Easy Does It: Car Washing

To save bending, raise the bucket. (Cat optional.)

I live with an ongoing campaign of finding ways to do things that take less energy and cause me less pain.

This afternoon I washed the car.

Washing the car is a task which takes way too much bending and stretching for me, but sometimes it just has to be done.

So here's some of the tricks I've discovered.

1. Raise the bucket.  I used an upside down plant pot (a large one.) This saves bending to ground level. 
2. Fill the bucket in place, using the hose. Do not try to carry a bucket full of water. Use the bucket for mixing water and car wash liquid.
3. Use the hose.  (That was banned here during the worst of our 10 year drought, but I think lupies have a legitimate reason for doing it now.) Rinse dust off the car with the hose, on fairly high pressure. 
4. Then swish your cloth or sponge, soaked in the bucket with car washing liquid, over the car lightly. (Walk back and forwards to the bucket, rather than trying to move a full bucket around the car.) Only actually rub if there's spots to remove, otherwise work as lightly as possible so you're saving a bit of energy and your joints.  
5. Hose car down afterwards to rinse. Learn not to see any parts you can't reach easily. (You think that's a joke, don't you? I mean it.  Unless there's actual bird poo eating through the paint on the roof of my car, the spray with the hose is the best it's getting. And I don't care if my tyre rims don't shine.)
6. Unless you're especially bothered by water marks, don't bother to dry the car.
7. Leave cleaning the inside of the car for another day - don't try to do both at once.

Of course, if you can afford it, the most energy-saving way to wash the car is to pay someone else to do it.