Washday back when
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (339930)
Rockingham, Australia
October 21, 2017 7:03pm CST
Another interesting relic we found while cleaning out our mother’s house was this old washboard. Many may have seen this used in musical groups. Its original use was as an aid in washing clothes. Soiled garments would be scrubbed over the corrugations on the glass ‘board’.
Where do you do your laundry? Many Australian houses have a designated ‘laundry’ which might contain a washing machine and sometimes a dryer. Apart from inner city areas, most households would have an outside line for drying as our climate means you don’t need a dryer too often.
In Ireland it seemed most washers and dryers were in the kitchen and in our friend’s new unit in downtown Fremantle there is a washing machine secreted in a cupboard in the largish hallway.
18 people like this
15 responses
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Oct 17
If there is a breeze the clothes dry very quickly.
@andriaperry (116936)
• Anniston, Alabama
22 Oct 17
I have a laundry room. washer and dryer. I also have a clothes line to hang when its hot outside
3 people like this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Oct 17
Almost all my drying is done outside on the line.
. I remember being fascinated by all that wringing she did by hand. Yah, it's a lot of work!@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Oct 17
Hand-washing was heavy work. Mum would boil the sheets in a copper. She had a short, strong poker to lift the sheets out of the hot water. She used to wring the clothes by hand until she got a wringer. It was very hard work and there would be four or five loads each wash day.
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
22 Oct 17
My mother had one and I recall seeing her use it. I had no idea the board itself was glass. My daughter's stackable washer and dryer is in her kitchen in her older house. Ours is in the "laundry" room by the back door.
2 people like this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
22 Oct 17
Back in the day (when I was 11), I remember very well doing the laundry in a large washtub using the washboard @JudyEv . Today I have a washer & dryer but I have to sit on the washer when it hits the spin cycle to keep it from moving across the floor. One of the stabilizer rods is broken.
2 people like this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
23 Oct 17
@JudyEv It's kinda like a work-out machine. Just sit on it and your body weight just gets jiggled off.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
24 Oct 17
@nanette64 You have a great attitude towards clothes spinning! 
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
23 Oct 17
Haha. Love the image of you sitting on the washing machine. I used to say ours was coming down the passage to watch TV as it used to get a bit of a rock up from time to time. It would tie up your time more having to be around when it hits spin.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109846)
• Los Angeles, California
22 Oct 17
I go to the laundrimate.
2 people like this
@snowy22315 (180674)
• United States
22 Oct 17
Hmm, I don;t even think my grandmothers had a washboard. I think they may have had a wringer washer though. Washer and dryer are used here in most communites..Some of the rural areas may still use clothes lines.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
23 Oct 17
In Australia, it seems a shame not to take advantage of the sunshine unless you don't have room for a clothes-line. At school we were always taught that hanging clothes in the sun helped kill any bugs or germs.
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
26 Oct 17
I remember the washboard so well on wash day in the
U .K.as a child. My mother used this to scrub the sheets and towels. The white sheets were then.rinsed and put into a gas boiler to boil. Then they were rinsed again in cold water. The items were then fed through a wringer yo get out the excess water before being put out to dry. What a hard life she had. This was post war. Yes I am very old! ??
1 person likes this
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
27 Oct 17
@JudyEv Very hard manual work! We forget how hard women laboured for their families. Thank God those days are over for many women all over the world.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
27 Oct 17
@cynthiann And no wonder many women with families never went out to work.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
22 Oct 17
I have seen women using these washboards when I was young. There were public washing places near rivers, and they were still used until the end of the 60's/beginning of the 70's. I think it is forbidden now, because of detergents, but these places are kept and maintained.
I have no dryer. I dry the clothes in my garden where there is a covered place for that. It quite never freezes here, so it is alright most of the year, and is better than a dryer for clothes.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
4 Feb 18
They were quite effective weren't they? Or seemed to be.
@LadyDuck (471500)
• Switzerland
23 Oct 17
@JudyEv Even in the past in Italy and here in Switzerland we used wooden ones. Of course I use it, to wash rugs and small things. I do not use a brush, but this is very useful even to wash small delicate things, to apply the soap before washing.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
23 Oct 17
I'm sure I've heard of a dolly but I've forgotten what it was. Can you remind me please? Even the mangle would have saved a lot of hand-wringing.
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
23 Oct 17
in spain they are inbthe kitchen or a little room just off the kitchen as most of the housing in spain is flats.. but like youcwe have a good climate so not many people have dryers...
1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43418)
• Denver, Colorado
24 Oct 17
We were living across the street from a Laundromat. Now the laundry room is just on the second floor.
1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43418)
• Denver, Colorado
24 Oct 17
@JudyEv - I think I've probably only lived in five houses that had washer and dryer. I've almost always lived in apartments.
1 person likes this
@peachpurple (13962)
• Malaysia
22 Oct 17
oh that wash plank reminds me of my mom, I used to wash clothes with that
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Oct 17
Washing clothes has advanced quite a lot hasn't it?
