Monday is Wash Day

Washing, Wilma's Way

 If you want to know more about someone – ask them “How do you peg your washing on the line?”  You just might be surprised at the response!

As you know, I prefer the term everyday culture to popular culture – mainly because it best embraces social practices that we perform all the time but rarely consider as important.  Few things are more mundane or more universal than the washing or “laundry” (USA) – everyone does it (presumably) and yet how we do it demonstrates diversity across ages, gender, culture, and personality.

Lahey's Washing Day

Many years ago, Monday used to be Wash Day.  It was the day women boiled up the copper, stirred the boiling water with thick pieces of dowling, wrung things out by hand, hauled them outside in thick wicker baskets, and hung them out to dry on lines propped up by slats of wood.  Well that’s how I am told my granny did it and that’s the image that comes to my mind. Vida Lahey’s painting of a steamy room of concrete tubs and reddened women recalls those days.  Washing technology has changed considerably in the past one hundred years—well it has for Australians at least. 

Washing frequency – once a week.  Many people wash more frequently these days.  Thanks, to modern technology, more money, and to the changed conception of “cleanliness”.  Aided by a little subtle advertising that guilts us into thinking once we wear something, we must wash it.  Pity that doesn’t carry over to shoes (my pet peeve, unpolished shoes).

Soap Operas–washing powder (detergent powder USA) is, of course, slightly younger than the washing  But oh what power it holds.  As many people know soap operas are so called because they were sponsored by soap manufacturers – shows that, by and large, have a female viewership.  Clearly laundry was a gendered thing—most soap powder advertisements are still strongly female-centric.  When humour at the very least. Though in India washermen are common.  The history of the development of laundry detergents is fascinating but even more interesting is how different countries have their favourite soap powders.  Back in the 1950s Australia sold Persil, one of the first “activated” soap powders. but while it’s disappeared from Australia, it is still a best seller in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. Online you can find expat Brits looking for their fave detergent online and recounting how they bring it back from the UK.   Tide is a best seller in the USA.  In the Soap Operas, Unilever has stopped producing their brands Persil, Skip, Via and Omo in North America. The Americans also prefer more highly fragranced detergents than some countries.  And if you want to get really eco-friendly why not try soapnuts.   Another favourite item in the Australian laundry was Reckitts blue—remember the little blue bags?  Probably the most hands on we get with our wash items is scrubbing them with pre-wash.  In fact prewash sprays are really recent inventions—wasn’t Preen the first of these in Australia? 

men do the washing, it is a cause for chaos or

machine.

Clean Machinery –the first question my mother-in-law asked before she came to visit was “do you have a washing machine?”  Owning a washing machine is the hallmark of civilisation;  in fact “every half hour 7 million people in the world wash their clothes with Unilever products, and 6 million of them do so by hand”.  From rocks on the river to washboards and paddles to coppers, then electrical items such as wringers (wringers in the UK) and now fully automated machinery.  Americans prefer top loads (horizontals in US speak) and the UK front loaders – Australia is in transition.  And yes size does matter – Japanese machines are smaller and of course more complicated – they even have cute jingles that announce the end of the wash.

Hot or cold – this has become quite a bone of contention.  Warm means a better wash, right?  But we still like warm.  I was surprised when my latest machine had only a COLD water hookup.  So that meant changing brands – another movement is the Dirt is Good marketing strategy.  The subtle message is that children as spending so much time inside that grass stains and the usual detris of outdoor playing is a thing of the past. 

The laundry room has a noticeable impact upon the architecture of our homes.  Washing is no longer performed virtually outdoors, today most laundries are inside the home. 

The Aussie Hills Hoist

Clothesline Culture – now comes one of the THE most telling things about someone.  How they deal with wet clothing.  Some people put them into the dryer. The fact that they are dry enough to go into a dryer tells how much work the washing machine does.  The dryer – a smaller lighter machine was one the provenance of the rich – it uses a fair bit of power.  For those who take their clothes outside – there is a plethora of clothes lines.  Now Australia’s Hills Hoist is an iconic backyard item and has been used to effect in moves such as Muriel’s Wedding and Strictly Ballroom.  Prior your granny probably had a clothes line that was horizontal and propped up by a piece of wood.  The prop often was bought from a travelling salesmen – what ever happened to those?  Once upon a time the backyard was a place for the clothesline and the incinerator – because of the washday rules, there was a ban on burning on a Monday—so the smoke smell wouldn’t permeate the clothes on the line. The modern yard that isn’t big enough to swing a Hills Hoist (the greatest play item in a backyard) and so came the parallel lines  

that can be let down to make more yard space.

So many different pegs

Now here comes the crucial part of the whole washing process – how do you peg your clothes? You will be surprised at how “personal” pegging clothes is.  Wooden pegs or plastic. If you have plastic, do you use the same colour on each garment;  do you use the same colour on each line?  Do you peg on the first notch or not?  Do you eschew pegs and just chuck them over the line?  

Organisation – do you put your lingerie on the inside, away from prying eyes?  Do you put all the same colours together?  So you put all the same type of garments together ie towels, jeans etc.  Do you pin shirts on bottom, on side or at shoulder?  The varieties are endless and many a fight can ensue about which is the most appropriate method.

All of these seemingly trivial things demonstrate changes in technology (plastics of the 20^th century), gender (do men peg differently? ), culture (using a dryer rather than fresh air) and economics (having someone else do your laundry).

Global Washing Culture  - We are familiar with shots of Indian women on the banks of the Ganges, but even more subtle differences exist in Western/Modern culture.  The UK preference was for Laundromats when I lived there;  the wet climate and crowded urban spaces meant inside airing cupboards and contraptions that could barely hold underwear let alone sheets and towels. In the USA, nearly everyone uses dryers – even in places where sunshine is plentiful.  They also have a whole range of ‘dryer’ sheets that make clothes smellier and softer.  (I kinda miss dryer sheets as they have a number of other uses).  Generally the USA wash involves larger loads, more products and dryers. For the rest of the world, the variety of ways to wash and hang clothes are plentiful.  For some great images visit this site.  I would love to write a book about washing culture -- there is a book Fine Lines that celebrates the washing line.  

Italian Style

Don't even get me started on Ironing.

Laundry Trivia

It was the primary household responsibility of 76% of women and 24% of men in a 2007 Whirlpool survey of 2,500 consumers; some 78% of those surveyed do approximately nine loads of laundry each week. The equivalent of 1,100 washloads are started every second of every day, P&G  claims.

The largest outdoor laundry, Dhobi Ghat, can be found in Mumbai, India. Dhobis (washer men) and their families start their business early in the morning. The laundries are row upon row of concrete wash pens each with its own flogging stone. The clothes are dipped in lathery water, then hammered on the flogging stones and then dried on clotheslines. The next day, the clothes are neatly pressed and delivered to the respective owners. The dhobis are specialized in laundry only. They have agents who gather and deliver the clothes to customers.

If you dream that you are doing your laundry, it suggests that you are cleaning up your act or changing your image because you are concerned about how you appear to others. If you dream that you are having someone else do your laundry, you've been gossiping. Someone's dirty laundry is out there. If you dream about sorting the laundry, it indicates that you are trying to understand your own feelings and sorting out your attitudes.

The Thor was the first electric-powered washing machine. Introduced in 1908 by the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago, Illinois, the Thor washing machine was invented Alva J. Fisher. The Thor was a drum type washing machine with a galvanized tub and an electric motor. A patent was issued on August 9th 1910.

For more information on the history of laundry please visit

http://www.oldandinteresting.com/history-of-laundry.aspx