How Did They Do It?

[NoirDame]

Since I'm currently between jobs (a recent development) and working full-time left the house a far cry from orderly, I've started doing housework around here as my 'temporary job'. I am bushed.

How did they cook, clean, do laundry and everything else? I'd love to find some old resources on time management and housekeeping!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Since I'm currently between jobs (a recent development) and working full-time left the house a far cry from orderly, I've started doing housework around here as my 'temporary job'. I am bushed.

How did they cook, clean, do laundry and everything else? I'd love to find some old resources on time management and housekeeping!

Time management was the key -- generally the mornings would be spent doing the most routine chores like making beds, sweeping the kitchen floor, putting things away, and the afternoons would be devoted to specific tasks: Monday, you'd do the washing, Tuesday you might do ironing, Wednesday you might do vacuuming, Thursday you might do whatever heavy cleaning that needed to be done, and Friday you'd do the grocery shopping. In the evenings, you'd do the mending, perhaps while listening to the radio.

Cooking was simplified by the use of leftovers -- there wasn't a housewife going who didn't stretch the menu a couple times a week by making hash or some sort of casserole out of the leavings of a previous meal.

If you look thru the women's magazines of the day, or old home-ec textbooks, you'll find tons of ideas on how to save time. But the key was always not to do every chore every day!

 

[Paisley]

But the key was always not to do every chore every day!

How true! (Umm, not that I was doing every chore every day.) I recently started a housework schedule where I just do a few things every night. It works out to about 30 minutes of housework or shopping a day. Much easier than pushing everything to Saturday!

 

[Miss Neecerie]

The 'modern' equivalent of this idea is the Fly Lady zone system...

 

[NoirDame]

Time management was the key
If you look thru the women's magazines of the day, or old home-ec textbooks, you'll find tons of ideas on how to save time. But the key was always not to do every chore every day!

Ah, I knew I could count on you, Lizzie. That is my problem..trying to do it all at once! Today I am washing sheets and blankets and dishes and wiping down counters and straightening bookshelves...ok, I am making myself tired reliving it!

 

[Chas]

I think that there were less distractions. Internet, gadgets and so on. My mother was the quintessential 50's housewife; we always had what we needed when we needed it.

I really admired her for that. She was also a very social person, so I have no doubt that if she had internet and whatnot in her era, she probably would have had to find the discipline to stay on track.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

It was also grueling work, especially for the working poor.

My grandmother scrubbed clothes for a husband and nine children, she had an old washtub and scrub board. When she was in her 60's, the family finally pitched in and got her a washing machine (wringer) so her task was easier. Her "dryer" was a clothes line. She did not have a vaccuum cleaner, just a broom for the floors and a rug beater.

Her children also helped her with chores -- cooking, gardening, cleaning, feeding chickens, housework.

They had an outdoor toilet and radio, but no telephone or TV, no automatic anything, plus they had an old black wood-burning stove. By the time I was born, they had a toaster, had to stand on a chair to plug it in to the light fixture on the ceiling.

They had to heat big tubs of water on the stove so they could take their Saturday night baths.

I am not talking about turn of the century people, this was during the 20's, the 30's and even early 40's.

karol

 

[LizzieMaine]

Exactly. The apartment where we lived when I was born didn't have hot water, and baths had to be taken from water heated on the stove -- and this was in the early sixties. Depending on your income, the life of a housewife could be very very rough indeed.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

It all comes down to one of my favorite sayings:

"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

(Just call me Charlie Chan)

 

[dhermann1]

If it's ever shown again, check out "1900 House" on PBS. The BBC did it in 1999. They took a middle class British family and let them live a la 1900 for 3 months. The mother and daughters took all Monday every week to wash clothes, all by hand. They had a maid of all work who worked like a dog, till she quit. They had a crude coal stove (the latest thing in 1900). Fascinating.

 

[RetroBabydoll]

This site might be useful.

http://www.retro-housewife.com/retro-monday.html

or even this book.....
http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Housewi...d_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201292471&sr=8-3

 

[Sweet Leilani]

Ah, I knew I could count on you, Lizzie. That is my problem..trying to do it all at once! Today I am washing sheets and blankets and dishes and wiping down counters and straightening bookshelves...ok, I am making myself tired reliving it!

