Laundry day in the pre-1900s was a world apart from our modern conveniences. Without electric washing machines or detergent pods, families relied on manual labor, homemade soaps, and a few traditional techniques to keep their clothes clean. This task was exhausting and time-consuming.

Here’s what laundry day looked like before the turn of the century:

A Grueling Weekly Routine
In most households, laundry was a weekly or bi-weekly event, and it was a full-day or multi-day affair. Laundry day typically fell on Mondays for many, but preparations often began the day before. This was no small chore; it required hauling buckets of water, heating it to a boil, scrubbing clothes by hand, and more. The labor was so intense that it often required help from multiple family members or even neighbors.

Gathering Water and Heating It
With no indoor plumbing, obtaining water was labor-intensive. Women often drew water from wells or rivers, or used a hand pump if they were lucky. This water needed to be carried to large, iron cauldrons or washtubs, where it was heated over a wood or coal stove or fire. Heating the water took hours, and in winter, it was even more grueling due to cold temperatures and ice in the water sources.

Soaps and Cleaning Agents
Modern laundry detergent didn’t exist. Instead, people made their own soap from animal fats and lye, a caustic substance that could cause burns. Lye soap was incredibly harsh but effective in cutting through dirt and oils. Some households also added washing soda or borax to soften the water and improve soap’s effectiveness. Soap making was itself a chore and often prepared well in advance for laundry day.

Scrubbing and Washing Techniques
With the water heated and soap ready, it was time to wash. Women scrubbed each item by hand using washboards and brushes, often in a large wooden tub. Clothes were usually beaten or pounded to remove dirt. This step required vigorous motion, which was hard on the body, especially the back, arms, and hands. Fabrics were also prone to wear and tear, making clothes more likely to need repairs after several washes.

Rinsing, Wringing, and Bleaching
Once the scrubbing was done, clothes were rinsed multiple times in clean water. Wringing out water by hand or with a wringer was physically demanding, particularly with heavier fabrics. To brighten whites, women often soaked them in blue dye to counteract yellowing, a practice called “bluing.” If more whitening was needed, clothes were left in the sun for bleaching.

Drying and Ironing
Clothes were hung on lines or spread on bushes, fences, or clean grass to dry. In colder months, this drying step took significantly longer. Once dry, the garments needed ironing—usually with a cast-iron flat iron heated on a stove or fire. Ironing was nearly as labor-intensive as washing, given that clothes often needed multiple passes to be smooth and wrinkle-free.

Laundry day in the 19th century is a symbol of endurance and resilience. It built community, as neighbors helped each other, and marked weekly rhythms around which other tasks were planned.

Today, we rarely think twice about tossing a load into a machine, but for people before the 1900s, laundry was a reminder of life’s relentless demands and the strength it took to meet them.

---

Soap-making before the 1900s was a practical skill that allowed families to create a necessary cleaning product from basic, locally available ingredients. Soap recipes varied somewhat depending on region and available resources, but they usually included two primary components: animal fat and lye, a highly alkaline substance derived from wood ashes.

These simple but powerful ingredients were combined to create a soap that could cut through grime and grease. Here are some common recipes and techniques used for soap-making in the 19th century:

1. Basic Lard and Lye Soap
This was one of the most widely used soaps, as it relied on materials readily available from livestock.

• Ingredients:
• 1 part lye (homemade or commercially available lye if possible)
• 3 parts lard (or other animal fats like beef tallow)Water

• Instructions:
• Prepare the lye water by dissolving lye in water. In the early days, lye was often leached from wood ashes. This was done by placing ashes in a large container with a small hole in the bottom, pouring water over it, and allowing the liquid to drain out. This was lye water, which was then used in soap-making.
• 2. Melt the lard or fat over low heat until fully liquid.
• 3. Mix lye water and melted fat slowly, stirring continuously. As the ingredients combine, they will saponify, creating soap. This mixture could take hours to fully blend, depending on the quality of lye.
• 4. Pour into molds once the mixture begins to thicken and set aside to cool and harden for several days.
• 5. Cut into bars once firm. The soap was usually aged for a few more weeks to allow the lye to neutralize fully.

2. Hard Soap with Wood Ash Lye
Hard soap was useful for both cleaning and laundry, and it held up well in storage.

• Ingredients:
• 4 pounds tallow or lard
• 1 gallon lye water (from wood ashes)Salt (optional, for firmer soap)

• Instructions:
• 1. Create lye water using wood ashes, as described above.
• 2. Heat the fat in a large pot until melted.
• 3. Add lye water slowly to the fat and cook on low heat, stirring continuously. If the mixture thickened too quickly, more lye or water might be added to reach the right consistency.
• 4. Add salt towards the end of cooking for firmer soap, which helped the soap set better for slicing.
• 5. Pour into molds and allow it to harden before cutting into bars.

3. Soft Soap
Soft soap was popular for laundry, as it dissolved easily in water. This recipe produced a thick, gel-like soap rather than a solid bar.

• Ingredients:
• 1 part lye
• 3 parts fat (usually leftover cooking grease or animal fats)Water

• Instructions:
• 1. Mix fat and lye in a pot, stirring over low heat until the ingredients begin to saponify.
• 2. Add more water as needed to create a gel-like consistency. Soft soap was often made in large batches and stored in barrels.
• 3. Pour into a container and allow it to set, but not fully harden. Soft soap could be scooped out and added to laundry or used directly on stains.

4. Castile-Style Soap (Olive Oil Soap)
For those with access to olive oil, a milder soap could be made that was gentler on skin.

• Ingredients:
• 1 part lye
• 3 parts olive oil
• Water

• Instructions:
• 1. Dissolve lye in water and allow it to cool slightly.
• 2. Add the olive oil slowly to the lye mixture, stirring constantly. The olive oil would eventually turn the mixture creamy and thick as it saponified.
• 3. Pour into molds and allow it to harden for several days.
• 4. Cure for several weeks before using, allowing the soap to become gentler and firmer.

5. Herb-Infused Soap
For those who wanted a scented soap or a soap with herbal benefits, herbs like lavender, rosemary, or chamomile were often added.

• Ingredients:
• 1 part lye
• 3 parts fat or oil (lard, tallow, or olive oil)
• Herbs (dried and ground)
• Water

• Instructions:
• 1. Create a strong infusion of herbs in water and use this to dissolve the lye. Strain out any large pieces.
• 2. Melt the fat and add it to the herb-infused lye water, stirring to saponify.
• 3. Pour into molds and allow to cool.
• 4. Let the soap age for a few weeks so the fragrance of the herbs would infuse into the soap fully.

---

Making lye from wood ash was risky; lye is caustic and could burn skin. Soap-makers had to be very careful, often covering hands with cloth or using wooden paddles.

Lye strength from wood ashes wasn’t standardized, so soap-making often involved guesswork, and the outcome wasn’t always guaranteed.

Homemade soaps often required several weeks to cure and fully set before they were safe and effective to use.

While we have the luxury of choosing from countless soaps today, early soap-makers crafted each bar with great care, using basic but often painstaking methods to create a product that was both functional and cherished.

Have you ever tried making homemade soap? Or even wash your laundry by hand? In the comments, tell me how it went!
I have not tried making my own soap yet but I have washed my laundry by hand when our power was knocked out for an entire month. My hands were so sore and the laundry didn’t get nearly as clean as when the washer did the work for me.