Before I married Mike, I had NO IDEA what Carhartt’s even were, lol. Let alone the difference between overalls & coveralls! But now, they are a big part of our daily living – and I can’t imagine being without them… 🙂

Such useful outergarments – for trudging through briars, warmth in brutal winds and cold, and my favorite part – protection of regular clothes, underneath. 🙂

And they last for YEARS! Oh, they get stained & ragged after a decade or so, but thankfully, that doesn’t ruin their functionality. Truly, a great investment if you work outside through all the seasons in our neck-of-the-woods. 🙂

Normally, I just rotate throwing a pair into our washing machine at the end of our cold season, so they are ready for late fall. BUT, when your washing machine has died 😦 & you haven’t found a new/used one yet, the mind does start to wander as your already-dingy-basement piles up with more piles to wash…

How does that saying go? “Necessity is the mother of invention…” or something like that ?

Our power-washer actually worked really great as a “washing machine” & using our dilapidated picket fence as the backdrop, lol.

Mike sprayed the items wet…

I spritzed on diluted lye soap…

he power-rinsed them off…

and the sunshine + wind dried them on our clothesline.

I don’t think I’ll ever throw them in a washing machine again – they really don’t need to be “street-clothes clean” – it’s just nice to get the brunt of the dirt/mud off. 🙂

Also worked good for cleaning our rain suits, a sleeping bag, some canvas bags, & a throw rug!