At a dinner earlier this year I was seated next to a lovely octagenarian couple. Conversation on the table meandered through various topics, and at one stage we were discussing Melbourne's Stage 3a water restrictions and the impact they have had on our day-to-day life, especially in relation to the length of showers taken and whether or not we use buckets to capture the excess water while waiting for the shower to heat up.
"Oh, we don't ever use our shower," the 80-something gentleman declared.
"No," his wife agreed. "We soak in a bath once a week, and the rest of the time we fill a basin and have sponge baths."
She went on to explain how when she was growing up, they didn't have such things as instant hot water systems, and if you wanted warm water to bathe, you needed to heat it on the stove first. Therefore, people learnt to make do with very little water. The couple have never seen any need to change the habits they established early in life.
This conversation started me thinking. Do we over-shower? For most Australians a daily shower is the standard, twice daily is not abnormal. We try to keep our showers as brief as possible, but are we pouring unnecessary water down the drain? Is it possible to bathe like our great-grandparents and maintain an acceptable standard of hygiene in today's world?
Join me this week as I attempt to eschew my shower in favour of a weekly bath and daily sponge baths. I will post reflections on my progress throughout the week.
Can I last seven days?
16 comments:
Oh god. I cannot tell you how pleased I am it's not my week to post on this blog.
I am a shower fanatic and come from a long line of shower fanatics. I may not water my garden, ever, but I do like leisurely showers. Sponge baths would kill me.
But, I wish you all the luck of the Irish - who in fact may appreciate the power of the sponge bath.
Sponge baths are an excellent way to bathe after getting stitches. However, after living on a farm for 40 years with limited water supply and meagre showers I am now enjoying leisurely showers in the city. It gives me a place to think!
Good luck.
My father was very European about his bathing. A long shower every Saturday and then a daily sponge otherwise.
No one smelt more delicious or was more beautifully groomed than Dad!
If you sponge bath properly, you will probably do ok. Warm soapy scented water is the trick.
It depends on what you do all day too, if you get really sweaty/dirty it would not be great to just sponge bath. Or have nightime shennanigans either.
What about washing your hair?
I remember a farmer who thought it was strange to have a shower in the morning - "you dont get dirty at night" he said. Ok, I admit I stifled a laugh.
My SIL still uses an electric bath heater to heat her bath water, you stick the thing in the cold bath water and it gradually heats it.I always worry they will electrocute themselves.
Good luck with your experiment!
When I was growing up, our pipes would freeze every winter. In those days a sponge bath was really the only option, and I was able to wash and rinse my hair using a quart of water. I like my showers now!!
Another very interesting post! I was thinking not long ago to do a post challenge to see how long a person could stand not showering. I take one every morning and never wear the same clothes twice. But as a child we had no hot water and only a bath a week in a tin tub next to a coal heated stove. People back then had a scent that was all their own. I think if you were blind, you would know who was in the room by their scent, and I don't mean perfume smell.
I love your blog!
I remember the sponge baths very well while growing up. It wasn't until I got married that I had a home with a tub and shower. I was thrilled beyond believe to move into a house with a fully load bathroom. ;) That was a fun post today...no worries this week, just remember to hit the high and the low spots...;)
"belief" not believe...
The high and low spots indeed, Gramma Ann! When I first went away to boarding school, one of my mum's friends told me that what one needed to do in the morning, if one wasn't having a shower, was an "AP&C".
I do think we over-shower but like many others here I enjoy the thinking time a shower affords.
When the gas crisis hit Melbourne I lived the 1930's bathing challenge, and so so my tip for you is that the best way to wash one's hair was with HELP!! ie. someone else to tip the jug over one's head, think Out Of Africa.
Stomper! The gas crisis, that's right. What a nightmare that was. I was so determined to have hot water showers that I would heat up the water (electric kettle), fill up a huge bucket and slowly tip it over myself. That was two weeks of bathing hell for me.
But, I do agree - we bathe WAY too many times these days. I'm sure we're destroying all our natural oils etc.
Oh, I remember that gas crisis well. My oldest daughter was just a baby then, and we bought an electric urn so that we could heat water for her bath. An urnful of boiling water mixed with an appropriate amount of cold water equated to about three centimetres of water in the bottom of the bath.
I'm already planning my hair washing procedure. I think you're right, Stomper - it will require assistance.
I also bought some leave-in conditioner for the crisis. So I only had to stand naked and freezing under a bucket of water for the shampooing, conditioner takes too long to wash out.
Here, I've heard the sponge bath referred to as 'a whore's bath', which is an appropriately functional and rather descriptive term.
The hair's the thing. Especially for us olive-skinned types. But you can wash your hair quite neatly over the laundry sink (assuming you live somewhere civilised enough to have a laundry sink, and not just a washer and dryer in a cupboard like I have).
Sponge baths will work okay so long as you have good deodorants. My daughter raged at me on the weekend for using a Mum roll-on with 22% aluminium compounds. But what else works?
I haven't tried this, but I do know of a women who mostly (or only) sponge bathes. She, as well as the rest of our group (Zeitgeist) is very concerned with not wasting resources such as water. She always seems clean and fresh, and she says she has gone down to under a quarter of a bucket of water... Phenomanal!! I was looking on sponge bathing tips and found this site.... She has short hair, though and I have long. That probably makes a big difference in the amount of water needed. Well, we'll see. Good luck with your experiment, and check us out if you're interested in eco-friendly (and healthier) ways of living. www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
I discovered this web site by accident but only because I've discovered the sponge bath as I'm preparing to travel without the means of taking daily showers. I love the farmers quote "people don't get dirty during the day?" or something like that. I've stopped using my shower since the middle of December and I LOVE my sponge baths more! I imagine I'll save on utility bills for the water heater and water bill as well? I've found Toockies to be usable however sponges are a MUST. Keeping them clean is also a MUST when you're done your bath. I wash the hair first and then work my way down to my feet. First I wet everything, follow with soap and then rinse with a flower pot with a shower head mounted on it. ;) Since I only heat one room in the winter, I take my sponge bath in there and I LOVE IT! It's so sensual too, in a way, because you pay attention more to how you are cleaning yourself, in my humble opinion. I use natural soaps and a home made shampoo and have never felt cleaner than when I started doing sponge baths. I can't WAIT until the Spring and Summer when I can take this outside in my back yard. There's no neighbors to offend where I live. ;)
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