Rinso white, Rinso bright,
Happy little washday song!
Did you know the Rinso label has been sold by its longtime owners, and you can buy Rinso bleach now in 99 Cents Only stores? Of course, Rinso used to be a detergent rather than a bleach, but it's awful neat to see the power of 1940s marketing still in play.
I'm taking a sick day today because of my cold, so had lots of extra time to do my wash - including my handwashing. Not exactly a true test based on a typical Monday schedule, but I guess it's a good chance to work up getting the wash done on a regular weekly workday. I did three loads at the laundromat this morning. The whites went in with a dash of Rinso bleach. I was mistaken when I said yesterday that the washers in my laundromat don't have a delicates cycle. They do, but I think it'd probably take me two months just to accumulate a load of delicates!
I pulled the two rayon items after washing them at the laundromat and followed the instructions in my manual for drying rayons (as best I can understand, "turkish towels" are terry bath towels):
Roll garments in turkish towels to remove excess moisture, then unroll immediately and iron when ready... It is safer to allow prints and spun rayons to dry until barely damp, before ironing.
I did my handwashables this afternoon and was surprised by how much water I ended up using... which here, in the desert, is very uncool. It took four rinses to get the suds out of my nylon top, two rinses to get the suds out of my bras, and, well, I gave up after four rinses in trying to get the suds out of my acrylic sweater. Now it could be that the soap I used - a "gentle" gel hand soap - created a richer suds than the soaps recommended for handwashing in the '40s. I'm not sure. The authors of the manual fully expected their readers to have to rinse any handwashables "several times" until they could get a nice suds-free water. I think in the future that I'll follow the modern instructions on the label for garments like these and wash them in a machine with the rest of my laundry if at all possible. My bathroom sink may have gotten a great cleansing along the way, but the water usage was super guilt inducing. And my hands are so dry and raw.
It wasn't such a "happy little washday" here at the Jitterbug residence, but it was educational!
6 comments:
I totally understand you not wanting to handwash. Ugh!!
The only delicate items I wash on a regular basis are my bras. I fasten them up, put them in my zippered mesh "delicates" bag, throw them in with a cold or warm load and then hang them up to dry. I used to have another larger mesh bag that I used for larger items like sweaters but, it finally wore out and I haven't gotten around to replacing it yet.
Hope you are feeling better!
It wasn't so much that I didn't like the handwashing - though I think I'll wear gloves the next time I have to do it --- it had more to do with using so much water in the process. We can go for 3 months at a time without a drop of rain where I live, so to use water to do something that a modern appliance might have done much more efficiently feels really wasteful.
I'm not really feeling much better this morning, but I doubt I'm contagious any longer so I'm heading back to work. Thanks for asking!
Guess what? Through inter-library-loan I was able to get a copy of The Manual!
I am really looking forward to reading it.
BTW, have you thought about the fact that you're investing in the future? Through teaching yourself how to manage a home in an exemplary way, you're not benefitting JUST for now. Your children will be taught proper home keeping as well!
We've skipped a couple of generations of this knowledge. Now it's time to get it back and pass it along.
Roxanne
Hurrah for ILL! Maybe you can spy some tips I might miss along the way. There's lots of information in there...
I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to have any children, but I'll try and pass on what I can to my nieces. I would love for them to always think of Auntie Jitterbug's house as a clean, smoothly-run refuge - with lots of good things to eat!
Hello Jitterbug,
Here's one hand washing tip that might help with the amount of rinsing needed: try a soap that's meant for hand washing and that rinses out quickly, such as Forever New (perfumey, which may be period correct for your project or you may hate it, but it rinses out quickly-try it on your "unmentionables" to see if you like it).
I love your blog! I've just finished reading all your entries after finding it a couple of days ago. I'm obsessed with vintage housekeeping manuals and have quite a collection of them as well as charm and beauty books. I've been trying to learn from them as you have, but you have such a talent for writing and I love your point of view. Thanks for sharing this project with all of us!
Thank you so much for the tips, Humble Labor. My manual does refer very briefly to soapless soap which I guess was just becoming available for delicates. I thought the gel handsoap in my bathroom might be a good equivalent, but I think you're right on the money in that I need to find a better easier-to-rinse product. I'm going to continue handwashing the items marked as delicate cycle only since it'd take me a long time to save enough to do a load of those in the machine.
Thank you so much for your kind comments. I love the housekeeping and etiquette books of this era!
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