We all know the feeling. There’s a monster queue at the van parks’ laundry facilities … and you haven’t got the energy to take up residence in order to guard your place in line. Or perhaps you’re pondering putting a washing machine in your new ‘self-contained’ rig but you haven’t really got the money or the available space.
You’ve got the Big Lap equivalent of the washing day blues. So what to do about this ongoing grey nomad gripe?
Well, while inveterate world traveller Ash Newland, didn’t dream up the Scrubba Washbag specifically with grey nomads in mind, the young Aussie inventor may just have earned himself a few friends in the mature-age traveller category.
Keep your clothes clean and save space, water and power. PIC: Scrubba
His newly improved Scrubba is effectively a lightweight polyurethane bag with a coated nylon housing. It weighs less than 150 grams and unfolds to be approximately 60cm x 30 cm.
Inside the bag is an internal washboard which supplies agitation to the washing process. Basically, you put your dirty clothes in. It’s probably large enough for a couple of tee-shirts, some socks and undies. You add water and a bit of detergent, seal, squeeze out excess air using a special valve, and then it’s matter of scrub-a-dub. The bag has special grips at the bottom to stop it slipping as you rub the clothes against the internal washboard.
You then release the dirty water, rinse your clothes, hang them out to dry, and put your feet up and enjoy the rest of the day.
So unless you’re one of those people who likes to hang out in the van park laundry room chewing the fat with fellow nomads, or you love to read the stacks of the old Reader’s Digest magazines left laying about in there, your days of collecting gold coins for the washing could just be over.
The Scrubba wash bag is patented in Australia and New Zealand.