And for the truly authintic experience, try adding a child (or two or three)!

I think its important to note the difference betwen "trying to do it all at once" and just regular maintenance. Sure, things like straightening closets & bookshelves need to be done, but probably not every week. I know I try to just keep up with what's necessary for weekly cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. but there are days where the whole family gets involved and straightens up the basement, the garage, etc. that wouldn't normally be part of the job.

I also find that doing one load of laundry every day (instead of all at once) makes that job more manageable. And like Lizzie said, us modern housewives still find ways to stretch our food budget with casseroles, stews, etc. from leftovers.

But I'm still amazed at how women used to scrub clothes with a washboard and cook over an open hearth or coal stove regularly. I don't envy that part of the "Golden Era" one bit!

 

[Brinybay]

It was also grueling work, especially for the working poor.

My grandmother scrubbed clothes for a husband and nine children, she had an old washtub and scrub board. When she was in her 60's, the family finally pitched in and got her a washing machine (wringer) so her task was easier. Her "dryer" was a clothes line. She did not have a vaccuum cleaner, just a broom for the floors and a rug beater.

Her children also helped her with chores -- cooking, gardening, cleaning, feeding chickens, housework.

They had an outdoor toilet and radio, but no telephone or TV, no automatic anything, plus they had an old black wood-burning stove. By the time I was born, they had a toaster, had to stand on a chair to plug it in to the light fixture on the ceiling.

They had to heat big tubs of water on the stove so they could take their Saturday night baths.

I am not talking about turn of the century people, this was during the 20's, the 30's and even early 40's.

karol

I was going to mention that but you beat me to it. Large families were an economic asset. My Dad's family had 9 children. His grandparent's had 16 children. Everybody pitched in with the chores.

 

[Story]

Interesting how folks at the end of the Golden Era projected how we'd be handling these issues today -

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2008/02/14/back-to-the-future-86908-20318872/

Back To The Future
Feb 14 2008

The Ideal Homes Of The 21st Century - According To Experts Of The 1950s

IT all sounds too good to be true - especially the self-cleaning bath.

But the labour-saving and spacesaving Home of the Future is not some vision of the 22nd century.

If experts in 1956 had been right, this is the way we would have been living today.

Sadly, we are still stuck with scrubbing the bath ourselves and using towels instead of having showers that dry us as well as wash us.

And the easy-clean corners they promised have also failed to materialise.

The sometimes wonderful - and occasionally wacky - ideas were showcased by controversial architects Alison and Peter Smithson.

The husband and wife duo were commissioned to design the Home of the Future for the 1956 Ideal Home Exhibition and they came up with a plastic pods structure which could be mass-produced in its entirety.

It didn't have a fridge - because it was predicted that all meat, fish and dairy products would be bombarded with gamma rays, killing any germs.

Fifty-two years and a lot of scientific research on, it's hard to imagine anyone swallowing that one.

And the forecast for fashion was simply shocking - not just in the Superman-like space-age designs for men.

With experts predicting we would all be in head-to-toe drip-dry nylon and sleeping in nylon sheets, the static electricity possibilities were alarming.

According to documents from 1956, the intention was to present a probable design for living 50 years from then.

One designer said: "New ideas in construction, materials, fixtures and fittings illustrated here are not just wild guesses.

"There are good reasons for believing that most of the suggestions put forward are not only possible but probable."

Although that was proved wrong, Ideal Homes organisers, who celebrate their centenary this year, point out that not all the predictions are the stuff of fantasy or the space cartoon The Jetsons.

The pundits of 1956 forecast the popularity of the remote control, microwave ovens and entry phones, among other things.

But spokeswoman Maxine Soghmanian said: "We have to admit some of the predictions in the 50s were a bit off the mark."

For the 2008 exhibition, organisers are hunting for the best original home invention.

TV scientist Adam Hart Davies said: "If you can do better than the 50s experts, we want your ideas.

There is a budding inventor or designer in all of us and you don't need any design qualifications to get involved."

So ... any chance of that selfcleaning bath this time around?

THE 10 WORST PREDICTIONS

Gamma rays will bombard meats, fish and dairy, killing germs and doing away with refrigeration.

Electric saucepans will cook food on any surface, replacing hobs.

Electric tables will rise from the floor and be set to dining or coffee level.

