Featured Image Credit: YouTube/@KiunB
Simple everyday tasks like showering and doing laundry are things that we don’t even think about.
But for people living in the coldest inhabited place on Earth, those mundane jobs aren’t quite so easy.
In fact, they can sometimes take up the whole day.
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A video posted on YouTube demonstrates the incredible effort it takes to have a shower in the chilliest spot to live in the world.
The village can be found in Yakutia, Siberia, where a man named Stanislav lives with his family.
The video, which was uploaded by Kiun, explains how locals “dedicate their weekends to doing laundry and washing in their wooden bath house, the only option for maintaining personal hygiene in a region without running water”.
Kiun describes how, to get the bath to the right temperature, Stanislav and his son “must start heating it well in advance”.
The bath houses in the village are heated using wood burning stoves which can take up to five hours and a lot of wood to warm up.
Kiun continued: “Because it takes so long, the locals will usually shower only once or twice a week.”
As the bath house slowly heats up, the father and son gather snow from the garden for both washing and laundry.
Every Sunday, the family wash their clothes before taking turns to shower in the bath house.
Afterwards, Kiun explains that the clothes are hung outside “to dry in the freezing winter air.
“This is a traditional method that helps to kill any remaining germs.”
The bath house acts as a steam room where the temperature can reach around 158 degrees fahrenheit (70 degrees celsius).
This is much warmer than outside, which in the evening drops to minus 58 degrees fahrenheit (minus 50 degrees celsius).
Viewers took to the YouTube comment section to share their reactions, with one user writing: “This is one of those videos where you realize you probably couldn't do this longer than a week. Lots of respect for these people.”
Another said: “I would never have enough mental strength for this lifestyle. These people are truly inspiring to me.”
And a third added: “There are days I feel lazy to take a shower, even though it’s so easy for me. Just hop in the shower tub and turn on the warm water and that’s it. It’s the same doing laundry.
“I don’t think I could survive that harsh lifestyle for long.”
