 inches) and maybe 40x40 inches horizontal dimensions. The depth should allow the tallest person to sit upright and completely submerge their shoulders by slumping just a little. Smaller people can easily lift themselves by pulling their feet in and lifting the butt a bit.

The stock tank serves as a liner and can be prettied up with a simple cedar enclosure if you like. We use locally sawn cedar boards for the lid.

[De Leonist]

26. I had assumed...

That you were talking about the way most American People bathe which is rather wasteful. My mistake

If your talking about traditional Japanese Bathing than I agree. Though for those us who deal with sub-artic winters. I'm not sure how feasible that would be. Especially now that G.C.C seems to be causing our winters to be more erratic.

[kristopher]

27. The bath is an important part of dealing with winter's weather...

I'll just add this, the Japanese are as frugal as they come.

Their concept of 'space heating', for example, is a kotatsu:







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu

It all forms a system. You go from the bath to the kotatsu wearing a nice thick happi coat.

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/fuwari/item/10000632/

The rooms themselves are heated only minimally.

That is the traditional lifestyle, but modernization is at work there also...

[cerveza_gratis]

28. shampoo kind of necessary for me

washing just with water, after 1 week it gets pretty gamey & greasy - not comfortable, never mind how it looks.