[Vella Gonzaga]

Wash House​

Image source: Facebook / Australia Remember When

Who remembers wash days in the old wash-house? The copper boiling, whites stirred with a wooden stick, and the little blue Reckitt’s bag for that perfect rinse? Tough work, but unforgettable memories. Have you ever washed your clothes that way? Tell us here.

 

[Jethrotull]

My job was to put the clothes through the hand wringer. Hard work..

 

[Robyn M for Mary]

Mum always got me to help with wringer. Very hard work.

 

[gamiry]

I remember it all, especially when wringers were part of the washing machine and your finders/hands went in too. OUCH!!!!

 

[Mikev]

I don’t remember clothes being washed like this, but I do remember those old washing tubs in our backyard that we used to grow parsley in.

 

[Bezz]

Remember the old troughs being very rough inside, if you scraped your fingers on them - boy did it hurt.

 

[Packo]

MY GRANDMOTHER DID HOW WASHING IN THE TUB SHE ALSO HAD A COBBER AS WELL AND A RINGER
SHE USE TO BOIL THE COBBER 4 OUR BATHS WHEN WE KIDS. THINKING BACK NOW KIDS TODAY WOULD NOT SURVIVE. THIS VERY HARD IDEAL.

 

[Benny's Light]

My aunt had a set up like this with the old copper in the corner in the washroom under her house. It was well in use right up to the mid seventies when she went into a retirement home with her first electric washer. Monday was washing day and it was a big thing.

 

[starrysnan]

I remember my Mum washing everything by hand, boiling all the white things in a copper and putting them all through the wringer. She later bought a spin dryer (you could buy them separately from a washing machine in the 60's) and this was a great improvement. Mum used it until she passed away in 2005 and it was still working perfectly. She never did like the washing machine Dad bought her in the late 70's and still did a lot of washing by hand.

 

[gamiry]

I remember my Mum washing everything by hand, boiling all the white things in a copper and putting them all through the wringer. She later bought a spin dryer (you could buy them separately from a washing machine in the 60's) and this was a great improvement. Mum used it until she passed away in 2005 and it was still working perfectly. She never did like the washing machine Dad bought her in the late 70's and still did a lot of washing by hand.

You'd have to be speaking about the twin tub HOOVER. I had one for many years until IT died

 

[Dynamo]

Oh yes. Remember washing many cloth nappies as 2nd of 7 children.

 

[Veggiepatch]

The copper had a unique smell of laundry powder when it was simmering away which I will never forget!

 

[Nantes]

I remember getting into trouble for blueing the cat with those Reckitts bags.

 

[gamiry]

I remember getting into trouble for blueing the cat with those Reckitts bags.

You have to love it.... even sounds like something Veggie would do.

 

[Robyn M for Mary]

The other thing I have just remembered is the wash board, where if something was extra dirty you rubbed it on the wash board. That was hard work too, especially when Dad wore overalls to work and they were covered in grease. Wow the memories come flooding back.

 

[gamiry]

The other thing I have just remembered is the wash board, where if something was extra dirty you rubbed it on the wash board. That was hard work too, especially when Dad wore overalls to work and they were covered in grease. Wow the memories come flooding back.

and Lonni Donnigan turned the wash board into a musical instrument and callled it a skiffle board.

 

[Robyn M for Mary]

and Lonni Donnigan turned the wash board into a musical instrument and callled it a skiffle board.

Yes I remember that part as well

 

[Veggiepatch]

You have to love it.... even sounds like something Veggie would do.

I absolutely adore cats!!

 

[gamiry]

I absolutely adore cats!!

I didn't need to blue the cats. My main champions were born that way... blue Orientals and blue point Siamese.

 

[Veggiepatch]

A LAUNDRY JOKE!
​

An old man escapes from a psychiatric hospital and happens across a stream with four young women washing their clothes while totally naked.

In an act of depravity, he rapes all four girls then disappears into the forest.

The headlines on the next day's newspaper reads....

NUT SCREWS WASHERS AND BOLTS!
​

Joke courtesy of Bunnings....