YouLookFab Forum » Topic: Laundry in the 1930s & 40s

YouLookFab Forum » Topic: Laundry in the 1930s & 40s https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Tue, 05 May 2026 00:39:36 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php rachylou on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s/page/2#post-1250685 Tue, 13 May 2014 18:05:01 +0000 rachylou 1250685@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Thx, Angie. It just fascinates me how different things were, but how modern it all must have felt at the time. Thistle - No water heater in the '30s/'40s sounds unbelievable to me; but then again there was sharecropping right up into the '60s, yes? And now we're talking tankless water heaters... E - Do you know how far rags were transported for paper? Or if there was a local papermill everywhere? ladywone - I thought it was very cool of my uncle to take it upon himself to do the drawing. When I saw the drawing it made me think of a lot of other things. Like, what sort of flooring did they have? The materials of the era. (Linoleum, wood, concrete, btw :)) retailgirl - You know what a mangle is?! I saw that word on the drawing and haven't a clue. My mum described what my grandma did where the 'mangle' is, but she didn't use the word. Now I'm unclear... jackie - I'm tempted to do laundry like your son. My complicated system has gotten out of hand... ;) Karie - It would be so interesting to hear what your husband's family has to say. You know, I do believe while I was growing up and heard folks talk about my grandparent's "laundry" - I do believe I thought they meant dry cleaners. But no, we're talking regular laundry. Bachelors, my mum said, would bring in all their laundry. Like their dirty socks. I cannot imagine anyone else touching my socks. Even sort of freaks me out. Lol. Runcarla - Yes! Shoe polishing! My dad always polished his shoes. He had a whole box with a little stand to put the shoe on. I remember him instructing me when I was little. I thought the box was fascinating. The rag, the polish, the brush... All the different colour polishes. Now they have those funny little bottles with the sponge at the end, but I think most people just toss their shoes and get a new pair, I swear... Angie on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s/page/2#post-1250029 Tue, 13 May 2014 00:31:20 +0000 Angie 1250029@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Late to the party, but that was really interesting. Thanks, Rachy. xo dustt on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s/page/2#post-1250028 Tue, 13 May 2014 00:28:43 +0000 dustt 1250028@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Carla - We were iron allowance twins!! Glad to hear I wasn't the only one ironing pillowcases and tea towels!! Carla on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s/page/2#post-1250022 Tue, 13 May 2014 00:21:32 +0000 Carla 1250022@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Ironing was my family chore in a family of 6 and shifted over pretty quickly when my mom returned to the workforce when I was 9. We had cloth table clothes and napkins, pillow cases, and tea towels, as well as shirts, some cotton trousers cotton dresses. I ironed DH's flannel shirts (no starch) when we were first married, and his Oxford and cotton shirts, and chinos later on. About 25 years ago he showed interest and I taught him how to iron his clothes. He has been doing all the ironing since (including mine). He waits for 2 weeks accumulation and then during a football games sets up the ironing board and iron and goes to work! I still do all the mending, or anything related to sewing such as hemming or buttons. Another lost art is caring for footwear. Polishing shoes or boots and brushing out suede seems a lost art. I was paid 10 cents a shoe to polish my dad's and mom's shoes! One use for rags was for the production of high quality paper. A high 'rag content' could be found in good quality writing paper or artists paper and the kind of paper you would use for card stock, or some books. Dollar bills also contained a high rag content, until the newfangled high tech synthetics. FWIW, security controls can be embedded into the new synthetic bills vs printed onto the older paper/rag bills where security features were printed on top. Thus reducing chances for counterfeit. Karie on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s/page/2#post-1249963 Mon, 12 May 2014 23:05:26 +0000 Karie 1249963@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Fascinating! My husband's family owns a laundromat. I will have to print this out and share it with them, as so much has changed! jackiec on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s/page/2#post-1249949 Mon, 12 May 2014 22:52:26 +0000 jackiec 1249949@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Fascinating! Thank you for sharing. I think we tend to take it all for granted these days. One of my sons literally throws every article of clothing in the laundry whether it's dirty or clean, even if he just tried it on for 2 minutes. He changes his undies a million times a day (not necessary). We could take a page from history to learn how to conserve water and energy these days. retailgirl on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1249945 Mon, 12 May 2014 22:47:35 +0000 retailgirl 1249945@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Fascinating! I grew up in the 50's and I know we had a washer but no dryer. My mother sent sheets and towels out to be done. I had a friend whose father was a doctor, (so they were