To secure good washing

A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School by Catharine Esther Beecher, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. ON WASHING.

CHAPTER XXVI. ON WASHING.

There is nothing, which tends more effectually to secure good washing, than a full supply of all conveniences; and among these, none is more important, than an abundance of warm and cold water: but, if this be obtained, and heated, at a great expense of time and labor, it will be used in stinted measure. The accommodations described on page 275, (Fig. 34,) are very convenient in this respect.

Articles to be provided for Washing.

A plenty of soft water is a very important item. When this cannot be had, ley or soda can be put in hard water, to soften it; care being used not to put in so much, as to injure the hands and clothes. Two wash-forms are needed; one for the two tubs in which to put the suds, and the other for blueing and starching-tubs. Four tubs, of different sizes, are necessary; also, a large wooden dipper, (as metal is apt to rust;) two or three pails; a grooved wash-board; a clothes-line, (sea-grass, or horse-hair is best;) a wash-stick to move clothes, when boiling, and a wooden fork to take them out. Soap-dishes, made to hook on the tubs, save soap and time. Provide, also, a clothes-bag, in which to boil clothes; an indigo-bag, of double flannel; a starch-strainer, of coarse linen; a bottle of ox-gall for calicoes; a supply of starch, neither sour nor musty; several dozens of clothes-pins, which are cleft sticks, used to fasten clothes on the line; a bottle of dissolved gum Arabic; two clothes-baskets; and a brass or copper kettle, for boiling clothes, as iron is apt to rust. A closet, for keeping all these things, is a great convenience. It may be made six feet high, three feet deep, and four feet wide. The tubs and pails can be set on the bottom of this, on their sides, one within another. Four feet from the bottom, have a shelf placed, on which to put the basket of clothes-pins, the line, soap-dishes, dipper, and clothes-fork. Above this, have another shelf, for the bottles, boxes, &c. The shelves should reach out only half way from the back, and nails should be put at the sides, for hanging the wash-stick, clothes-bag, starch-bag, and indigo-bag. The ironing-conveniences might be kept in the same closet, by having the lower shelf raised a little, and putting a deep drawer under it, to hold the ironing-sheets, holders, &c. A lock and key should be put on the closet. If the mistress of the family requests the washerwoman to notify her, when she is through, and then ascertains if all these articles are put in their places, it will prove useful. Tubs, pails, and all hooped wooden ware, should be kept out of the sun, and in a cool place, or they will fall to pieces.

Common Mode of Washing.

Assort the clothes, and put them in soak, the night before. Never pour hot water on them, as it sets the dirt. In assorting clothes, put the flannels in one lot, the colored clothes in another, the coarse white ones in a third, and the fine clothes in a fourth lot. Wash the fine clothes in one tub of suds; and throw them, when wrung, into another. Then wash them, in the second suds, turning them wrong side out. Put them in the boiling-bag, and boil them in strong suds, for half an hour, and not much more. Move them, while boiling, with the clothes-stick. Take them out of the boiling-bag, and put them into a tub of water, and rub the dirtiest places, again, if need be. Throw them into the rinsing-water, and then wring them out, and put them into the blueing-water. Put the articles to be stiffened, into a clothes-basket, by themselves, and, just before hanging out, dip them in starch, clapping it in, so as to have them equally stiff, in all parts. Hang white clothes in the sun, and colored ones, (wrong side out,) in the shade. Fasten them with clothes-pins. Then wash the coarser white articles, in the same manner. Then wash the colored clothes. These must not be soaked, nor have ley or soda put in the water, and they ought not to lie wet long before hanging out, as it injures their colors. Beef's-gall, one spoonful to two pailfuls of suds, improves calicoes. Lastly, wash the flannels, in suds as hot as the hand can bear. Never rub on soap, as this shrinks them in spots. Wring them out of the first suds, and throw them into another tub of hot suds, turning them wrong side out. Then throw them into hot blueing-water. Do not put blueing into suds, as it makes specks in the flannel. Never leave flannels long in water, nor put them in cold or lukewarm water. Before hanging them out, shake and stretch them. Some housekeepers have a close closet, made with slats across the top. On these slats, they put their flannels, when ready to hang out, and then burn brimstone under them, for ten minutes. It is but little trouble, and keeps the flannels as white as new. Wash the colored flannels, and hose, after the white, adding more hot water. Some persons dry woollen hose on stocking-boards, shaped like a foot and leg,[Pg 287] with strings to tie them on the line. This keeps them from shrinking, and makes them look better than if ironed. It is also less work, than to iron them properly.

