Taking a sponge bath

I don't think washing ones hair really is included in a "sponge bath" that's a whole 'nother thing. Hair is the only thing that is hard to get soap out of. Solution; like some said above don't use so much soap. A little soap and a lot of scrubbing go a long way.

Haven't been on the forum much, so I don't know where your "wounds" are. I originally just got the idea that your regular plumbing was down. The reason most of us take a sponge bath is because we are in a place with no running water.

It is hard to know all the specifics when you only share them a bit at a time.

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Moving to that big black hole in the night satellite photo. (also the hole in cell phone coverage )

There is a very good demonstration by Kelly McGillis in Witness. I don't know how I remembered.

Yep. When my daughter was in the hospital with a pancreatic tumor (and for the weeks after her surgery when she was still in due to complications), the nurses would sponge bathe her but we had to wash her hair. I believe we only did that twice in the month she was in the hospital. When she had a good moment, I brought her to the sink to do her hair since she gets greasy fast! Most of the time she was too ill to do it though.

Ok so I have been there bud. Wrap the knee in plastic. I used a garbage bag. Seal the ends as that is where the water will leak in. I also used a hoe to keep the moisture off my leg. Hey once I wore my bathing suit and layed o my back as some one sprayed me down.(that was fun) I used duct tape to seal the ends of the trash bags. Hope this helps.

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There are products available in stores, I got mine in the sporting goods/hunting dept, that offer rinse free body and hair wash ready to use with or without a shower. The one I have is made by D2W Guide Gear for only several dollars. No rinsing required wash and towel dry. www.d2wguidegear.com

You could use something like this for occasional power outages or to take with you camping

Bill

Okay, You can only do this if you will not offend the neighbors or be arrested for indecent exposure. My goats, dogs and chicken don't care and I have done this for 20 years. Put a milk jug of water on the roof or in the sun. Have a washbowl, pour in about a quart of the water. Have a plastic cup there. bend head over washbowl, dip water over hair and let run back into washbowl. shampoo. Use suds to scrub down from top to bottom. Squeeze any suds possible out of hair. Use cup to carefully rinse off the worst with what is left of the quart of water. Carefully rinse off with the rest of the gallon of warm water. This just about does it and I have really thick hair. We call it navy shower, because our dear old neighbor Walter, God rest his soul, did it this way and he was in the Navy during the war, WWII that is.
If you want to splurge you can use another gallon. When we were building our house and the kids were all here, everyone had a milk jug of water for evening shower. DS painted them black, so they would get warmer.
We rigged up a shower curtain and stood on a pallet. Now I stand on the back porch. I only do that in summer of course.

I'm gonna ask this from upwind----how'd get to be old as you are and not figgure out how to, let's say, maintain yourself? Let's take knee surgery out of the equation here, washing yourself is washing yourself.

Last time I had to teach a grown man how to get clean involved 3 helpers, a palmyra scrub brush and a can of cleanser. We didn't need to proceed to the lesson on dry shaving.

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~Only the rocks live forever~

Maybe George Costanza could offer some advice...

Yes, when you take a "sponge bath" you have to rinse all the soap off afterward. Just rinse out your washrag or sponge until all the soap is out of it, rinse your body off. You may have to do it a few times to get all the soap off.

I sponge bath all of the time even if I am taking a shower as I "navy shower".

Regardless if sponging in the shower or sponging at the bathroom sink while standing on a thick bath mat I follow the same procedure of first using the shower head or wash cloth to wet down.

Next if in the shower I turn off the water and soap up the wash cloth to soap up and clean from head to toe. If doing a sink sponge I simply soap up the wash cloth in the sink water.

Then I get a final rinse cloth and if in the shower use the shower head to rinse off before drying.

Bathing and showering this way all of my life has not only kept me clean it keeps my shower water use to a 2 to 3 gallons ration as was common on naval vessels up to the 1950s.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

Was the scrub brush the same one you used on the barracks floorboards?

Did ya leave the bather the G.I. blanket to dry off with that you used to tote him to the party?

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

I don't have indoor plumbing and here is what I do:

I wash my hair first in the plastic bucket that catches the soapy water. I then use 2 sponges, one to wash with using the soapy water in the bucket from my hair and the other one to literally squeeze water all over me. I stand on an old plastic shower curtain with 2 aborbant blankets on top. Keeps the water from soaking my floor. I get very wet. Work from the cleanest to the dirtiest. When I am done, I feel exactly like I just came out of the shower. I also don't use bar soap. I use shampoo or dish detergent........it rinses off easier.

Oh and I forgot. While I am rinsing I soak my feet in the bucket which doubles by catching a lot of the rinsing I am doing.