Nancy Ingham

We had a wringer washer until I was a freshman in high school. My mother would back it up to the kitchen sink, pass the clothes through the wringer into the sink filled with water to rinse the clothes by hand, and then run them back through the wringer to squeeze the water out. I remember many times hanging the clothes outside, so cold during the winter that out fingers ached, only to retrieve them for Mom, clothing frozen stiff as boards, to re-hang on lines that hung the length of the kitchen. We had no central heat so no hot running water and I had six sisters and two brothers, making a total of 10 people for my mom to do weekly laundry for.
Thanks for the memories!

LenaBeena

Washday memories, YEP! Fun in the summer when we "accidentally" got all wet. Crowded basement in winter with lines hung end to end. Outside we had to hang the underwear on inside lines so it wouldn't be seen from the road. Guess nobody else wore unmentionables! A couple years ago a friend and I demonstrated old time washers from our county museum at our little towns yearly picnic. The kids thought they were, as they said, "awesome". Their grandmas remembered them as hard work. Times change for sure.

needles3thread

Our clothes lines outside were long -for a family of 6 each week. (A heavy wire, I think)
We used a wet cloth for cleaning the lines each week before hanging any clothes on them.
We hung 2 items with one clothes pin if possible & never left the pins outside
on the lines after the laundry was taken in. We had a special clothespin bag that we could
slide along the line ahead of us.

nivosum

My grandmother had a wringer washing machine. She eventually got a more modern one. I remember stretching my brother's jeans on those wire things to dry. I still have the clothes pins (plus the bag I keep them in) that I brought when my husband and I married back in the 1960's. If you leave the clothes pins on the line (between washing days) the wood will rot.

SouthPStitches

My Mom did laundry on Mondays. She'd wheel the wringer washer over to the kitchen sink to hook up. Everything got dried outside. I remember her putting my father and brother's pants in metal stretcher contraptions before hanging up. This was long before permanent press. In the winter, she'd string clothesline up in the double kitchen to dry the white percale sheets, but continued to dry the rest outdoors. Some laundry would come in, frozen solid and her hands would be bright red. I remember her sprinkling clothes before ironing. Mom passed away in 2007 and NEVER did she use a clothes dryer, wanted no part of it. We later moved to another house when I was nine, that had a clean, dry, warm basement with a cement floor, so she'd hang laundry down there in the winter.

kamaiarigby

Am I the odd one out I still hang my washing out on the cloths line, I do not own a dryer, all my friends do.
Some years ago we owned a motel and did all our own laundry and yes we hung it all out side to dry.
We had guests say the could smell the sunshine and fresh air in our sheets and pillow cases

busy fingers

I remember wringers that mum used and starch also "bluo" which made whites white!!!!!!

Gee I always hang my washing on the line. I love to see the sheets, towels and everything else hanging in the fresh air and sunshine. If it is wet I even have lines strung around my large garage. I only ever use the drier in the case of continual wet weather - especially for the undies.

Stitchit123

Even after the automatic came into the house the wringer washer was still used.All the whites were done in it and all the things that needed starched. Mom said the wringer was the only way our socks would come clean=5 kids made for a lot of socks. I use to help until I put my arm through the wringers when I was 5. Summer in a sling. But I still hang laundry outside all year as long as its close to 40 degrees and warmer

jitkaau

We washed any time - put it in the machine or copper and proceeded from there.

deedum

I remember sprinkling the clothes using an old coke bottle with the old metal sprinkler top. I can still get those tops from the Amish store. Then mom would roll up some things and Put in a plastic bag in the fridge to be iron later. Ah. Memories!