# Making a handwashing station



## MoGrrrl (Jan 19, 2007)

This is an interesting video. It's for a nonprofit organization that deals with water issues. 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdpd3roZjYw[/ame]

I don't want to spoil the video, but it's a clever way to put together an outdoor hand washing station. There were several details that would have never occurred to me, at least not a first.


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## Wags (Jun 2, 2002)

that was interesting - thanks for sharing


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## silverbackMP (Dec 4, 2005)

Something to bear in mind; in almost all wars, up until the advent of antibiotics, most deaths were the result of disease rather than combat. The military is still viligiant about handwashing stations, ---- tube locations, etc.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

Can someone please provide details for those of us who can't view videos. TIA


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## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

its really neat I'll give it a try.
First, lives can be saved simply by people washing their hands.

For outdoors, they show a jug of water held by two forked sticks and another stick placed through the jug handle, thus holding the jug about three and a half feet above the ground. They showed digging holes in the ground to hold the forked sticks.
a nail is heated and used to puncture a hole just below the cap of the jug, then twine is tied around the neck of the jug just below the cap. 
The twine that is around the neck is pulled to the ground and tied to a stick so the stick is about 8 inched off the ground. Think of the stick as a pedal as in a car. When you push down on the pedal stick, the jug is pulled down so the water can run out of the nail hole and you wet your hands without touching anything.
They also show carving a hole in the middle of a bar of soap and hanging it on the same cross stick as the jug with twine.
Gravel is placed below the jug so the it will absorb the dirty water.
Important to note, the "pedal" stick on the ground is placed about 12 inches past the cross stick that is holding the jug, that way the twine is out of the way when the pedal is pushed down and the water comes out of the hole in the jug.

very cleaver, I am going to try this outside my house this summer, it's thrifty and very useful, only I might add a nail brush tied to the cross stick as well.


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## anette (Jun 20, 2008)

Another way to hang that soap is in a knee high stocking or the leg of old pantyhose.

anette


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## frank (Dec 16, 2008)

Thanks for sharing !


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## secretcreek (Jan 24, 2010)

I've tied up a foaming hand-soap bottle at campouts, at the community water spigot. But the water source is rather far from where some <cough> germy events take place. This would be great to have right outside the latrine doors. I usually buy liquid hand sanitizer ( and might yet) but I like the idea and frankly, the primitive ingenuity to this hand-station. 

Couldn't you repurpose a big sized, liquid laundry detergent bottle? I have extras of those. Could you hang more than one bottle and have a multi wash station if your stand was strong enough? 

-scrt crk


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

That's a really clever idea, and one I might try here at home. I wonder, though, how you can make the jug tip all the way up when the water level inside gets low. Maybe the stick and string is angled so you can just push harder.

If I were to make one for a permanent handwashing station, I'd probably use some sakrete to hold the sticks permanently steady, or maybe use a fencepost and somehow rig the Y part at the top. It wouldn't take long for the wood to decompose in the ground, or for the ground to get soft in the rain and let the sticks drop.


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## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

That is a great idea, thanks for sharing


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## Eyes Wide Open (Oct 14, 2010)

Nice. Here's a web page describing the same tool (I found the site mentioned at the end of the video):

http://www.tippytap.org/the-tippy-tap/
And a PDF download: http://www.tippytap.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/How-to-build-a-tippy-tap-manual.pdf


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## 10kids (Jun 24, 2010)

Great idea, love it!


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

Mom_of_Four said:


> That's a really clever idea, and one I might try here at home. I wonder, though, how you can make the jug tip all the way up when the water level inside gets low. Maybe the stick and string is angled so you can just push harder.


That was my first thought but I tend to look at the short comings of 'engineered' things so I didn't bring it up.

I was thinking if you could hang the bottle from one cross member then have the string go up and over another, higher one you could then tie the string to the bottom of the bottle allowing for you to raise the bottle all the way up.

Be fairly simple to lash something across the top for that plus it'd make the entire rig more stable. Outriggers lashed to the post would add even more stability.


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## stamphappy (Jul 29, 2010)

Before I clicked on the video, I had a visual of using a cute little reclaimed pedestal sink, the brass faucets, and a fancy $20 solar shower. Mabye using some cement with a french drain and wouldn't that just look darling near the garden??? Sometimes, being born in this day and age, it's hard to think in a more sustainable, simpler way. 

You humbled me and I thank you for that.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

AR Transplant said:


> its really neat I'll give it a try.
> First, lives can be saved simply by people washing their hands.
> 
> For outdoors, they show a jug of water held by two forked sticks and another stick placed through the jug handle, thus holding the jug about three and a half feet above the ground. They showed digging holes in the ground to hold the forked sticks.
> ...


Thanks for the description. I've been saving my empty laundry soap bottles for years. I have them hanging from the barn rafters on fishing line. They have just enough soap in them so when filled with water it makes a gallon of soapy water. Once the soapy water has been used, the bottle can be rinsed out and used for this.


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## littlebitfarm (Mar 21, 2005)

As girl scouts, a gillizion years ago, we hung a bleach bottle from a tree branch with a piece of twine. Poked a hole in the side near the bottom. Plugged the hole with a hawthorn thorn. Bar of soap hanging in an old onion bag tied to the branch. Pull thorn out, wet hands, wash hands, rinse hands, and put thorn back in.

Kathie


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## MoGrrrl (Jan 19, 2007)

stamphappy said:


> Sometimes, being born in this day and age, it's hard to think in a more sustainable, simpler way.


Exactly! There may be some tweaks I or others might want to do to it for our own use, but it seems to have a beautiful simplicity. I definitely wouldn't have thought of the nail-sized hole for the water; I would have been wasting a whole jug per hand washing.

(By the way, I read a bit here. I was so happy to have found something to contribute. Thanks for all the knowledge and motivation.)


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## JuliaAnn (Dec 7, 2004)

Faucets aren't good. 

You have a tiny bit of poop on your hands after defecating and you have 'the stomach flu' (virus or bacterial upset). You want to wash your hands. You reach for the faucet handle--with your contaminated hand, and turn the water on, thus transfering the pathogen to the faucet handle. You wash your hands clean. Then you use your clean hand to touch the contaminated faucet handle to turn the water off, and your hand is contaminated again as well as infecting whoever comes behind you to wash their hands. You haven't done a bit of good washing your hands this way and possibly/probably spread your stomach flu to others.

Better to not have to touch faucets, or the water containing vessel in any way. That's why in hospitals and laboratories you often see foot pedals to turn on water instead of faucet handles or wrist blades. (I've always thought they should call them elbow blades, because most people use their elbows).

DH made a gravity fed washing station at their deer lease with a 55 gal. food grade barrel supported on posts with brackets he welded up. Had one of those spigots that has a lever on it that you press down on, but he drilled a hole in the lever and attached a small chain down to a pedal similar to the description given above. Also used river rock at the base. Works really well, good for washing up after dressing out a deer.


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## used2bcool13 (Sep 24, 2007)

Loved the video, thanks!


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