Washing machine broken! Any hints on hand washing?

Yes, good idea 25Avalon

Fill your bath, add washing powder and swish. Put in sheets and large objects and leave overnight. Next morning get in the bath and walk around, pull plug, drain and rinse. Hardest part is the wringing.

I'm really sorry for you OP, my 19 year old washing machine packed up a couple of months ago, before the present situation kicked off, so I ordered a new one and got it installed fairly quickly. I'm very glad it gave up then and not now.

We're all so reliant on washing machines but when I cast my mind back to many years ago, in my early 20s when I first rented with my ex, washing machines were often not a fixture in rented flats and I remember us going to the launderette, but also washing by hand in the bath, luckily we were friendly with the landlords and they let us use the washing line in their garden. I don't think we thought anything of it at the time, until later on when we bought our first home and got a washing machine and hand washing became consigned to history.

I wish you good weather so you can get your washing outside.

So sorry just seen you have said you are aged 80, washing by hand quite a task for you, I hope you can get someone out to fix your machine. Good luck.

I agree we tend to wash our clothes much more frequently than we need these days, and I confess to making everything last longer now there's no washer available. Apart from the obvious like smalls.
Some useful tips there, thank you gransnetters, having been raised in the dark ages I was able to dredge up memories of wartime washing days which must have been much more difficult ... apart from the now missed mangle. Treading on rolled up towels in the bathroom floor is good, feet are such useful things.
I did feel sorry for my mum though, imagine making do without detergent, only soap that turned the water into scum at the first hint of grease! We have a lot of blessings to be thankful for.

My mum had a dolly tub.
However she did have a mangle too.

At least the weather is better, ExD
Imagine if it was raining like it did

I would try Age Concern though
That was a good suggestion.

As impoverished flat sharing student nurses we would fill the bath add soap powder and stomp up and down akin to grape crushing? Wring out clothes and put them in a zinc tub, refill bath with rinsing water and a touch of vinegar, stomp again, drain water, wring clothes, clothes drivers put in bath to catch drips. NB added bonus of very clean feet?

Sorry ExD I did mean to add, I would be phoning with the hope that someone would be sent out to repair your machine. Just sometimes, if you don’t ask, you don’t get?

When we were younger and living on our building site, I’d wash socks and stalls by hand and spin them in the salad spinner. Worked perfectly.

Smalls*

It should be possible to get a repairman out.Emergency repairs are exempt from self isolation restrictions as long as you maintain a 2m distance and they observe hand washing etc
I would go to the manufacturers and hassle them. Also, look for another electrician./repair man

ExD
You can buy ( on line) the motherboard for most washing machines. They're not expensive and easy to fit. They are at the top of the m/c so to speak.
Take the top off the machine and you will see it.

Launderettes are still open.
There are a number of drive through laundrettes, these are great, dump your washing then sit in the car and listen to the radio.

I would definitely be spending my time phoning different repairmen until I found one willing to come out.

Tradesmen have had so many jobs cancelled recently so there must be plenty who would jump at the chance of work.

I would open the kitchen window and door and stay in a different room or the garden while he was here.

If you clean anything he touched very thoroughly once he has finished, you should be fine.

I'd soak things in a bowl or bucket overnight, keeping colours separate of course, and not trying to do too much at once. It saves a lot of agitating or scrubbing of the clothes. Rinse well, as people have said and then use one of the towel methods if you can't wring the clothes very well by hand.

Somewhere in our garage there's an old mangle.....

I am washing by hand as I don't have a washing machine, and am not going to the launderette. Like previous posters I am washing the clothes in the bath, every few days so it doesn't build up. DH is wringing it out for me, but I did use the towel idea for his jeans. DD suggested buying a table top washer/ spin dryer but we really don't have the room for one. Annoyingly my kettle has stopped working this morning, and it's not the fuse, so now we have to use the microwave to boil the water for our tea.

When my machine broke I put everything in the bath hot soapy water and did some ‘grape crushing’ then an individual scrub of various things needing more rubbing plug out do a cold rinse wring out hang out done did it fir a year until I could afford a new one

Do try a different tradesman though my daughter had to have an electrician and a plumber out since the lock down and my friend, a computer technician They were all gloved up washed before and after, wiped everything down and stood a distance away to talk

My friend has had to have a new washing machine very recently.
They eventually got the one they wanted from Currys, but it was only delivered to the drive! as they would not bring it into the house.
John Lewis also said that delivery would be to the drive only.

Her husband is in his 80's and she is in her 70's.
Luckily they were able to borrow a sack barrow type thing from a neighbour, and their son and GS managed to get it into the house and plumb it in.
I was sure that there could have been provision made for situations like that.