Laundry – Then and now

When you separate your wash and head for the laundry room, think about your ancestors. 

beating clothing to clean

Clothing had to be treated for spots and stains with bleach soaking before each piece was scrubbed against a ribbed board using lye soap.  This is followed by boiling vats, where the garments, sheets, linens, etc. were stirred with wood paddles, then moved to a second vat, this one of rinse water.  The wash load is stirred and left to soak to remove the soap.  They were then wrung out by hand, and thrown over bushes, tree branches, or if the laundress was lucky enough to have a rope and place to tie it off, a close line. 

flat irons

AND she’s not done.  When the garments were dry, she had to dampen each item that needed ironed, and twist them in a tight ball.  Ironing was no picnic either.  The “iron” used was a cast item that was heated on the wood burning stove, and held using a towel, or flour bag to keep from burning the ironer’s hand.  AND everything was ironed.  Sheets, pillow covers, linens, handkerchiefs, as well as clothing. 

It’s no wonder the nineteenth century women didn’t wash clothing often.  They hung their worn garments out to air for a day or two, and put sprigs of dried flowers and spices in their wardrobes, and carried pretty linen handkerchiefs soaked in scent to ward off the onsent of body odor.

I can remember helping with the wash as a pre-teen.  The wash tub was partially filled with cold water, and water heated on the stove was added.  I think we used Ivory laundry soap, I can remember the fine slippery flakes.  Items to be washed were added and I don’t quite remember if there was an automatic agitator or not, I think there was.  My job was to feed the items thought the wringer, and it was automatic, I caught my hand in it several times.  The cleaned wash was dropped into a tub of cold water on the other side, THEN it was again wrung out, and put into baskets to be hung on clothes lines in the back yard, with clothes pins to hold everything in place.  At this time, we had a baby in the house so much of the wash was diapers (no disposables back then).  Each step in the wash cycle was timed but by my mother, not an automatic timer.

Today I take the wash to the machine, load it, add the liquid soap and Borax (yes I still use it), make sure the settings are for cold wash and rinse, set the timer and type of load and I’m done until the time is up and I can move the damp (was spun in the washer after rinsing) clothing into the drier, set the timer and temperature, throw in a drier sheet, and load a new wash load, before going back to my other chores until the machine buzzing alerts me that its done. 

I often wonder when women of that earlier age had time to do anything other than laundry.  And some did wash for others in their home to earn money.  And remember they had to bake their bread, churn their butter, and everything was cooked, baked, and even canned from the things they grew themselves or bought at markets from others.  I’m guessing that you learned to appreciate what you had when you had to work so hard to prepare it.  And we didn’t even touch on making clothing, stitching linens or quilting blankets.