It doesn't matter if you live in town, barely-out of town, on a small homestead, or on a mega-farm or big ranch. If the power goes out, you can bet you will be wanting for clean shirts.

More likely to get a kiss & a cuddle after the candles are all put out, if you don't smell like you'd spent the day butchering, followed by cleaning the barn, and whatever else you had to do.

Now a wash is refreshing, and will do wonders for your hide, but sooner or later, you have to be able to get your shirts, britches, and unders clean. It will help if you learn at least the theory in advance.

First, have the right soap in hand. I have enough Fels Naptha to do my wash with just that, if I had to, for a long while. That particular soap has also been known to help remove poison ivy and poison oak resins from the skin, use it carefully. I have also followed the popular instructions online to make liquid laundry soap, with borax, washing soda, and one of those soap bars, grated fine. It worked, but I have a couple things I want to add next time (tea tree oil to fight germs, and lavender, just to add something pleasant to what's obviously a chore.)

I've done wash by hand, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes appliance failure, right when there's no budget for that, sometimes power failure, and not willing to drive into town and over-pay to get a few needed things done. Who cares? What matters is having the ability to wash some things.

I have done the hand-scrubbing, in the sink, to get a single item done, and it's a headache. I've done a load in the bathtub, with much agitation by way of the feet (only done with gentle soaps, or the feet suffer.) I've used, and still have, the plasticky plunger-looking gizmo, great for a few things in a bucket that don't need special attention.

More recently, I bought a couple of small washboards. Yes, the iconic image of low-tech laundry in cartoons and movies. They didn't come with instructions, but the technique isn't difficult to figure out.

Soak the clothing in the wash water you have in the tub or bucket, then bring it up onto the wash board.

You want to find any stains and rub straight soap into those, rub it between your hands a bit to work it in. Now, the washboard provides more intense "agitation" as you scrub the stained area up and down the ripples, occasionally dipping it down into the water to keep it soaked. All this time, any other items in the wash tub or bucket are soaking in hot, soapy water. You'll add more as it cools, and you lose some to minor splashes now and then.

When you're happy with one item, it goes back in the soaking water, and you bring up the next one. Item-by-item inspection of this sort also reveals the mending you will need to do, buttons to replace, and so on.

After scrubbing specific stains, rinse the washboard and set it aside. It's time for the plunger-looking doohicky. If you don't have one, a retired cricket bat, an oar from your canoe or kayak will work in a large tub, or even just a hefty broomstick or sawn-off mop handle, can be used to poke the wash for a while. Give all the kids a turn suitable to their size and strength, tell them it builds character.

After they've all had a turn, or managed to hide, everything needs rinsed. Change the water several times, and agitate as much of the soap out as you can. Then hunt down the largest of the children again. They can help twist things to wring the rinse water out.

Make sure you get your own delicates, lest they be mangled, and socks suddenly become as long as stockings. Then onto the clothesline with all of it, except high-priced sweaters, doilies, and fancy lace things, which need to dry flat.