Washer & Dryer

[street]

Reading the BTD thread and the post on installing washer and dryer made me think back as a kid. Growing up we didn't have dryer, so everything was hung out to dry. In winter was hung in basement to dry. We did have a washer but was the old type with hand wringer.

When I was mid-teens, we got the new style of both. Even than the dryer was used sparingly!! The cost wasn't justified when the cloths line was still intact and a useable low-cost option. I'm sure the thought was don't use much will last a long-time. Lol

When we got married a clothesline was put in right away and was used all the time. We did however have the luxury of a washer and dryer. My wife was the one that wanted a clothesline installed from day one after we built the home together from ground up.

Times have changed for the better in ways, in this case.

 

[Car-Guy]

When I was a kid we only had a washer and wet clothes were hung out on a clothes line, like everybody else in the neighborhood.... No way the DW (or I) would hang our clothes out these days. But still, nothing like fresh air dried clothes. IMO

 

[aja8888]

All this laundry stuff got me thinking again...and it brought back memories of my first apartment (furnished, thankfully) in Kansas City, MO when I had just gotten out of the Air Force (summer, 1968) and was in my early 20's with a full time job.

I had no washer or dryer and had to go to the local laundromat weekly. But the trips were great as that's where I met several single girls at the time! And those connections led to lots of good times (parties), and eventually led to a steady girlfriend!

 

[Ronstar]

We didn't have a dryer when I was young either. Had a washer (modern - no wringer), and a clothesline. The whole neighborhood was like that. Lots of kids in my neighborhood, so the clotheslines were always being used. Parents eventually got a dryer around 1970.

DW and I have always had a dryer - no clotheslines at our 2 houses since 1982.

 

[joesxm3]

I bought one of those folding racks and was happy using it instead of my dryer. However, when I took mom in from the nursing home the load and need for quick turn around time drove me back to the dryer.

 

[MC Rider]

I don't remember a time when we did not have laundry machines. I did do the laundrymat thing during and after college. Only 2-3 years ago we got rid of a Harvest Gold clothes dryer that finally died, and replaced with a $100 Craigslist special. But moving last fall the place came with a fancy pair of high efficiency LG machines. I think they are about 4 years old. May they live forever. Cost close to $1000 each so you might hope.

 

[Midpack]

When I was just married, mid 20's, I distinctly remember being absolutely thrilled to buy our first washer and dryer to use at home. After years of using community laundries in college and then apartments, what a luxury to do laundry at home with no wait (or interlopers) whenever we wanted. Where I once dreamed of sports cars, fast women and cool toys - none of them were as exciting as the first washer & dryer.

 

[Gumby]

Heck, when we moved into our house here in 1992, the neighbors on both sides were still hanging their laundry out in the back yard. They both had the same set up - a pulley up on the trunk of large maple tree at the back lot line and another pulley attached to the back porch column.

 

[audreyh1]

Growing up we had a laundry sink for washing, one of those scrubbing boards (washboard), a squeeze roller (clothes wringer), and a clothes line - a fancy turning 4 sided rectangular one.

 

[ls99]

^^^^ Pure luxury, a sink!
We had no plumbing of any kind, thus no running water. As a kid, my job on wash day, Sundays, was to haul buckets of water from the nighborhood water spigot. My mother washed clothes in a tub, using brush to scub clothes. Did not knpw of washboard until came to US.
Many trips were required, especially for the rinse.
Drying was on clotheline summer or winter. In winter had to be careful to lift items off the line while frozen, else shirts etc. would break.

In the three room house we lived in, one room of which my mother rented out to tenants, in winter the finish drying was in the kitchen/living room/with table for eating. Served as a humidification.
Ironing was done via coal ember heated iron. The coals were scraped out of the cookstove, put in the Iron. A bowl filled with water was used to dip fingers in and sprinkle on the clothes to generate some steam while ironing.
Good thing we did not have many clothes, cut down on the amount of wash.
As an aside weekly baths were taken in the same wash tub, with water heated on the cookstove.
As noted above no plumbing, but a well ventilated outhouse.