considered wealthy) and they had a housekeeper who came every day. She had a wash day and would iron sheets with a mangle. We were intrigued. When I was in jr. High and wanted oxford button down shirts, (like the college girls wore with heir Shetland sweaters) my mOther taught me how to iron them. I still love to iron my shirts...I have some that are non-iron, Brooks Brothers, and I love them but there is nothing like a nice clean ironed shirt. And no starch, nice fabric doesn't need it and it wears the collars and cuffs out. Ledonna N. on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1249926 Mon, 12 May 2014 22:35:56 +0000 Ledonna N. 1249926@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Rachylou, thanks for sharing this I love history but, I realize that a lot of interesting history is not found in the books. I appreciate learning the history of different cultures. Thus was truly a great read and the diagram was an added bonus. E on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1249916 Mon, 12 May 2014 22:25:32 +0000 E 1249916@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Rag collecting was its own industry! So the rag collecting businesses would then sell to the mills. :) Thistle on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1249883 Mon, 12 May 2014 21:33:22 +0000 Thistle 1249883@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Fascinating!  Makes you really think how much things have changed. And no, I would not consider a hot water heater optional!! rachylou on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1249725 Mon, 12 May 2014 17:45:56 +0000 rachylou 1249725@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I'm back :) Diane, abc, Windchime, deb, Lyn D., MRL - Thanks! I thought it was fascinating. And one day soon, someone will be asking me what a CD is, like I asked how to starch... Lol. shiny - I'd love to read your grandmothers' stories! Coming out in a covered wagon seemed cool watching Little House and crazy now that I think about it. Did you see that Michelle Williams movie? Where everything is shot from under a sunbonnet? I haven't, but I want to. JAileen - Class in America is so complicated. I wonder if they were trying to help the woman who came in or if it was vanity - because my knee-jerk reaction is, yeah, that's appalling. dustt - That's sounds cool - ironing for your allowance. I washed the dishes and made Monday dinner and cleaned (like vacuuming and dusting). My mother had no use for ironing... ironically, hehe. E - Oh, you're right. I forgot about the paper mills. Someone mentioned it to me once. But now I wonder at the logistics, if there was a paper mill nearby. Very interesting that you made laundry starch from corn starch. I'd like to read about that! Joy - So so interesting. And your mum did the starching. I'm curious if you had a big backyard? My mum grew up in the crowded city-city. Now I wonder exactly how all those housewives did any laundry at all. Esp. those in apartments. Gigi - The washing machine has been a huge labor-savor. But I don't suppose it's been one of the death knells of the home as a center of life and a place of economic activity. First men left off working at home for factory work. Next women. Now we have the issue of dead, empty bedroom communities. Zibbets - That's cool your mom remembers too :) Caro - You reminded me. My mum's parent's did a lot of sheets too, because they were so bulky and hard to do. elpgal - For some reason that sounds so neat, the iron-wallah coming around. rabbit - I wonder if the smaller buckets because they changed the water more? To be honest, I know a fair number of people who are grossed about the way Americans wash things in *dirty* water. Like our two tub dishwashing system, where we rinse in standing water basically. fuzzy - Do they teach you that in the Air Force? I'll tell you, my dad learned it at boarding school. Well, the ironing anyways! fuzzylogic on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1249267 Mon, 12 May 2014 06:15:13 +0000 fuzzylogic 1249267@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ How interesting! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, everyone! We used 'blue bags' for the whites in the early 1980's. My grandmother used a 'copper' over an open fire to wash. I remember my Home Economics teacher telling me it should only take five minutes to iron a shirt, but I am far too obsessive..... :-) I like a nice crisp shirt- an ex Air Force officer told me they wash/dip (?) in starch and iron on a hard surface. rabbit on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1249257 Mon, 12 May 2014 06:00:41 +0000 rabbit 1249257@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Thanks for sharing, the history is fascinating.   My uncle's family (first generation Italian) ran a laundry and they used bluing, but I'm not sure how they handled the starch. I lived in India but only for a year and a half.   We were in a village and either washed our traditional clothes in small buckets (I'm not sure why there weren't tubs, that would have been easier) and hung them up to dry on lines strung on the covered roof or brought them to the dhobi and asked for light starch.  They came back ironed and pristine, although before I specified about the starch they sometimes were pretty crispy, which would make the dupattas (scarfs) hang very straight and architecturally precise, but wasn't so comfortable as I wasn't used to it.  