This idea is not ours – a friend of ours made some of these hand washing stations for the crew kitchen at a festival we’re involved with. But given all the extra hand washing precautions that come with this COVID-19 world we find ourselves in, we wanted to document our experience building an outdoor hand washing station in 15 minutes for around $70. We made a quick trip to Bunnings to grab supplies – you could do it much cheaper if you purchase materials online, or if you source the buckets second-hand.
what you need:
- 2 x 20L buckets with lids (technically only 1 lid required) $29.00
- One way hand fuel pump 10mm (purchased at BCF $19.99)
- Clear vinyl tubing 10mm $15.70
- 3 x hose joiner clamps $3.65
- 4L 30xm plastic basin $1.99
- Drill
- Screwdriver and 2 screws
- Silicone
Project total: $70.33
instructions:
Drill a hole in the side of a bucket, as close to the bottom as you can. The hole should be 10mm – just big enough for the clear tube connector to squeeze through.
The clear pipe comes with an open end and an end with a white connector. Remove the connector from the hose, place the connector through the hole from the inside of the bucket, and re-attach the hose to it on the outside of the bucket.
Leave 30-40cm of clear pipe coming from the bucket, then cut and attach the hand pump. We attached hose joiners to each of the hose joins. Make sure the flow is flowing away from the bucket – there should be an arrow on the pump, or press the pump and see which end blows air. Attach the rest of the clear pipe to the other side of the pump.
Drill a hole in the middle of the plastic basin. Place a lid on the bucket you’ve been working on, and place the second bucket on top of it, with no lid. Place the plastic basin on top of the top bucket – it should be the perfect size to rest on the edges of the bucket.
We had some spare irrigation poly pipe, wire and a bracket so we fashioned a stake, against which to attach the clear pipe with a bulldog clip to create a spout. You should be able to do this with whatever you have laying around. Cut the clear piping to size, and you have a spout!
Fill the bottom bucket with some water, and replace the top bucket. Pump the foot pump a few times and you should have a magical water stream. Huzzah! You have a hand washing station! Once you know it’s all working, you can place some silicone around the hose join on the bottom bucket and leave it to dry for a day. (Edit: we’ve now realised this means we can’t disassemble the hose. Which is fine for us but you may not want it permanently siliconed on. Instead you could use an o-ring or washer).
You may choose to put soapy water in the bottom reservoir, or leave it with plain water and use soap at the basin. Either way, make sure you use castile/natural soap so you can empty the used water onto your veggie patch!
