Dry-Cleaning at Home

I realize it's been over a month since my last post...and 50's living has really gone by the wayside over this crazy, busy summer. But as my husband gets ready for "back to school," and our schedule returns to somewhat normal, I look forward to keeping up with the blog...and getting my house back in order, 50's style!

With the mountains of laundry we returned to after several weeks away, I can think of no better topic to post on than laundry itself. The everyday items are easy enough to handle, but the delicate items (read: dry clean only) pose more of a problem. Especially if, like me...you don't want to pay a dry cleaner gobs of money to do what you can (maybe) do at home. At least some of the time.

Good Housekeeping's Guide to Successful Homemaking states:

Dry-cleaning at home, because of the many dangers, should not be attempted on a large scale, but occasionally it may become necessary on a small scale (p. 254).

This piqued my interest because while I have no desire to turn my home into a full-scale martinizing operation (or blow my house up), it would be nice to have a way to deal with some of the dry-clean stuff myself.

Dry-cleaning is similar to washing fine things by hand in a washbasin. You squeeze the article to remove soil, rub neckline and cuffs with extra effort, rinse, press out the moisture, and allow to dry.

This seems like a lot of steps, and I don't currently own a washbasin, although I suppose my bathtub would do just fine. Or is that really gross? I'm having trouble deciding.

Regardless, a special cleaner made for the purpose of home dry-cleaning is reccomended. So I guess the question becomes: do I really want to put that chemical stuff in the same tub I use to bathe my son? Um, NO. So clearly, a trip to the basin store aka Target is in order.

Unlike water, cleaning fluid doesn't remove creases or pleats, so pressing dry-cleaned clothing is much simpler than ironing laundered clothing.

I'm glad there's one thing about the process that's simpler. I'm going to find that magic cleaning fluid, and get started. Off to find those "dry clean only" clothes and give it a shot. Maybe I'll start with just one. That way if I ruin it, it's only one clothes casuality. God knows we can't afford more than that!

Laundry, the Good Old Fashioned Way

I always thought that women in the 50's had a pretty routine way of divvying up their work for the week. I bet many women could even recite the same work schedule, or some variation of it - it's what their mothers and grandmothers did. The one I'm familiar with goes like this:

Monday: Wash day
Tuesday: Ironing day
Wednesday: Sewing day
Thursday: Market day
Friday: Cleaning day
Saturday: Baking day
Sunday: Day of rest

Please understand that I could definitely be making this up...I don't have a source on this, I just thought that's how they did things back then. Maybe I heard it from my mom or read it somewhere and just liked the idea of it. Most likely, I saw that cleaning was only one day of the week and a whole day was dedicated to rest and thought: what a great idea!

Well, Ms. Vanderbilt has recently informed me otherwise, and as much as I long to hold fast to the work schedule I like, that's not the 50's way of doing it...and besides, what would June think of me if I were to cheat? Tisk, tisk. So I'm trading my ways for those of Amy once again. On the subject of laundry, she writes:

First chore after breakfast is over, is to load and start the washing machine.
It takes approximately 25 minutes for 1 load of wash to run through an automatic laundry.

FALSE. I'm going to have to stop you right there, Am-ster. My "normal" cycle takes 54 minutes...so now I'm wondering was anything really getting clean back in the day or are we just wasting an ungodly amount of time and water with our new-fangled washing contraptions?

And if laundry is done at home, it is easier to do some laundry each day than to allow it to collect so that a whole morning must be devoted to the laundry project.

Alright, alright I get the picture. Some laundry every day. Got it. Ugh, that probably means there's goign to be some cleaning every day, too, doesn't it? By now you're getting the picture I wasn't a born homemaker!

If there are hanging facilities in the cellar or elsewhere, it is not necessary to wait for sunshine. In large households where there is insufficient indoor drying space it is often a great saving of work to have an electric or gas clothes dryer (p. 377).

Now that's good news! For a minute there, I thought we were going to have a real problem. Waiting for sunshine, especially in the Northeast, especially in February, especially in the snowiest winter on record was just not going to happen. Although I do like the idea of a clothes-line outside in the spring and summer.

However, even Amy agrees (thank you Amy, and also...God) that the easiest way to dry clothes is with a good old-fashioned electric clothes dryer. Or new-fashioned. Or whatever...