How do you rinse out clothes? Wash off body?

Option 1: Don't wash. A little funk won't hurt. There's really no need to bathe every day.
Option 2: Wet a bandana and wipe off a bit. Rinse it off in the water source if you have it.
Option 3: If there is a great water source and the weather is warm, swim. Rinse all your clothes in the water. It will feel great.

Wet wipes. If done in the proper order, one large wet wipe can address multiple body areas.

Every third day out on extended trips, I stop at a lake or stream, heat (not boil) a pot of water, take it far from water sources and use my cup and a few drops of Dr Bronners to wash my hair.

Get used to funk. Your clothes will smell. Washing them with soap while out is not worth the energy. My friend tried the bear can as a washer trick – very little gain for her trouble.

You might like reading THIS THREAD

If in the mountains with a lot of flowing water, I will take a dip or wade if the sun is out (to dry off – if its raining, rinsing won't be a problem). No soap but clothes on which smell a little better. Not a whole lotta flowing water = wet wipes. I'll usually budget one wet wipe at camp anyways. If out for more than a couple days, I'll also use biodegradable soap away from a water source – fill a large zip-lock, though I need a better system. There are some nifty shower attachments that can turn certain hydration bladders into a portable shower reportedly. Problem is usually one then wants to heat the water and there's only so much capacity.

Well, I don't worry too much about cloths. I rinse my face and body every day with a wet bandana, then rinse it out again. On hot days, I rinse these out in a cool mountain stream. On occasion, a dip in a pool, fully clothed, will get the worst of the dirt out of hiking cloths. Socks are rinsed out every day, regardless of the weather. As it get colder, I switch to a half pot of boiled water for my body and rinsing my socks.

When I hiked the incredibly dusty PCT, where water was relatively scarce and I was in too much of a hurry to you know, stop and have any fun in any body of water, at the end of the day I simply poured a little water from my bottle onto my bandana and wiped down my feet, legs and face. It took surprisingly little water. I didn't really rinse the bandana afterward. Honestly, why bother keeping fabric things clean? They will get dirty again in an hour anyway.

When I'm near a water source, I just stick my feet in and wash with my hands or my bandana. Get my pits, neck and face while I'm at it. I don't care if the water source is clean or somewhat icky. Seriously, water is hardly ever so bad you can't use it. Just remove the dead snake with a stick, push the moss out of the way and the water is good as new.

As for my nethers, I try to hose myself down with a squeeze bottle of water when I do my business.

If backpacking with a significant other it may be more important to clean up a bit.

I keep myself clean with some combination of bandana, squirt bottle, and taking a dip in a handy lake. Bandana and squirt bottle are a daily routine (with a drop of soap, away from water sources), lake not always – depends on availability, temperature, timing. Socks get rinsed in lake or stream daily, underwear washed in ziplock bag daily, and other clothing gets rinsed or washed only on long trips, and even then only rarely – maybe if there is a layover day.

Short answer: Focus on keeping hands, crotch, armpits, and feet clean while not cross contaminating grime/funk/fungus from dirty bits to the mommy/daddy parts. When water is scarce, I use baby wipes. I only bother to rinse out my clothes when clean water is abundant. I go with a wash one wear one strategy with my underwear and socks. If my T shirt is getting salty, which is typically when it's warm out, I'll rinse it out mid morning and throw it on. Since it's a nylon/lycra t shirt, it dries within an hour or so. I don't worry about washing my pants or long sleeved shirt on sub one week trips.

Long answer:

1) not near a water source in camp so all the water you are carrying is for drinking or cooking

A) Wash and sanitize hands with a splash of water, some Dr. B's unscented, and follow up with hand sanitizer. If I can't spare a splash of water, then I just use baby wipes. Polish off the under carriage with a baby wipe. Use sponge to clean dust off of legs (or baby wipes). I wear sleeping clothes to keep funk off of sleeping bag.

2) you are near a water source, but it’s kind of icky?

A)Same as above.

2b) you are near a fairly clean water source?

A)Same as above unless I'm extra funky.

If I'm extra funky and I want to bathe, I recently purchased the Simple Shower off of Amazon. The showerhead weighs less than an ounce, costs $13, and the threads are compatible with my Evernew bladder. The threads on the Platypus bladder are different and I haven't tried it on one yet.

