Washing, then and now

Maybe she was really a man Anno?

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!

What a lot of sense everyone is talking. I agree with henetha about too much cleanliness. If I showered everyday my skin would be dry and itchy. We have our own towels and they hang above the radiator so they dry out and I change them when I think they need it, certainly not every day. I don't think a towel is ever used twice in the home of my DS & family.
As with most of us I have clean underwear and socks daily and the rest as needs be.
As children bath and hair wash was Saturday night (sometimes followed as a treat by fish & chips and dandelion & burdock). I can just remember the tin bath in front of the fire. When DH and I first met our bath contained a pig's carcass 'curing' in salt. ( While that was happening the rest of us were going to my married sister's for baths.)

When I had DS we were told that our babies had to be bathed every day - when she had DGCs she was told not to bathe them at all, just to wash the dirty bits, until they were 2 or 3 months old! I did love bathing my babies though. Not that they stayed fresh-smelling for long....

They need to absorb that stuff that's on their skin when they're born [whatever it's called]. I suppose that, when ours were babies, we didn't have disposable nappies and they tended to get a bit whiffy.

I did have disposable nappies, but they were pretty dreadful in 1985. They went into heavy clumps. I think they were the baby equivalent of fuller's earth cat litter.

When I was in the Army in the sixties, we had 'sheet exchange' once a week, but you only got one sheet - old top sheet went on the bottom, new one on the top - and one clean pillowcase.

Clean undies every day, other clothes get washed when they need it, jeans and such can go weeks without getting washed. Towels weekly, bedding weekly, but I am a bit obsessive about t-towels and dish cloths which get replaced every day, twice if they look grubby. No flannels in this house, think they are revolting things. When children were at school, they wore clean underwear, polo shirts and socks/tights every day, sweatshirts and skirts/trousers were washed when they were dirty. I have never seen the point of washing clean clothes!

I am surprised at all these tea towels, we hardly use them at all. On the odd occasion when something gets washed up by hand we leave it to dry by itself! We must be very slobby!

Same here, Nonnie. I only have a couple of tea towels, mainly because they match the kitchen decor and look nice!

If anything needs drying or polishing urgently, I use kitchen roll.

Well, you see, us poor folk can't afford a washing-up machine

But Tricia you still don't have to actually dry them, it is much more hygienic to leave them to dry themselves and much simpler for us lazy types!

I haven't got a dishwasher either, Tricia!

I just leave everything to drain...[slob emoticon]

Sometimes you need to use something now and it is dripping wet, so you dry it on a teatowel.

No, I use kitchen roll as I said previously, Elegran!

They did a test on Tomorrows World years ago and plates that had been dried using a teatowel had far less bacteria on them than those that had dried nauturally. I find that things that have been washed in a dishwasher remain damp afterwards [cups especially]. Maybe dishwashers wash things cleaner than using a washing up bowl full of scalding hot water though [?]. I use my dishwasher as a glorified draining board .

I use a clean teatowel (sometimes two) every day and do them on the hottest wash possible when I have a load of them. I put a cap of bleach in as well, so it gives the machine a good 'doing' as well.

I thought you weren't supposed to mix washing powder with bleach [I am being picky tonight, aren't I?]. In a sort of domestic goddess mode [halo emoticom]

......I'm only on the pooter cause I'm putting off doing any housework........

! Really, Tegan? What will happen? I'm only on it because I want DH to make my tea..... .

Tegan I don't think it is washing powder and bleach, because some washing powders have a bit of bleach in them.

Are you sure that isn't Harpic and bleach? Together they form toxic chlorine gas.

I read a murder novel where someone without a sense of smell was murdered by the cistern being filled with bleach and the loo bowl liberally sprinkled with Harpic. When he flushed the loo, the chlorine fumes killed him. That was fiction though.

PS. Have just found this newspaper report - www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2386692/Surrey-pub-worker-chlorine-gassed-cleaning-toilet.html The book I read was authentic, then.

I am on the pooter because I started catching up on my family history and it is harder than I am up to at this time of year.

I seem to be incapable of leaving dishes to drain. Sometimes I think I'll take the easy way and do that but then, once they are washed, I can't resist getting them dried and put away, leaving a sparkling, clear draining board.
(I'm not a domestic goddess, btw, I just have that little quirk ).

I often use a mixture of washing powder and bleach to clean the floor so I don't listen to my own advice anyway. I know it was bleach and something . Will have to start mixing a few things to find out which ones explode now....[goes away with a mad professor look on her face]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw12mXgYKIA