Bedding should be washed in long days, and in hot weather. Pound blankets in two different tubs or barrels of hot suds, first well mixing the soap and water. Rinse in hot suds; and, after wringing, let two persons shake them thoroughly, and then hang them out. If not dry, at night, fold them, and hang them out the next morning. Bedquilts should be pounded in warm suds; and, after rinsing, be wrung as dry as possible. Bolsters and pillows can be pounded in hot suds, without taking out the feathers, rinsing them in fair water. It is usually best, however, for nice feathers, to take them out, wash them, and dry them on a garret floor. Cotton comforters should have the cases taken off and washed. Wash bedticks, after the feathers are removed, like other things. Empty straw beds once a year.

The following cautions, in regard to calicoes, are useful. Never wash them in very warm water; and change the water, when it appears dingy, or the light parts will look dirty. Never rub on soap; but remove grease with French chalk, starch, magnesia, or Wilmington clay. Make starch for them, with coffee-water, to prevent any whitish appearance. Glue is good for stiffening calicoes. When laid aside, not to be used, all stiffening should be washed out, or they will often be injured. Never let calicoes freeze, in drying. Some persons use bran-water, (four quarts of wheat-bran to two pails of water,) and no soap, for calicoes; washing and rinsing in the bran-water. Potato-water is equally good. Take eight peeled and grated potatoes to one gallon of water.

Soda-Washing.

A very great saving in labor is secured, by soda-washing. There have been mistakes made in receipts, and in modes of doing it, which have caused a prejudice against it; but if the soap be rightly made, and rightly used, it certainly saves one half the labor and time of ordinary washing.

Receipt for Soda-Soap.

Take eight pounds of bar-soap, eight pounds of coarse soda, (the sub-carbonate,) ten gallons of soft water, boiled two hours, stirring it often. This is to be cooled, and set away for use. In washing, take a pound of this soap, to the largest pail of water, and heat till it boils. Having previously soaked the white clothes, in warm, not hot, water, put them in this boiling mixture, and let them boil one hour and no more. Take them out, draining them well, and put them in a tub, half full of soft water. Turn them wrong side out; rub the soiled places, till they look clean; then put them into blue rinsing-water, and wring them out. They are then ready to hang out. Some persons use another rinsing-water. The colored clothes and flannels must not be washed in this way. The fine clothes may be first boiled in this water; it may then be used for coarser clothes; and afterward, the brown towels, and other articles of that nature, may be boiled in the same water. After this, the water which remains, is still useful, for washing floors; and then, the suds is a good manure to put around plants.

It is best to prepare, at once, the whole quantity of water to be used. Take out about one third, and set it by; and every time a fresh supply of clothes is put in, use a portion of this, to supply the waste of a former boiling.

Modes of Washing Various Articles.

Brown Linens, or Muslins, of tea, drab, or olive, colors, look best, washed in hay-water. Put in hay enough, to color the water like new brown linen. Wash them first in lukewarm, fair water, without soap, (removing grease with French chalk,) then wash and rinse them in the hay-water.

Nankeens look best, washed in suds, with a teacup of ley added for each pailful. Iron on the wrong side. Soak new nankeens in ley, for one night, and it sets the color perfectly.

Woollen Table-Covers and Woollen Shawls, may be washed thus: Remove grease as before directed. If there be stains in the articles, take them out with spirits of hartshorn. Wash the things in two portions of hot suds, made of white soap. Do not wring them, but fold them and press the water out, catching it in a tub, under a table. Shake, stretch, and dry, neither by the sun nor a fire, and do not let them freeze, in drying. Sprinkle them three hours before ironing, and fold and roll them tight. Iron them heavily on the wrong side. Woollen yarn, should be washed in very hot water, putting in a teacupful of ley, and no soap, to half a pailful of water. Rinse till the water comes off clear.

New Black Worsted and Woollen Hose, should be soaked all night, and washed in hot suds, with beef's-gall, a tablespoonful to half a pail of water. Rinse till no color comes out. Iron on the wrong side.

