I heated up a very large plastic bowl of water for 8 minutes in the microwave just now, and then poured it hot into a flat plastic bin. I was able to get both feet in them up to the low ankles and then squat down and get my hands in there too. So i just enjoyed the heat for awhile, and then took a sponge bath and shaved my legs.

I didn't have enough hot water for my hair with this set up, but for a mini-bath, it was reasonable.

I had to futz around with water amounts and microwave time amounts and various containers to make this work. So if someone needs to experiment with this, don't get discouraged right away. Keep tweaking.

I only very rarely take a bath - most of the time I just don't have time for it. I take a quick shower to clean off and then it's back to work. So dedicating the time to a full bath is maybe a quarterly event if even.

Summer will be here soon Jilly and you'll be able to relax in your back yard in your tub

An option is to heat a large pot of water on the campfire - you can then fill a bathtub sized item with cold water plus that and come out with a reasonable middle ground.

ok someone please explain to me what the difficulty may be in taking a bath there jilly please...water cant be in that amouth of shortage i do understand there is some shortage there and limitations as ive read a bit about it but not everyone im sure goes thru this so why is this such a hardship for you???

This is complicated, you guys. I was hoping not to have to explain it...

I live in a 150 foot converted backyard shed. There is an unusable mobile home from 1967 on the property. It rains inside, you can see outside the floor to the grasses, there are no windows and the door is this broken metal thing sagging off the hinges. The toilet, tub and sink in the bathroom is functional when I have the water turned on.

My water is rainwater for the most part. When dan is here we have running water, but when he leaves I will turn it off again.

I do not have propane or an electric water heater, an oven or even a stove.

I do have a lot of wood to burn in the firepit - stuff i collect for free.

I have: a microwave, small hot plate, crockpot, toaster oven, coffee pot, dorm sized fridge, electric tea kettle and a outside firepit that i sometimes cook on.

So, to heat water for that tub i would have to figure out some way to heat water in either the shed or the firepit, collect some kind of kettles to put the water in, lug lots and lots of HOT SCALDING gallons into a tub in a structure that I do not live in...and, when dan leaves, it will all have to come from my rain barrels.

This is not an earth shattering problem. It's an interesting challenge that I am choosing to document my experiences with.

how big is that firepit jilly...im sitting here thinking of the old galvanized round tubs ...know the ones i mean...if that fire pit is large enough you could set that sort of tub in the middle...then fill it with water...then build a fire all around the tub to heat the water...when the fire dies down and the water is warm you could get in it...just dont put it on TOP of the coals...and leave a path for yourself to get in it.

Right, Illusive has an excellent idea there.

What I was thinking of was different. In rural places they wouldn't carry small kettles back and forth. They'd heat a large pot of water on the fire. Remember the water's boiling - and you only need it to be say 80F total in the tub. So you don't need a tub's worth of boiling water. You only need enough to raise the temperature to be warm.

So if you fill the tub with room temperature water, then add in a big pot of boiling water, it should equalize it all.

Have you tried that? What's the largest pot you have?

seems to me you really need a large sort of basin that you can build a fire around ...too bad you didnt have a old claw foot tub lol...that would be a hoot.

I have a large japanese style stainless steel soaking tub i got at a garage sale a few years back. I would love to set that up somehow in an outside bathhouse.

Lisa, I don't see myself lugging large hot containers of water from one part of the property to the other. I don't know. I am clutsy with water - i tend to slosh things around. Maybe I will give it a try sometime. It sounds like a lot of work to build a fire just for heating water to carry to a tub and then futz around with temps. I might do it for the purposes of experimentation and documentation, but i doubt it's reasonable for when i have a bad day and i just want to crawl into a tub and soak.

Illusive, I like the idea of setting a galvanized tub IN the fire. I need to make a separate firepit in the back though. This one is in the front yard.

I wanted to make another firepit in the back anyway, for times when I prefer privacy to views.

whoa lol not exactly IN the fire i just want to make that clear ...but rather center it and build a fire around it..geesh for a moment there i had a visual of aboringal pot of boiling wellll you figure it out rotf...thats just in case now you thought i meant actually within the fire...but as mentioned there would be no hot coals UNDER the tub...i dont want you cooking yourself...and rain water would also help to add to it..:)

Would not making a fire around the outside be just as scalding on the sides of the tub where it touches the fire?