I've been practicing with it in the front country but have yet to use it backpacking. I find that I can take a complete shower using less than 2 liters of water. Having a military spec haircut help with this but I suspect people with long hair can still bathe using less than a gallon of water.

Process is fairly straight forward. I dip my sponge or bandanna in the water when I'm filling the bladder. I'll lay the bladder across a branch that is low enough to reach but high enough to duck under to rinse off. Lift the shower head up for off, and lower to turn on. Pretty easy to meter the water this way.

Basically just a Navy shower and I'm just as clean as when I take a normal "Hollywood shower."

Here's the link to the Simple Shower. I highly recommend it:

http://www.amazon.com/Rainburst-Simple-Shower/dp/B00DVXXIQQ

3) do you carry a small collapsible container to hold water for washing? Or use your cockpot (eww)?

For my clothes, I turn my water proof liner inside out, fill with water, and rinse clothes off in that.

4) The same question goes for trying to wash up your body a little bit under the same circumstances as above.

Answered above.
5) if you just pour a little drinking water on a cloth for washing off your body a little, how do you rinse out your cloth after?

Answered above.

Maybe I'm uncouth: If there's a lake or deep enough stream and I'm yucky enough to bother with it, I take a swim in whatever clothes need it. If there's no such water available, I stay dirty. "Yucky enough" depends on the temperature and how hard and necessary it will be to dry myself and the clothes.

[Edited to fix typo.]

I jump in from time to time during the day if the opportunity presents itself and the weather permits. For washing with Dr Bronners, I fill my 2 L platypus and wet my bandanna, apply a drop or two of soap and scrub away starting with the least offensive spots first. I wring, re-wet, and add a couple drops of soap as needed rinsing with the platy. For hair I refill the platy and use a couple of drops of soap and scrub away then rinse. All this is done near/over a cat hole that gets filled in later. ;-)

For clothes, I rinse/soak in flowing water while I set up camp. This is sometimes all that is needed but if more is required I typically just apply soap to pits and crotch and the back waist band. This gets placed in a gallon sized ziplock for a while and shaken and then wrung out with no rising….keeps the fresh smell longer even if it isn't really as clean as it smells.

When I was thru hiking much of this was omitted due to dry camps, wet camps where the water was less clean than me, weather, too tired, or could care less because I was by myself for a day or two. I did jump in fully clothed quite often during the course of the day and get a decent rinse, but when I was done for the day I was done. Drop and flop although I always changed into my "camp wear" (long silk underwear and socks) that stayed relatively clean for many days if not a week or two.

"To wash yourself or your dishes, carry water 200 feet away from streams or lakes and use small amounts of biodegradable soap. Scatter strained dishwater."

https://lnt.org/learn/7-principles

"Don’t wash your dishes, yourself, or your clothes in lakes or streams… even if you’re not using soap, clothes should never be rinsed in or near water as they can be a major source of nutrients for algae. It’s also best to rinse yourself off (to get off sunscreen, body oils, dirt, etc.) before you go for a swim. We recognize that these recommendations may seem a little draconian and may affect the spontaneity of a quick dip in the lake, but in the long-term they represent an investment in the quality of our trail water."

http://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/backcountry-basics/water/

Not much fun and probably depends on the size of the stream/lake, but —
Some folks are probably never going to buy into packing out toilet paper either but that's the guidance for many areas now too.

>Anyone else struggle with this in the beginning? Keep in mind, I'm not trying to be super clean or anything, that's not what this is about. It's the minimalist version of being minimally clean!!! Fire away! (Ducking!)

I'm in merino wool: underwear, socks and shirt; and those don't hold much of a stink. So, I just lather up in some zinc oxide in my special areas, and I try not to wash. Sometimes the issue is forced after a few days, and I wash using a little liquid Bronner's and disposable water bottle with a sriracha cap that allows me to a focused stream of water. I just imagine I'm using a Indian bathroom, and wash my hands really well after.

The wife is basically allergic to wool when it's above her knees and she washes her synthetic underwear in a large ziplock bag. Wish I could walk you through that process, but I honestly don't pay too much attention to how she manages it, other than she tries to do it first thing when we make camp, so it gets some daylight drying time. For her personal body washing, she brings body wipes.