Of course without any starch I'd look a rumpled mess by the end of the day, so I tried to ease into it so as not to embarrass anyone. :) elpgal on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1249252 Mon, 12 May 2014 05:35:48 +0000 elpgal 1249252@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Thanks for sharing. I lived in India till I finished college. I wore a lot of hand loomed clothes with embroidery and washed my clothes using the three-tub methods with blueing for the the whites Joy described. I would starch them myself and shade dry them. On Sundays, the iron-wallah used to come to our campus with coal-filled iron on a cart and by the end of they day, I had a nice stack of starched and ironed clothes to wear for the week. The non-starched items, I used to iron myself on Sunday night. Caro in Oz on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248939 Sun, 11 May 2014 23:42:58 +0000 Caro in Oz 1248939@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ My grandmother didn't have a washing machine or fridge until the 1960s. She had a washboard & a wringer & used to wash sheets & towels & my grandfathers shirts every Monday - it did take all day :)  Zibbets on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248919 Sun, 11 May 2014 23:16:43 +0000 Zibbets 1248919@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Wow! Fascinating! I love Shiny and Joy's stories too. Rachylou, my mom who was born in 1941 remembers the man who came up the street shouting "Paper-rags! Paper-rags!" She walked to school with a boy who was a bit of a rascal and would bait the man, yelling, "What do you feed your wife for dinner?" To which the man would reply, "Paper-rags!" She doesn't know what they did with the paper or rags they collected either. Twelve shirts in an hour? That's a shirt every 5 minutes! MRL on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248902 Sun, 11 May 2014 22:57:27 +0000 MRL 1248902@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Fascinating, ranchylou. Thanks for sharing. Lyn D. on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248888 Sun, 11 May 2014 22:45:38 +0000 Lyn D. 1248888@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Very interesting reading! My Mum also had a 'washing day' each week- probably a left-over practice from the much harder work her Mum and Grandmother had to do. Anonymous on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248858 Sun, 11 May 2014 22:13:30 +0000 Anonymous 1248858@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ This brought back lots of childhood memories. My dad was a teacher and wore white starched and ironed shirts every day but Saturday with a suit and tie. Wash day was a lot of work. We had three big wash tubs. The hot soapy water was in the first, second was a warm rinse and third was a cold rinse. White shirts were always first when the water was most clean. Until we got a wringer (two rollers with a crank to turn them), Mom wrung things out by hand after each tub. (and I never heard anyone say they had carpal tunnel, but it must have been painful). Then the white shirts had to go into a tub of water with " bluing" to get them white, wrung out again and then put into the starch tub. They were hung in the sun to bleach even more. In fact sometimes they went into a bleach water tub before washing. The wash water looked pretty grey by the time the dark colors got washed. My grandparents only had water from a pump, so tubs had to be hauled outside in the yard and water heated on a cob-burning stove. This was normal procedure in those days. Gigi on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248850 Sun, 11 May 2014 21:41:35 +0000 Gigi 1248850@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Fascinating, Rachy! I am like the other commenters in that I love social history and learning about how everyday tasks were done way back when. I remember hearing that the term "laundry day" or "wash day" arose because it literally was an entire-day project back before electricity. And as to having less clothes, I have an elderly friend who said that she had to stay home from school on wash day as a little girl because she literally had only one dress, and it had to be washed. She couldn't very well show up at school naked! I also remember reading that there were a lot of childhood deaths from the boiling water used to wash the clothes. It's amazing that nowadays, you don't really have to think twice about doing laundry. You can just throw in the clothes and some detergent and let the machine do its thing. I consider a washing machine one of the most amazing labor-saving devices we have today.  deb on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248846 Sun, 11 May 2014 21:36:58 +0000 deb 1248846@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ So interesting. E on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248811 Sun, 11 May 2014 20:42:00 +0000 E 1248811@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Very interesting! Thnx for taking the time to share; I love this kind of social history. Several of the books I read describes the laundry process, and really for most of history textile/clothing care (both creating and laundering) was one of the most time/effort absorbing aspects of (Western at least) women's lives. It makes me appreciate my clothes and my front loading washer so much more! I actually did laundry by hand when I studied abroad in Russia, and it made me loathe my jeans. So heavy when wet, such an effort to scrub/wring them, and then they took ages to dry. Good thing they don't have to be washed too frequently! Also, when I was 12, I crocheted sets of Christmas ornaments for all of my family (I have quite a