Useful Pioneer Skills: Laundry

I was asked to do a mini-lesson on the pioneer skill of laundry-without-electricity that is helpful when the power goes out for an extended period of time. I know that most of us have so many clothes that we could go quite a long time before having to launder our clothes, but in the end this is a wonderful skill to have practiced.

I consulted one of my favorite sources for this, although the author grew up in The Depression, not pioneer times. But, when you think about it, The Depression was something of a return to old-time thrift and practicality. To put it mildly.

What's different from old-time washing and newfangled laundry practices? To be honest, it's about time and labor. With the modern labor-saving washing machine and dryer, there's not much to doing the washing. Throw the clothes and soap in, start the machine, and come back in 45 minutes to fresh-smelling, clean clothes. Toss them in the dryer, and come back in, say, an hour and your fresh-smelling clean clothes are perfectly dry and ready to be folded and put away.

Not so in the olden days. First of all, they didn't have/wear as many clothes as we have now. Often, they wore the same clothing every day for a week and used things like aprons to keep them presentable and protected from all the dust and dirt that could get on them. Men had removable/disposable collars for their shirts, or wore them without in country or in casual settings. (I just read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, which was a reminder.)

Here's another difference between then and now. When laundry day rolled around, the clothes were sorted. The whites, like underthings, were put into the huge pot of nearly boiling water first. After these were cleaned and removed, the next least-dirty linens and clothes were added to this very same hot water, until finally the men's tough and filthy overalls were the final users of the hot water. [In the olden days something similar was done with bath water, too, only going from grown-ups down the row of kids. Glad I wasn't the baby!]

So, in an emergency or crisis, we may consider using fewer articles of clothing between washings, as well as economizing on water and fuel.

Anyhow, when I got the call to give this little class, I decided to do all my kitchen linens (we use cloth napkins exclusively, as well as kitchen towels and old t-shirt pieces in lieu of paper towels) by hand in order to put my ideas on pioneer/hand laundering to the test.

There was an awesome video that I looked at that really gives wonderful, quick instruction on how to include hand-washing practices and supplies in an emergency preparedness kit.  http://54thward.blogspot.com/2013/02/doing-your-laundry-in-emergency.html There was also a great blog post from a young woman living in VietNam, where it is the usual practice to do your own laundry every few days by hand. http://www.peakprosperity.com/wsidblog/81810/doing-laundry-less

Doing Laundry by Hand

Here are the supplies you need:

• 5-gallon bucket with lid; lid has 1” hole drilled through the center
• Rubber toilet plunger (preferably clean!) with various 1” holes drilled in it
• Cleaning agent (detergent or soap) of your choice
• Water (ideally hot for wash, cold for rinse)

Here's how you do it:

Place clothing to wash in the empty 5-gallon bucket. Cover with hot water and add cleaning agent. Put plunger in and top with lid for bucket. Move plunger up and down, butter-churn style, agitating clothing for desired amount of time. [My normal washing machine time for agitating is 10 minutes.That is a LONG time!]

Empty out hot water and squeeze excess water out of each piece of clothing. There are a variety of ways to do this, including putting them through the presser of a mop bucket or wringing them out with your hands. If the clothes are really light weight you can even use something like a salad spinner. I also read and tried a method of drilling holes in yet another 5 gallon bucket and throwing the wet clothes in and squeezing out the water by sitting on a lidded bucket nested inside the holey one.

Rinse clothing by putting them in the bucket, covering them with cold water, replacing the plunger in the bucket, and replacing the lid. Agitate. You may do another rinse as well.

Again, empty out water and squeeze excess water out of clothing. Hang to dry!

Now drying is another whole thing. You can hang them on the line like Grandma did. They can be hung on hangers and lines set up in the house, which is something to think about if it's winter or you live in a rainy climate. You may have a handy drying-rack. In Little Heathens she suggests laying 2x2 pieces of wood across a couple of chairs and using them for hanging bars, and then using the wood for quilting frames when they're needed. 

  Years ago (in the 1990s) we visited a family near Bristol, England. In their kitchen was their underwear hanging on a line. Where we ate our dinner! I learned that in England and other places in Europe (but not all!)  middle-class families don't buy dryers, and that wash hanging in the kitchen is as normal as having a stove or a sink in there.

When would this skill come in handy? When could you practice the nearly-lost skill of washing clothes by hand? Anytime! Not that I want to, but my little practice with the kitchen laundry has been helpful in making me consider this topic. I am thinking that doing the laundry by hand when you're camping or something like that would be a good time to teach children and practice hanging even their beach towels on a clothesline.