I recently moved into an apartment that did not have a washer and dryer hook-up. I found that connecting my washing machine to the kitchen sink was very, very simple.

I went to a plumbing supply store to get the connectors, hooked everything up and voila! I am washing in my apartment. I purchased a connector for the kitchen sink, then a piece that connects the hose to that fitting.

I went to Home Depot to try to find the appropriate plumbing fittings to no avail. They sold me something that popped apart but was supposed to hold under the water pressure. Guess what? It popped apart. It was a waste of money. Go to a plumbing supply store. Not only will you get better service, but you will be talking to someone who specializes specifically in plumbing and knows exactly what they are talking about.

I found some slide guides to go under the feet of the washer for $2.00. It enables me to move the machine back and forth very easily and causes absolutely no damage to the floor.

All said and done, I spent about $20 total for everything. No fuss, no mess and no trips to the laundromat.

I went to the laundromat once and spent $37 to wash and dry everything. --- never again!!!

Now I wash the clothes at home and hang them up on my porch and on a small laundry rack. There's nothing like the smell of freshly dried clothes from a clothes line! Any of you lucky enough to remember your mom doing this before the widespread use of dryers knows what I am talking about.

Ways that I save money to help the environment:

I never buy anything that is not machine washable. Dry cleaning is far too expensive and the chemicals used for cleaning are cancer-causing. So I will machine wash or hand wash as appropriate.

I usually never run clothes on a full cycle. Most clothes just need a little freshening unless they are heavily soiled. So I will wash most things for 10 minutes versus a full 20 or 30 minute cycle.

Hammer Baking Soda seems to be a cure-all and all purpose substance. Instead of regular laundry detergent, which is full of phosphates and toxins - things that are harmful to the environment and to humans, I use Hammer Baking Soda. It does a great job of getting my clothes clean.

Anything that can be hand washed, gets hand washed. We don't always need to run electricity and gallons of water just to clean clothes.

This all fits in with my minimalist and environmentally conscious lifestyle.

To see pictures, you can visit here: www.unclepaulskitchen.com