For many urban residents living in houses or multi-dwelling homes that were built 50 years ago or more, laundry rooms are non-existent, and their homes may well not even have the plumbing to handle a modern washer and dryer unit. For others, living without a modern laundry system is a conscious choice, whether for space (most of these appliances are huge, and dual-purpose or stackable units are expensive), to save money, or to minimize their environmental impact.

Since dry-cleaning is expensive over time and uses harsh chemicals, we will assume that is only an option for dry-clean only clothes. Here are some more ways to live well without a washer and/or dryer.

1. Manual clothes washers – You might think old-fashioned “agitators” had gone the way of the telegraph, but manual washers are still in heavy use among the frugal, long-term travelers, and in other parts of the world. Most of the benefit of getting clean clothes comes from the clothes twisting and pushing against each other, so you really only have to use a little bit of soap to get your garments clean, and the process only takes about five minutes. The WonderWash is probably the best-known manual washing product, and it can handle 5-lb loads at a time.
2. Hand-washing – It’s not exactly fun, but to get clothes clean by hand, you’ve really got to scrub and twist, giving your arms a thorough workout in the process. If you have a bucket of water or a big sink, you can give this method a try. Hand-washing underwear and shirts isn’t that difficult, but getting jeans and other thick, heavy clothes clean enough to wear is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process. For more on hand-washing clothes, click here.
3. Laundry pickup and delivery services – These are usually locally-owned businesses, so I can’t recommend any particular company, but you’ll probably find at least a couple by searching for “laundry pickup” + your city. You will usually pay by the pound for clothes to be washed, though some places may offer payment by the bag. This is not a particularly environmentally-friendly approach to cleaning clothes, but it is extremely convenient. If you live in a condo or apartment, your office may have a recommendation of a provider to use.
4. Clothesline drying – This is an almost effortless way to dry clothes, and you can get clothes dry even in cold climates if you give them all day. If air-drying them makes them too stiff for your comfort, shake them thoroughly both before and after you hang them, and add a little fabric softener to the wash. Here’s a huge list of tips on hand-drying clothing at ThriftyFun.

1. Suggest that groups of friends or relatives go in for a gift together. You may have to push for this one, because people tend to want credit for their own gifts, even if it was just a cheap $5 toy from the grocery store. Explain how you are trying to keep clutter down, and thank them preemptively for being so thoughtful, and they will find it difficult to resist you. The added bonus is that your son or daughter will get a nicer present out of the pooled funds, and perhaps even something educational, such as an early elementary school microscope.
2. Enforce a “one in, one out” rule. As soon as your child is old enough to understand, explain to her the importance of not letting toys overtake her room or the whole house, and that from now on, every time she wants or receives a new toy, she has to choose one to give away to charity, too. Tell her that there are many children who have no toys, and by giving one of hers away, she will make it possible for another little boy’s or girl’s parent to buy the toy for their own child. For more on how to break the toy addiction, read Elisabeth Wilkins’ post on EmpoweringParents.com.
3. Give your child gifts of experience and ask for them from friends and family. Take your child to the zoo or amusement park on his birthday, or plan something even bigger during the holidays, such as a Disney cruise for the entire family. From loved ones, ask for pool passes or gymnastics lessons, or a gift card to the child’s favorite restaurant. The benefit of gifts of experience is that they can also provide a bonding opportunity for the whole family.

If you explain to your friends, family, and children your goal of having a clutter-free home, and that you would appreciate it if they altered their gift-giving style, I can promise that the vast majority of them will understand, and maybe even want to implement your plan into their own lives. Plus, you will create not only a much happier household for yourself, but much more loving relationships between yourself and your friends and family, as you can relax and not have to worry about how in the world you are going to fit yet another loud, plastic toy into your house.

Enter memory foam mattresses. The technology behind them was developed by NASA in the 1970s as a way to support an astronaut’s body under extreme g-forces, and also adapting to the tiny movements the astronaut would make. This ability to perfectly balance a person’s body weight while rebounding back immediately when pressure was removed is called visco-elastic, and it revolutionized sleeping comfort when it began to be tested on consumer markets in the 1980s.

Tempur-Pedic was the original memory foam mattress company, but today, many other manufacturers have entered the growing market. Each manufacturer and each of their mattresses has unique characteristics and variables, including density, thickness, resilience, and indentation load deflection, or how hard or soft the foam is. Tempur-Pedic memory foam mattresses are known for their high quality but also their high price tag. With some careful research, you may be able to find a style and brand ideal for you from an alternative manufacturer. The quality may be slightly lower, but it will probably also be significantly less costly for you. A good list of memory foam manufacturers and the quality of their products can be found here, some personally tested and the rest thoroughly researched.

The cost of a high-quality memory foam mattress may be high, but reviews of memory foam mattresses are almost universally positive, and many manufacturers provide warranties of at least a decade. Reviews are almost universally positive on all models on Amazon.com, and many couples report that their significant other’s tossing and turning no longer jostles them, too. Memory foam mattresses may be the best choice for those looking for a comfortable, supportive mattress solution for the next few decades.

One popular option on Amazon is a sturdy pet food container that also has a dispenser built in, if you don’t mind getting out the whole box when you want to pour the food. If not, you can flip the top of the box up and scoop pet food up that way. These are the typical pet food container shapes: tall and fairly thin, ideal for squeezing inside your pantry next to the garbage bin. Another option, if you don’t have the space for a big container, is to continue to buy in bulk, but spread the food over several smaller containers that you can place wherever you have some extra room. The canisters should be sturdy and sanitary, and look at least attractive enough that they won’t stand out in a closet or other partially-hidden space.