If I hit good sized lakes, I'll dive in wearing my clothes and swim around a little and let them dry on my body. Water crossings, I'll aim for the route that gets me soaked. Usually, I'm with people that are trying to keep dry, so I'll sometimes get a lot of time in the water as I ferry others gear across as they risk breaking their ankle dancing barefoot on slimy boulders or balancing on a rotten log. I'm usually totally dry 10 minutes later and looking forward to the next chance to get soaked.

1) not near a water source in camp so all the water you are carrying is for drinking or cooking

wet wipes (for body), plus swim in lakes and streams when you pass them. For clothes, don't rinse them until you wash them. Wash them in stuff sack, with water and soap. If there is no water, don't rinse then when there is no water.

2) you are near a water source, but it’s kind of icky?

wet wipes (for body), plus soap (no water) or filter some water and use that for body. With icky water, I would not wash clothes.

2b) you are near a fairly clean water source?

Rinse (wash)clothes in syl nylon stuff sac for closes, take a shower if your stuff sack has shower head (like mine)

3) do you carry a small collapsible container to hold water for washing? Or use your cockpot (eww)?

syl nylon stuff sack, with wet bag closure on one end, shower head on the other

4) The same question goes for trying to wash up your body a little bit under the same circumstances as above.

5) if you just pour a little drinking water on a cloth for washing off your body a little, how do you rinse out your cloth after?

You can use a pot to pour clean water into yourself, your washcloth, your toothbrush, or your clothes, and not get yuk in your pot. I would not use dirty water in your pot, but use a stuff sack instead.

here is a blog post on washing clothes:

http://backpackingtechnology.com/backpacking-skills/keeping-clean-on-a-long-backpack/

@ Lisa:
I see that most of your questions have been already covered by the BPL community.

Except for your #3:
>>"3) do you carry a small collapsible container to hold water for washing? Or use your cockpot (eww)?"

Eww indeed. I don't have a cockpot, although I am a male with all pertinent attributes. I don't even know what a cockpot is.

However, I carry and use a cOOkpot.
I use it to boil water for meals and drinks, and also to pee in during the night when I don't feel like getting out from under my tarp to water the roses. The urine gets disposed of immediately after collection – usually in the direction from which I might have heard some night sounds. The cOOkpot gets rinsed in the morning before using it again for cooking, even in dry camp when my water is scarce. Does not take a lot of water for this.

As to the collapsible container – yes, I do carry one. It is a 16oz pouch from a Sawyer Mini filter, which serves 2 purposes: It holds extra spare water for dry camps, and is also used as a pressure washer for my ar$e for when I have bowel movement in the morning. I have pretty strong hands, and a little screw-on nozzle (8g weight, got it from US Plastics), and when I squeeze the Sawyer pouch, it shoots a stream very similar to the one from a dental water pick. I bet it could strip old paint off. Besides, this setup provides near surgical precision. 6 oz of water plus a dab of Dr. Bonner's are enough to get my bottom, and then my $hitty hand squeaky clean. I am totally in awe with this device, but can only recommend it for hardened ar$es. Softies need not apply.

Here it is :

Tip: save yourself one ounce by getting rid of the cock but lose its charm doing so.
Your call.

When I noticed the typo I thought, oh boy, they are going to eat me for lunch!! Then the comments went on and on with nobody calling me on it! I knew it was too good to last! Thanks for the laughs and all the great ideas. In 'hindsight' I should have caught and edited, but that wouldn't have been as much fun!!!

Brilliant mates, just brilliant!! Enough ideas to fill a whole cockpot!

Cheers!

I've used a cut down bleach bottle for years to soak dirty clothes in, then dumping wash water appropriate distance from water source. Works for packing water away from the source to wash my hair with Dr B's soap. If I can, I will take a quick dip in any water deep enough to cover my belly button, better if deep enough where I can dunk my head and get over the chill fast.
Duane

The stuff sack I use which has a shower head is a Sea-to-Summit Pocket shower. I use it as a stuff sack for holding food or clothing. The pleasure of feeling clean is worth a few ounces in my book.

Link: http://www.seatosummit.com/product/?item=Pocket+Shower&o1=0&o2=0&o3=195

I dont. My body stays pretty clean under long sleeves and pants.
Short sleeves leave your legs coated with a layer of grime.

My clothes after 5 days on trail in sierra.