How to Hand Wash Clothes
Author: Greg Baka
Hand washing clothes can mean cleaning a few delicate items, such as bras or sweaters, or washing an entire load of everyday laundry, including shirts, pants, towels, and socks. This guide explains how to do both, from choosing detergent and soaking clothes to rinsing, removing excess water, and drying.
The Five Steps for Hand Washing Clothes
The steps for hand washing laundry are:
- Soaking in water and detergent
- Agitating the clothes
- Rinsing in clear water
- Removing the excess water
- Final drying of the laundry
Clicking any step above will take you to that section...
1. Soaking Laundry in Water and Detergent
Once upon a time, washing water had to be quite hot for the old detergents to work well. Fortunately, most modern detergents work just as well with cold water, so no more need to burn your hands while laundering. Washing in cool water is most economical and energy-efficient. But in cold weather using lukewarm water will make the process more comfortable for you.
What type of Detergent to use?
You will also need detergent, and it is OK to use your favorite LIQUID detergent (not powders or pods). If you do not have a favorite, then get one of the liquid HE detergents which are specially made for High Efficiency washers. These HE detergents have the advantage of making the rinsing process a whole lot easier.
How much Detergent to use?
Remember that you need VERY LITTLE detergent. When we say "very little", we are very serious. When hand washing in a 5 gallon bucket, or a sink, you will only use about 2 gallons of water at a time. And 2 gallons is a lot less than the 8 gallons a front loader uses, or the 20 gallons a top load washer uses for the wash cycle. So how much detergent?
About 1 teaspoon per gallon, depending on the detergent* – and measure it with a true measuring spoon, like used for baking, not a spoon you use for eating ice cream.
*Note: Detergents vary in concentration, so follow the manufacturer's instructions for hand washing when available.
Highly concentrated detergents generally require smaller amounts. If your detergent says 2X then it is concentrated and you will need 1/2 a teaspoon.
When washing in a bucket or sink, add your 2 gallons of water, then stir in 2 x 1 = 2 true teaspoons of liquid detergent. This will not make many suds, but that is a good thing. Less bubbles means easier rinsing! And now it is time to add some clothing and get them agitated...
How often to Change the wash water?
Fairly often. Remember that the detergent lets the body oils and grime leave the fabric and enter the water, so that water will get gross fast. Keep a clear cup handy and scoop up some wash water after each bucket-load or sink-load has been washed. If the water is really grey and cloudy, dump it, rinse the bucket or sink, and refill with fresh water and detergent for the next load of items.
2. Agitating the Clothes for Deep Cleaning
The detergent allows smelly body oils and sticky grime to release their hold on the fabric and enter the water. But for that process to become complete, the water must pass over and through the fabric with some speed, and the fabric must rub against something textured, which is usually the other bits of clothing being washed. Agitation is what is needed. You can agitate with just your hands by swishing the clothes up-and-down in the bucket, or side-to-side in the sink. Or you can use a special laundry plunger tool, or you can use a manual washer that holds the clothing in a perforated basket that goes up-and-down in a larger container of water.
For laundry that is not heavily soiled, the fabric-to-fabric rubbing that happens during agitation is enough to mechanically remove bits of grime. But for problems like grass-stained knees or dirty work clothes, even more rubbing may be needed. This could be done two-handed with one hand rubbing a knee of the pants against the other hand holding another section of the pants leg. Or it could be rubbed against a wet washboard. Or it could be rubbed with a stiff scrub brush. Also see our Laundry Stain Removal Guide Delicate garments should be handled much more gently. Avoid vigorous rubbing or scrubbing, and always check the garment's care label before washing.
How Long Should You Agitate the Clothes?
How long you agitate depends on how dirty the clothes are and the type of fabric. The times below are approximate guidelines for washable everyday clothing. Delicate garments may require gentler handling and shorter washing times. Mild clothes are those that just have odor but no real grime (like socks, an undershirt, or a bra). Normal clothes have a little grime (like shirts, towels, and slacks). Serious clothes have a lot of difficult grime (like cloth diapers, underwear, work clothes, and kid's jeans).
- Mild: Agitate 1 minute, let soak 2 minutes, agitate 1 more minute. Then rinse.
- Normal: Agitate 2 minutes, let soak 4 minutes, agitate 2 more minutes. Then rinse.
- Serious: Agitate 2 minutes, let soak 5 minutes, agitate 3 more minutes. Then rinse.
What to Do After Soaking and Agitating?