If you have several species of pets, or if you just have different food needs for some of your pets of the same species, you might do better with a side opening, stackable food container option for your needs. You can have each type of pet food in its own container, and perhaps dedicate another crate to pet treats, creating a tower of pet food. The bins are compact and have openings on the sides so you can still access several levels, and take advantage of otherwise unusable vertical space. Consider giving stackable bins a try if you need to store different types of food in a small space.

An overview: Feng shui is a Chinese frame of mind for organizing and arranging your home in such a way as to best promote the flow of chi, or positive energy. You can really take it as in-depth as you want, from following the main concepts, to bagua room layout charts, to highly accurate Chinese compasses, or luo pan. The basic principle behind feng shui is to achieve a smooth, positive harmony in every room in your home. And whether or not you believe in yin and yang, or the interdependence of the elements, or the importance of geographic poles and directions, you have to admit that feng shui’s end goal is admirable.

The entire basis of the belief in vital harmony lies within yin (black) and yang (white). Yin is the relaxing, dark, restful energy of relaxation and replenishment. Yang is the energy of movement, strength, vibrancy, and passion. Overall, you want a balance of the two halves in your home, but you want more yin energy in the bedroom, for example, and more yang energy in the home office. There are certain colors, objects, and materials associated with each of the energies, so you can actually see the two different emphases, as well as the effects a few feng shui changes can make on your room. However, you should never have only one type of energy in a room; just as you only appreciate light because you have known darkness, you can only experience one half properly in context of the other.

The other main tenet of feng shui is the idea of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, which bring added depth and complexity to the ideal flow of chi and energy throughout your home. The elements are like tools you can wield to shape your life’s goals and ambitions. To decide which elements to place in your home and where, you use a bagua diagram. Figure out where south is in your home, and mentally align the diagram over your floor plan to determine which areas are ideal for which elements. Attention should be paid to every area on the diagram, but you can choose to focus on regions that reflect desires and problems currently happening in your own life, such as moving a water fountain to the North to promote career advancement. Additionally, some items you are going to have to decide if you need them more in one area or the other, like an object that corresponds to one area on basis of color and another on basis of element. Feng shui is not an exact science, and you will need to make the best design decision depending upon the unique priorities and problems of your own life.

For more on decorating your home feng shui style, check out Barlett Designs and World of Feng Shui.

I’m going to go ahead and assume you already know the laundromat is an option, albeit one I hate. I’m all for you being able to do laundry in the privacy of your own home, without having to make a trip to the laundromat and waste time sitting around, waiting for your next load to finish.

One option is to purchase a portable washing machine. These appliances are boxed-sized machines that you roll over and connect to your sink’s plumbing. They do their thing, and then you reattach the hose to your sink and roll the appliance back to wherever you store it during the rest of the time. Obviously, these machines can’t hold as much laundry as a typical washing machine, but many of them hold about half a normal load of laundry, more than enough for singles or a small family. You might have to get used to doing the laundry daily instead of weekly, but the freedom to turn on the washer and then do whatever you want is definitely worth the sacrifice, in my opinion. The Haier Compact Portable Washing Machine is the best-reviewed portable washer on Amazon, and retails for $300. Not cheap, but considering you can bring it easily from apartment to apartment, and that’s it’s much cheaper than a standard washer, it may be worth it in your situation.

Your other biggest option is some sort of agitator, whether electronically or manually powered. Think of these as big blenders that shake and stir your clothes, creating friction and rubbing that will get the grime out of your clothes. These washers can be quite cheap; however, you will need to take out the clothes at the end of the cycle and rinse out the soap yourself, not to mention having to add the water before you start, and emptying it out again when you’re done.

There are some excellent manual handwashers available, including this pressurized, hand-cranked one at Lehman’s. As long as you don’t mind getting a bit of a workout while doing your laundry, you could save hundreds in water and electric bills over the course of a year. Apart from perhaps hand-washing, a manual clothes agitator is definitely your most frugal choice for washing your laundry. Apart from the initial outlay – Lehman’s is about $50 – the only other cost you’ll ever incur is in physical exertion.

And remember, when you buy a condo, you are not buying a room or the structure, but the right to occupy a unit of space. You have complete ownership of everything inside the bare walls, and shared ownership and responsibility for group property, such as common areas. You can alter your condo in any way, so long as it doesn’t infringe upon the laws of the condominum association.

Of course, you will eventually sell your first condo someday, and there are some features that will make your condo more desireable for buyers when that day comes. Look for hardwood or bamboo floors, unique features such as bay windows or especially good views, high ceilings, and high-quality appliances. You may also want to consider putting some extra work into your condo’s strongest selling points to market your condo more effectively when selling time comes. Check out this article at VIP Living for more information about choosing a condo and examining the association of your particular condominum.

For example, if gas is around $2.50 a gallon (and in the coming years, it will only go up), and you get 20mpg, you are spending about $.13 a mile on fuel alone. This does not take into account the fact that your car is constantly losing value (depreciation), insurance costs (often charged based on how often/how many miles you drive a year on average), and upkeep/maintenance costs (the more you drive, the higher the costs). Even if you choose to live in the city and keep a car for occasional use, you can still save significant amounts of money by living close to where you work and play.

Many benefits of living in a suburban house, like having a backyard or a game room or workout equipment, can be experienced in a community room in an apartment complex or a condo, or in one of many public parks, dogparks, gyms, or playgrounds available for free or cheap. It’s always better to get out of your own four walls and experience the world, anyway. On your own, you don’t have many new experiences, but when you get out in the sunshine and meet new people, you will be a happier person. Leave the house/apartment/condo/townhouse for sleeping, eating, and playing, and explore your city to find all the other amenities you could possibly ever want or need.