Washing clothes in the 50s

Washing day was often on a Monday and it very often took most of the day. Many people had to hand wash, often using a washboard, or use a boiler (which basically heated the water into which the clothes and soap were put, and which required hand stirring of the washing); the washing machines then were not like those of today - they were basically water heaters which had the addition of some sort of water agitation system; they were top loading and did not spin dry; some had hand operated wringers at the top into which washing was fed and when the wringer handle was turned (by hand), water fell back into the washing machine - buttons were often broken; people who did not have these luxurious modern machines probably had a mangle, which was a large free standing thing, powered by turning a handle and which accepted hand fed washing into a pair of large rubber rollers.  I think it was towards the end of the 50s that some people had twin tub machines which featured not only the washing machine part but another top fed section which had a spinning drum (powered by an eclectic motor) on the inside; washing had to be lifted from the washing machine section, probably using wooden tongues, into the spin drier section and later, the washing had to be peeled from the inside of the drum to be hung out.  Tumle Dryers? NO. Some lucky people had a drying cabinet which was basically a large metal box with a heating element at the bottom and some hanging rods at the top. Although some washing powders were available (not bio and not with built in softeners), many people did still used washing soap, such as Fairy or Sunlight, which was vigorously rubbed into the item; to bring extra whiteness, Reckitts blue, or dolly blue, was often used. Housewives (and it was almost always women who did the washing then) often developed 'washerwoman hands' on a Monday. Washing had to be pegged on a line - usually using dolly pegs - as there were no rotary washing lines. The joys or ironing will be covered in another post.