Yep, those were the good old days.

 

[aja8888]

^^^^ Pure luxury, a sink!
We had no plumbing of any kind, thus no running water. As a kid, my job on wash day, Sundays, was to haul buckets of water from the nighborhood water spigot. My mother washed clothes in a tub, using brush to scub clothes. Did not knpw of washboard until came to US.
Many trips were required, especially for the rinse.
Drying was on clotheline summer or winter. In winter had to be careful to lift items off the line while frozen, else shirts etc. would break.

In the three room house we lived in, one room of which my mother rented out to tenants, in winter the finish drying was in the kitchen/living room/with table for eating. Served as a humidification.
Ironing was done via coal ember heated iron. The coals were scraped out of the cookstove, put in the Iron. A bowl filled with water was used to dip fingers in and sprinkle on the clothes to generate some steam while ironing.
Good thing we did not have many clothes, cut down on the amount of wash.
As an aside weekly baths were taken in the same wash tub, with water heated on the cookstove.
As noted above no plumbing, but a well ventilated outhouse.

Yep, those were the good old days.

You could have been my neighbor in the coal mining region of Pa. where I was raised while Dad for in WWII. We had no indoor plumbing either and a pile of coal! Oh, and the chickens......

 

[Jerry1]

I’m 62. I don’t recall ever not having a washer and dryer. Also, I don’t particularly like line drying. Everything turns out too stiff. I’m thankful for the modern amenities.

 

[street]

Always run a damp cloth along the line to clean it. I was reminded of that every time I was asked to hang up clothes. Lol

The freshness of air-dried cloths is a something I will never forget though.

 

[EarlyandLate]

In my childhood, we had a Kenmore washing machine and a line outside to dry on. The washing machine was in the basement. Sometimes in spin cycle, it would "walk" out away from the wall and pull it's own plug. My mother finally prevailed in the budget war and bought a new Maytag washer and dryer, which lasted decades.


I college, I discovered that there was a laundromat in town that had free coffee and donuts on Saturday mornings. Score!! I got up early on Saturdays to be sure I got some.

 

[Major Tom]

We always had a washing machine growing up. Mum and Dad got a dryer in the early 70's. Before that, we had a long washing line stretching the full length of the back garden. It was vinyl-covered wire, so it served double duty as an antenna for my crystal set. For that reason alone, I prefer line-drying!

 

[Walt34]

We always had a washing machine. No wringer though, which as a kid I thought the neighbor's would be way cool. Think of all the other things you could "put through the wringer" with easy access to one of those!

For reasons of plumbing though, the washer was in the dining room, and at one point it developed an intermittent leak that Dad was never able to find or diagnose. Finally, one time when he'd had a few bottles of beer, the washer started to leak, so he took his half-inch drill with a one-inch wood auger bit on it and drilled a hole in the floor for the water to drain into the crawl space. One of his many "redneck repair jobs".

We did have a clothesline in the back yard until about the time I was in high school or thereabouts and then we moved into the 20th century and got an electric clothes dryer. That was in the basement. (We had a half basement, half crawl space under the house.)

 

[ls99]

You could have been my neighbor in the coal mining region of Pa. where I was raised while Dad for in WWII. We had no indoor plumbing either and a pile of coal! Oh, and the chickens......

Heh, chickens, yep we had them. And a small enclosure at the end of the house where mother fattend a pig, Which was killed in the front of the house, covered with straw to burn off the hair before getting dis-assembled. And half of it was carted off by the butcher as payment.
Coal too next to the pig pen for the cookstove which served as a house heater.
Yep, good old days

 

[MarieIG]

^^^^ Pure luxury, a sink!
We had no plumbing of any kind, thus no running water. As a kid, my job on wash day, Sundays, was to haul buckets of water from the nighborhood water spigot. My mother washed clothes in a tub, using brush to scub clothes. Did not knpw of washboard until came to US.
Many trips were required, especially for the rinse.
Drying was on clotheline summer or winter. In winter had to be careful to lift items off the line while frozen, else shirts etc. would break.