To Cleanse Gentlemen's Broadcloths. The common mode, is, to shake, and brush the articles, and rip out linings and pockets; then to wash them in strong suds, adding a teacupful of ley, using white soap for light cloth; rolling and then pressing, instead of wringing, them; when dry, sprinkling them, and letting them lie all night; and ironing on the wrong side, or with a thin dark cloth over the article, until perfectly dry. But a far better way, which the writer has repeatedly tried, with unfailing success, is the following: Take one beef's-gall, half a pound of salæratus, and four gallons of warm water. Lay the article on a table, and scour it thoroughly, in every part, with a clothes-brush, dipped in this mixture. The collar of a coat, and the grease-spots, (previously marked by stitches of white thread,) must be repeatedly brushed. Then, take the article, and rinse it up and down in the mixture. Then, rinse it up and down in a tub of soft cold water. Then, without wringing or pressing, hang it to drain and dry. Fasten a coat up by the collar. When perfectly dry, it is sometimes the case, with coats, that nothing more is needed. In other cases, it is necessary to dampen the parts, which look wrinkled, with a sponge, and either pull them smooth, with the fingers, or press them with an iron, having a piece of bombazine, or thin woollen cloth, between the iron and the article.

To manufacture Ley, Soap, Starch, and other Articles used in Washing.

To make Ley. Provide a large tub, made of pine or ash, and set it on a form, so high, that a tub can stand under it. Make a hole, an inch in diameter, near the bottom, on one side. Lay bricks, inside, about this hole, and straw over them. To every seven bushels of ashes, add two gallons of unslacked lime, and throw in the ashes and lime in alternate layers. While putting in the ashes and lime, pour on boiling water, using three or four pailfuls. After this, add a pailful of cold soft water, once an hour, till all the ashes appear to be well soaked. Catch the drippings, in a tub, and try its strength with an egg. If the egg rise so as to show a circle as large as a ten cent piece, the strength is right; if it rise higher, the ley must be weakened by water; if not so high, the ashes are not good, and the whole process must be repeated, putting in fresh ashes, and running the weak ley through the new ashes, with some additional water. Quick-ley is made by pouring one gallon of boiling soft water on three quarts of ashes, and straining it. Oak ashes are best.

To make Soft-Soap. Save all drippings and fat, melt them, and set them away, in cakes. Some persons keep, for soap-grease, a half barrel, with weak ley in it, and a cover over it. To make soft-soap, take the proportion of one pailful of ley to three pounds of fat. Melt the fat, and pour in the ley, by degrees. Boil it steadily, through the day, till it is ropy. If not boiled enough, on cooling, it will turn to ley and sediment. While boiling, there should always be a little oil on the surface. If this does not appear, add more grease. If there is too much grease, on cooling, it will rise, and can be skimmed off. Try it, by cooling a small quantity. When it appears like gelly, on becoming cold, it is done. It must then be put in a cool place and often stirred.

To make cold Soft-Soap, melt thirty pounds of grease, put it in a barrel, add four pailfuls of strong ley, and stir it up thoroughly. Then gradually add more ley, till the barrel is nearly full, and the soap looks about right.

To make Potash-Soap, melt thirty-nine pounds of grease, and put it in a barrel. Take twenty-nine pounds of light ash-colored potash, (the reddish-colored will spoil the soap,) and pour hot water on it; then pour it off into the grease, stirring it well. Continue thus, till all the potash is melted. Add one pailful of cold water, stirring it a great deal, every day, till the barrel be full, and then it is done. This is the cheapest and best kind of soap. It is best to sell ashes and buy potash. The soap is better, if it stand a year before it is used; therefore make two barrels at once.

To make Hard White Soap, take fifteen pounds of lard, or suet; and, when boiling, add, slowly, five gallons of ley, mixed with one gallon of water. Cool a small portion; and, if no grease rise, it is done: if grease do rise, add ley, and boil till no grease rises. Then add three quarts of fine salt, and boil it; if this do not harden well, on cooling, add more salt. Cool it, and if it is to be perfumed, melt it next day, put in the perfume, and then run it in moulds, or cut it in cakes. Common Hard Soap, is made in the same way, by using common fat.

To manufacture Starch, cleanse a peck of unground wheat, and soak it, for several days, in soft water. When quite soft, remove the husks, with the hand, and the soft parts will settle. Pour off the water, and replace it, every day, with that which is fresh, stirring it well. When, after stirring and settling, the water is clear, it is done. Then strain off the water, and dry the starch, for several days, in the sun. If the water be permitted to remain too long, it sours, and the starch is poor. If the starch be not well dried, it grows musty.

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