Roofs will be covered with aluminium foil to deflect the Sun's rays.

Front doors will all be electric and folding.

Houses will consist of a series of plastic pods joined by passageways.

Showers will dispense both water and hot air to wash and dry you.

Baths will be self-cleaning.

Nylon will be the material of choice - from clothes to bedsheets.

 

[missjo]

If it's ever shown again, check out "1900 House" on PBS. The BBC did it in 1999. They took a middle class British family and let them live a la 1900 for 3 months. The mother and daughters took all Monday every week to wash clothes, all by hand. They had a maid of all work who worked like a dog, till she quit. They had a crude coal stove (the latest thing in 1900). Fascinating.

The 1900 house was a eyeopener although of course one shouldnt forget that in 1900 everyone in that house would have grown up with doing much work like that.
The modern people had problems mostly because they lacked the experience.
In the end things went quite well.
But if I may correct you, the maid was fired because the woman of the house had a problem with being her boss and they had quite a sophisticaded coal stove that even had a inbuild boiler.

Overhere there is a extra name for every day that shows the function that day used to have;

Monday-Washday
On sunday evening you put the washing in a tub with water and soap and on the monday you'd wash the clothes.

Teusday-iron day
After the washing was done on monday and it had dried overnight, you would iron the clothed.

Wednesday-ground beef day
On monday butchers used to butcher the animals.
This is a lot of work so it was done after the restday, sunday.
The dead animals then had to hang for a day.
The cutting of the meat then happened on wednesday, what was left was turned into ground beef, on this day the ground beef would be cheaper so most people would go to the butcher on wednesday and buy ground beef.

Thursday-clean day
Cleaning the house

Vriday-fishday
Katholic origin, eat fish on friday.

Saturday-bread and soupday
Restingday for jews but also for housewives.
The house is clean, youre preparing for the week so no big meals.
Soup made from the leftovers and some bread.

Sunday-restday
Religious origin.


If you are used to the work, if you have nothing else you have to or could be doing and if you plan everything well and if you live in a community where almost every housewife does the same sort of work at the same time, work is a lot easier.
Women would often work together, for instance some would be better at one job or would own a better iron, better washer or even a washing machine.
So they would trade jobs, you wash my clothes, I'll iron yours.


Either way, 'The 1900 house' is the BEST bit of television I have ever seen, a MUST see for anyone even remotely interested in social history.
It comes very clothes to timetravel.

 

[Josephine]

fftopic: As an aside, I had heard that one of the women who took part in either this or another "in the past" experiment, because they were only eating foods that were around back then (no prepackaged, chemical laden junk), her eczema cleared up. When she went back to modern life, it came back.

 

[missjo]

fftopic: As an aside, I had heard that one of the women who took part in either this or another "in the past" experiment, because they were only eating foods that were around back then (no prepackaged, chemical laden junk), her eczema cleared up. When she went back to modern life, it came back.

I used to take part in Medieval living history (serious stuff, not the medieval faires etc) and a friend asked me to take her 11 year old daughter along.
She was a fussy eater, she was allergic to smoke, she had a terrible reaction to any fabric that wasnt perfectly smooth, etc, etc, etc.
So she went along to medieval events... eat what you get or dont eat, lots of heavy smoke, thick woollen clothing or linnen, etc, etc.
She went nuts.
After a few events all those problems were gone, she not only ate everything, she helped make the meals and even helped butcher a (already dead) pig, she wore 100% woollen dresses, some made by herself, she cooked over smokey fires and spend days in small smoke filled houses, etc, etc.
And as a little bonus she became more independent, worked very hard an entire day without any complaining and got used to interacting with the public.
Not even mentioning that she learned more about 15th century life then any school could ever teach her and she realised how good life is today... (and what sometimes isnt so good about the present

Yes I know, semi-uber-fftopic:

 

[imported_the_librarian]

The best thing we ever did was get a Roomba!

http://irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122

I don't vaccum any more

 

[missjo]

The best thing we ever did was get a Roomba!

http://irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122

I don't vaccum any more

How horribly modern!
This is how I clean;

 

[Josephine]

The best thing we ever did was get a Roomba!

I don't vaccum any more

My MIL got us a Roomba for XMas, I love it for the hardwood floors. :eusa_clap