In the three room house we lived in, one room of which my mother rented out to tenants, in winter the finish drying was in the kitchen/living room/with table for eating. Served as a humidification.
Ironing was done via coal ember heated iron. The coals were scraped out of the cookstove, put in the Iron. A bowl filled with water was used to dip fingers in and sprinkle on the clothes to generate some steam while ironing.
Good thing we did not have many clothes, cut down on the amount of wash.
As an aside weekly baths were taken in the same wash tub, with water heated on the cookstove.
As noted above no plumbing, but a well ventilated outhouse.

Yep, those were the good old days.

Sounds like DH's childhood. A two room house, the water pump outdoors, the outhouse, and the baths in the kitchen.

I remember we had a clothes line when I was young, and a dryer when I was a teenager. My mother switched back and forth depending on the weather. The grandmothers spoke of the washboard.

I actually wouldn't mind a clothes line for use on nice days. The clothes smelt so fresh.

 

[jim584672]

Apparently dryers are not a thing in England. My mother would always put things out to dry and I found out later that in England this is considered normal. She grew up in England.

 

[ls99]

Sounds like DH's childhood. A two room house, the water pump outdoors, the outhouse, and the baths in the kitchen.

I remember we had a clothes line when I was young, and a dryer when I was a teenager. My mother switched back and forth depending on the weather.

I actually wouldn't mind a clothes line for use on nice days. The clothes smelt so fresh.

I use a clothes line whenever the weather is nice. Love the smell of bedsheets dried in the sun, ditto for towels. Oh, and put the pillows out on sunny days. Sweet dreams!!!

 

[HF63]

My grandmother had a lady that wash the stuff by hand in the river. We always had a great time playing on the water butt naked and it is some of my best memories.


I was 15 when I first saw a washer machine w/ the roll on the top.

 

[braumeister]

I grew up in NYC, so I was really surprised when DW told me she didn't have indoor plumbing until she was 12 years old. A small farm in Ohio, started in the 18th century.

But even in my childhood home in Brooklyn, there were only cesspools for the waste water to go. The city put in sewers when I was 14, and they had to raise the street a little over three feet in order to do it. So all the homes (single family frame houses with no insulation) suddenly became below street level. A very different time.

 

[street]

We always had a washing machine. No wringer though, which as a kid I thought the neighbor's would be way cool. Think of all the other things you could "put through the wringer" with easy access to one of those!

For reasons of plumbing though, the washer was in the dining room, and at one point it developed an intermittent leak that Dad was never able to find or diagnose. Finally, one time when he'd had a few bottles of beer, the washer started to leak, so he took his half-inch drill with a one-inch wood auger bit on it and drilled a hole in the floor for the water to drain into the crawl space. One of his many "redneck repair jobs".

We did have a clothesline in the back yard until about the time I was in high school or thereabouts and then we moved into the 20th century and got an electric clothes dryer. That was in the basement. (We had a half basement, half crawl space under the house.)

Ohhhh man now that is funny!!

 

[rk911]

Reading the BTD thread and the post on installing washer and dryer made me think back as a kid. Growing up we didn't have dryer, so everything was hung out to dry. In winter was hung in basement to dry. We did have a washer but was the old type with hand wringer.

When I was mid-teens, we got the new style of both. Even than the dryer was used sparingly!! The cost wasn't justified when the cloths line was still intact and a useable low-cost option. I'm sure the thought was don't use much will last a long-time. Lol

When we got married a clothesline was put in right away and was used all the time. We did however have the luxury of a washer and dryer. My wife was the one that wanted a clothesline installed from day one after we built the home together from ground up.

Times have changed for the better in ways, in this case.

we had a dryer but mom mostly used the clothesline. interestingly enough, some of the towns around us have banned outdoor clotheslines. not sure why.

 

[street]

we had a dryer but mom mostly used the clothesline. interestingly enough, some of the towns around us have banned outdoor clotheslines. not sure why.

That is interesting!!! I wonder why that would be but there must have been an issue with lines of some sort to have the law.