Grand washing is akin to a feat - Like washing in the village

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Modern housewives, especially young girls, may not understand what it means to boil white things and why do it at all. But if we go back a couple of decades, we will find out that this is the most effective option to return whiteness to white things and get rid of stains.

In the last century, washing was not an easy task.

Well, if you think about it carefully, then the whole process of washing in the last century is generally incomprehensible to us, modern people with automatic washing machines. This is hard work for us. Imagine how the village women coped with this activity. The big wash of that time can only be compared with a quest.

The very first thing that needs to be done before starting the wash is to bring water from the lake, if it is nearby, or from the well. I had to walk several times. Our grandmothers believed that rainwater was the best water for this purpose. Soap was good in it, and it is also "soft". At the second stage of preparation, the water was heated. In most cases, they did it on the stove in the bathhouse. Sometimes they used boilers, but it was not always safe, and a lot of electricity was wasted.

Further, the procedure is familiar - the analysis of clothes by color and degree of pollution. The dirtier clothes were first soaked, sometimes with the addition of lye in warm water.

At a certain time, lye was considered an excellent detergent, and it was a universal tool. It was used not only during washing, but also during bathing - they washed their hair and body. They made it from ordinary ash from the stove. Manufacturing methods were different: cold and hot. Liquid lye was made in a cold way. Half a bucket of water was filled with plain cold water and then this mixture was left for three days. After the soapy water had settled, it was drained and then washed in it.

The hot method was used to thicken the lye. The ash, flooded with water, was boiled, then filtered and then evaporated. As a result, there remained a substance similar in consistency to our liquid soap. The remedy was very concentrated and powerful. If you use it carelessly, you could even get burned.

They also washed them with inexpensive household soap. Many people still remember large pieces of brown soap with a not very pleasant smell. Absolutely every hostess had them. This soap was used to rub clothes, especially heavily soiled ones, or to replace washing powder with grated shavings.

After soaking, washing began. This was done either by hand or on special boards. There used to be such ribbed special devices that many will remember today. If the wash was small, then it was very convenient. Well, when there are a lot of things, then often the knuckles on the fingers were erased to the point of blood.

There were also options for washing clothes with your feet. Things were soaked in a tub of tin, and then they began to be trampled underfoot. There is such a word "washerwoman". So it is derived from "praet", which means "to trample" in translation.

After washing, the laundry needs to be spinned. We did it manually too. Naturally, a lot of strength was required. In some cases, one hostess could not cope with the task, and then she asked for help. We squeezed out one thing, for example, bed linen together.

Often, white things turned gray or yellowed, so they had to be bleached, and this was done by boiling. The smell during this procedure was not the most pleasant, and the steam was usually almost like in a steam room.

Rinsing laundry is a separate topic. To do this, they went to a lake or river. The weather didn't matter. Even in the ice-hole, the villagers rinsed their clothes after washing. It's scary to think how you can rinse something in ice water for a long enough time, but it really was. Old white things were sometimes still rinsed in water, to which blue was added. The purpose of this action was to make them look fresher and not show yellowness.

The textiles were repeatedly wrung out and hung on the street on the ropes. To prevent them from flying away from a gust of wind, they were fixed with clothespins. Then they were exclusively wooden. Over time, the springs on them rusted and these characteristic marks remained on the washed laundry.

Even in winter, things were hung out on the street, where they froze and became like sheets. So they could dry for a week, and when they were brought into the house, they also dried up there. But the aroma was fresh and unique. If you imagine this whole picture, it becomes clear why adults scolded children for dirty things. The grandiose washing at that time was akin to a feat.