Jackie Lambert suspects that her habit of showering only every three days is unusual. “But I’m unapologetic for it because I think it’s fine,” she laughs. After all, a daily shower is more about cultural expectations than hygiene.

To be fair, Lambert’s whole lifestyle is on the unusual side. After she and her husband were made redundant in their early 50s, they decided to rent out their house in the coastal town of Bournemouth, UK, and move into a caravan with their four dogs for much of the year. At the moment, they’re in a village in the Italian Alps.

“The limit when you’re caravanning is the fact that you very rarely have water hooked up to the caravan,” explains Lambert, who worked in sales before she retired. “You have to collect all the water yourself.”

The couple typically fill 40-litre water carriers at caravan sites, and roll them along the ground to their caravan. “It’s surprising how quickly you get through that,” says Lambert. “So, certainly, the lifestyle does make you very conscious of how much water you use.”

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A good example is laundry. The couple use a portable twin tub washing machine, an electricity-powered device with two compartments that requires a bit more manual input than a typical modern washing machine. First, they pour warm water into the left side, which runs up to 12 minutes on an agitating cycle. They then move the clothes to the right-hand tub – a spin dryer. “We re-use rinse water for the next wash if it is clean enough to do so,” explains Lambert. Though small, the gizmo can even accommodate duvet covers.