Washing, then and now

We bathed twice a week and our bed was changed weekly but the top sheet was put on the bottom one so it worked out really at once a fortnight. I remember my mother reminding me every time 'top to bottom'

I bathed my babies every day but now it is about twice a week. Seems odd that adults bathe every day but a baby who is pooing in its nappy and possibly bringing up a bit of milk several times a day has to wait a few days. How things have changed!

Maybe she was really a man Anno?

At my boarding school we had o wear white cotton knickers under our grey thick ones. We bathed twice a week with 2 1/2 inches of water. Laundry had to be posted home weekly to be done. One sheet at a time was changed weekly.

If the knickers didn't have a pocket, you had to keep the hanky up the leg! Our PE teacher wore long, shiny, pink knickers visibly under her divided skirt type shorts and I am sure she had a hanky up there.

This thread strikes a note..... I've thought for ages that people are far too clean these days.... that's not to say I want us to be dirty, but honestly it is such a waste of the world's resources to wash every darn thing, including ourselves, every day, or even every other day. A good wash down with a soapy flannel works wonders, and wearing clothes more than once will definitely not kill us.
Oh yes, I remember my school knickers had little pockets! And I shared my bath quite often with the boy next door... this is when we were little of course! And wash day was always Mondays, so in the school holidays I had to help with lighting the gas wash boiler and stirring the washing with a big wooden stick, then shoving all the heavy linen sheets through the wooden rollers of the mangle.
My word, it's all so easy now, isn't it. But are we any happier?
P.S. In case any of you think you can almost smell me from where you are, - I do have a proper shower every third day. Sufficient in my opinion.

I remember Lilygran, we wore maroon uniform and awful baggy knickers with a pocket .......and that was until I left school, utterly cringe-worthy now!

I think the white underpants and the 'gym knickers' on top in navy, dark green or brown were fairly common. Does anyone else remember a pocket in the knickers for a hanky? Please tell me I didn't imagine having to haul up the skirt to get at the hanky!

I understood that washing items like underwear at 30 degrees doesn't fully kill off all bacteria and they should be washed at, at least, 60 degrees. Likewise towels, as damp towels breed bacteria. Although I wash face flannels weekly I find they still get grimy and slimy and I have to give them a good boil every six weeks or so

Washing at 30 degrees means using detergents which contain a lot of harsh chemicals, which I am not happy to do as I have a sensitive skin and I have an allergic reaction to some chemicals. I buy a soap-based environmentally friendly detergent when I visit France and wash everything at 60 degrees.

I change underwear daily, bedding and towels weekly and outer garments when they get visibly soiled or stop smelling fresh. Generally I only use my washing machine 2 or 3 times a week.

I do feel we have a responsibility to use resources like water, gas and electricity as economically as we reasonably can, and that means thinking very hard about our use of water and how often we use washing machines, dishwashers and, within reason, bathing and showering.

At our school, the P.E. teachers sometimes asked girls in their class to take a message around the school. So there would be a couple of girls in blouse & navy knickers standing in the classroom while the message was read out.
My DH remembered that happening, with great fondness.

Our bath night was Tuesday as my parents owned a shop and Wednesday was the quietest day so my mother had time to get the washing done then.
Sheets were turned over after one week and then sent to the laundry the next week - they were quite thick linen ones. They came back very firmly folded up in a brown paper parcel.
As far as I remember, clothes were worn all week, including underwear.
I now change underwear & socks daily and other things as seems necessary, definitely not every day.

We only wore them during games lessons so you just put them on over your ordinary knickers.

Heaven help you if you forgot them!

Mine didn't, rosequartz! Mind you, I think that's probably because they were the cheap and thin kind...(poor me)

Bikergran my GS's football boots and trainers smell of cat pee too, my DS thinks it's from the grass and football fields that they play on constantly. They are so bad that I ask them to leave them in the porch.

No, but I wish she had because they left bits of navy blue fluff on your bot.

What??? Why???

re the navy blue school knickers, my mother made me wear white ones underneath them. Did anyone else?

Yes, I change the bedding weekly, but I do remember my DM used to 'top to bottom' the sheets weekly in the winter, ie the top sheet was put on the bottom and the bottom sheet then washed. In the summer both sheets were changed weekly because they could be dried outside.

The hand towels get changed twice a week, the bath towels once (we each have our own towels).

Read somewhere recently that the average bed is changed every 2 months . I change the bed every week (and I iron all bed linen!) washing it at 40 degrees and using biological washing powder, that I assume with see off bacteria etc. When I was little bath night was Sunday, three of us in at once, hair wash Thursday for some reason and clean clothes Monday and Thursday, seems no logic to any of it!
Boarders at my convent school had a weekly cold bath (apparently as a penance for real or imagined sins such as sleeping with your hands inside the bedclothes!), hair wash monthly and change of clothes Sundays so clean for Mass at 7.00am. My mother used to threaten me with becoming a boarder, to good effect!

Well, you say you were 'lucky enough' to have a nightly bath, anno, but it was the norm (where I lived) to have a weekly one and we would have thought it very odd to have one every night!

We were lucky enough as children to have a nightly bath, sharing the water - I had the misfortune to be the last to have it. The main wash was done weekly and line dried, if possible. The washing machine, albeit with a hand-operated mangle, arrived when I was a teenager, so daily washes were out of the question in those days. We did have enough blouses and underwear to see us through the week, but skirts and blazers were not washable and, if necessary, went to the dry cleaner in the holidays. We were also lucky to live in an area of soft water which was great for hair washing.

Living abroad, we had perhaps different habits. Didn't have a bathroom until I was 10. We had 2 face cloths- actually 1 face cloth;) one for the top, and one for the bottom. We washed at the sink in the kitchen. Then we went to the local public baths in the village. You were given a key to a small room with a roll top cast iron bath- had to bring your own towel and soap- filled the tub to half-way and then had to clean the bath with a sponge given to you, and go home. About once a month.

When my gran moved to an apartment with a bath, we then went to her- unless we had a cold, in which case she would not let us through the door, lol.

We had very soft skin and beautiful hair. In fact, I have a UK friend who lives in France who had problems with falling hair. She joined the 'no hair wash' bandwagon- horrible for a month- but now has soft, healthy and full head of hair. She washes it every other day in warm water- but never uses shampoo. I could not do it- but she is really pro and it works for her.

I have a shower every morning- just do not feel 'alive' until I do. Clean knickers, socks and vest, of course, but rest is changed and washed as and when it makes sense- usually about every 3 days or so. Anymore than that must be a bit OCD/OTT, no?

We bathed once a week sharing the water. My nan used to put soda and Dettol in the water. After the bath, clean underwear which was changed the following week.

I wear a clean t shirt each day [under whichever sweater I'm wearing] and clean undies. Other than that clothes get washed if I think they're due for a wash. Towels also get washed when I think they need a wash [but I do make sure they dry out on a radiator when they've been used]. The only things I'm very particular about are t towels and dishcloths that are washed on a hot wash using dettol laundry cleanser

I wash bedding fortnightly as my mother did. I change my underwear and socks daily, I can't bear putting on yesterday's socks, even if only for a few minutes.
I can't see the point of washing jumpers and trousers every day, how long will they last if you wash all the good out of them? I only wash those when they are stained or grubby.
Perhaps I'm not the cleanest person in the world, but I'm happy.

I was thinking I was a bit fed up today having changed the bed, washed all the towels and two loads of clothes; however it is so easy with an automatic washing machine and tumble drier, if I had to heat up the copper and use the dolly tub and wringer I would be standing over it all day.