The next thing to do is to remove some of the excess water BEFORE rinsing the piece of clothing. This minimizes contaminating the clean clear rinse water with soapy dirty wash water. To remove excess wash water, you can either wring the clothes by hand, and let the soapy wash water flow back into the bucket or sink. Or squeeze the piece of clothing in a mop wringer and let the wash water go into the attached mop bucket. Wringing a few items by hand is OK, but if doing a lot of laundry this way can hurt your wrists and hands. For larger batches of laundry, an inexpensive mop wringer will be very helpful.
3. Rinsing the Washed Laundry
The rinsing process is simple, but it is important to do it thoroughly. Its purpose is to remove dirty wash water, body oils, and detergent residue from the clothing. A good rinse helps clothes smell fresher, look brighter, and dry softer. It also reduces the chance of skin irritation from detergent left in the fabric.
So what is the Wrong way to rinse?
One wrong way is to fill a bucket or sink with clear rinse water, and just keep using the same rinse water no matter how dirty or soapy it gets. The other wrong way is to just dunk and swish the clothing once. It needs to be agitated a few times.
And what is the Right way to rinse laundry?
The right way to rinse is to do what it takes to get as much of the dirty water and detergent out of the fabric as is reasonably possible. That will require changing the rinse water often, and aggressively swishing or agitating the items in the rinse water.
If you are not happy with your hand washed clothes, it is usually a poor rinse that is to blame. People get the washing portion (agitate-soak-agitate) right because it is logical and energetic, and because most clothes are not stained or heavily soiled anyways. But the importance of rinsing well is not so obvious...until you end up with a batch of clothes that doesn't smell good or looks dull and drab.
4. Removing the Excess Water
There are two reasons for removing excess water from each piece of clothing. One is to minimize the adding of soapy water to your rinse water. The other is to reduce the drying time of the laundry.
But removing excess water is hard. If doing it by hand, it takes a lot of muscle and is rough on your wrists and hands. If doing it mechanically, it takes equipment that is bulky or expensive. The methods for doing it are...
- Wringing: twisting by hand, or running them through a roller-type laundry wringer
- Squeezing: compressing the items in a mop squeezer (also called a mop wringer)
- Spinning: at very high RPM in a special electrical laundry spinner, or in a washing machine
Wringing
Wringing by hand is a two-handed twisting action. Primarily it is done after rinsing to speed up the drying time. Wringing can also be done between the washing and rinsing steps, but with delicates or special clothing just squeeze instead, like making a snowball. Hand wringing does an OK job of removing water on most items, but should not be used for delicates or sweaters as it could damage the garment.
Mechanical wringing (with rollers) is more efficient and gentler on the clothes. But it requires an expensive wringer AND something very sturdy to fasten the wringer to.
Squeezing
Squeezing out the water can be done with a simple mop squeezer or mop wringer. The mop squeezer is like an open-topped box with three fixed sides, and one movable one. The movable side moves in towards the middle and compresses the piece of laundry that is inside and squeezes out some water.
A mop wringer and bucket is the least expensive way to remove excess water. The bucket collects the excess water that is squeezed out. One downside is that the capacity is limited such that you might fit a t-shirt or two in the mop squeezer, but not a pair of jeans. The work-around is to squeeze one portion at a time, like for jeans do one leg, then the other, then the top. Or for a large towel do the left end, then the center, then the right end.
Spinning
A good laundry spinner does an amazing job of removing water. But the good ones are expensive, and the cheap ones don't last long. They spin at very high speeds, often around 3000 RPM, so they must be loaded with wet laundry in a balanced way. Otherwise the spinning basket inside can become unstable, unbalanced, and start banging and jumping enough to damage the machine.
5. Drying the Laundry
Fortunately the last step is the simplest. The damp laundry can be dried in a clothes dryer, or it can be air dried. Air drying is just hanging it outdoors on a clothesline, or indoors on a drying rack. How long it takes to dry depends on how humid the air is, how soggy the clothes are, and the fabric type. Sweaters and other garments that may stretch when wet should be reshaped and dried flat on a surface that supports them evenly.
If drying indoors in a living space, beware of dripping. Laundry that is still a bit soggy will drip for awhile, which could damage wood or carpeted floors. One solution is to put a plastic sheet, or some towels, under the rack to catch the drips.
Disclaimer: You are responsible for any suggestions you choose to follow, or not follow. This advice is offered for consideration with no guarantee of safety or effectiveness. Use this information at your own risk.
Article modified 11/11/2026
The author of this article, Greg Baka, is the founder of BestDryingRack.com and the writer of many useful articles.
He is also an experienced engineer and home remodeling DIY'er. He has tackled everything from underground drainage to metal roofing, and all things in between. Using his engineering degree, he designed a variety of products for laundry, gardening, and construction.