few uncles & aunts). After they were crocheted, I needed to starch them so they'd look right, but I had no clue you could buy starch. I was crocheting from vintage books & patterns and one included a recipe for making laundry starch out of corn starch, so I boiled it up (quite easy) and used it; 15 years later my mom's ornaments are still holding up nicely! Fyi, the rags were most likely sold to paper mills (if you're really curious, read Waste Not, Want Not: a Social History of Trash, which focused a lot on rags). rachylou on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248805 Sun, 11 May 2014 20:35:52 +0000 rachylou 1248805@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I'm off to work, but a quick one :D  April... They had electric irons. I'll have to ask if they were wired from overhead. They also had a press. My dad, his family had a hardware - and they, however, sold irons that took coals. Right up until the '90s! (But that was in Jamaica). April on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248778 Sun, 11 May 2014 20:03:28 +0000 April 1248778@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I wish someone had (ever) taught me to iron!  Once I get above things like square cloth napkins, I'm in over my head.   I have a fascination for the history of domestic tasks, and laundry was certainly an unimaginable chore in the days of no hot water and no washing machine.  Those people must have been *strong* -- it's no small thing to lift sopping wet towels and sheets, as I discovered when my last washer died while full of both water and towels... How did they heat the irons Rachy?  Did they have electricity (usually one outlet in the middle of the ceiling) or were these the kinds of irons that had coals heaped inside an iron chamber? dustt on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248769 Sun, 11 May 2014 19:52:04 +0000 dustt 1248769@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Rachy - that is so cool!! - I have a love of laundry that runs deep from my Grandmother & mother.  It was a real sense of pride to them to get the whites WHITE, be able to get out any manor of stain, and to be an accomplish ironer!! - My Grandmother taught me to iron starting at about age 6 and by 11-12 that was how I made my allowance at home - $5 per basket of laundry that needed ironing - which at my house was a cash cow - as my mother insisted on even ironing the pillow cases and top sheets!! I was fascinated to hear about the Starch process too!! - I only learned how to dunk the whole darn thing - and learned the hard way that you can very literally scorch & burn a starched shirt!! - thanks so much for sharing!! Windchime on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248762 Sun, 11 May 2014 19:30:11 +0000 Windchime 1248762@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I enjoyed reading your memories about your mother's family, especially on Mother's Day. The world was a different place then, wasn't it? I can appreciate the attention to detail then, while being grateful for modern-day conveniences. I cannot imagine ironing twelve shirts in an hour! Three or four is my limit. abc on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248754 Sun, 11 May 2014 19:21:09 +0000 abc 1248754@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ So fascinating. Thanks for sharing. Anonymous on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248751 Sun, 11 May 2014 19:17:58 +0000 Anonymous 1248751@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ This is so interesting. Thanks Rachy. JAileen on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248748 Sun, 11 May 2014 19:14:05 +0000 JAileen 1248748@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ My mother, nearly 90, told me of the family next door when she was growing up. The family had four or five daughters. They had a woman come in every day and iron a fresh dress for each of the girls and the mother. This was considered the height of extravagance for the middle of the Depression. My mother said the family was not well liked in town for many reasons, this show-off behavior being one of them. shiny on "Laundry in the 1930s & 40s" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/laundry-in-the-1930s-40s#post-1248721 Sun, 11 May 2014 18:00:41 +0000 shiny 1248721@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Rachy, thanks for sharing - it is fascinating. I love this historical stuff.  My great grandmother ran a boarding house in the 30s, while her husband was  far away working on the railroad. In her later years, she wrote a book about her experiences growing up on the prairie (Oklahoma territory), which is quite fascinating. There's a whole chapter about the ice house and how that worked. Our house was built in 1905, the original closets had pegs, not rods -- in fact, the closet is not deep enough to hang clothes from a rod. People had less clothes, wore them more often, and washed them less frequently. There was a "wash day" set aside for that.  It was even worse for my great-great-great grandmother, who's diary is featured in a book, she wrote about her travels on the Oregon trail in a covered wagon during the gold rush. Wash days on the trail were quite the production. Had to catch a sunny day, some place safe to camp, so women could wash and bake, while the men hunted and watched out for attacking indians.   Flash to the 40s and I also have a diary, one I found at a yard sale, from a young lady who wrote about her college experiences during the war. She also writes about wash days, which happened once a week.