Pioneer Living Survival Magazine

How To Wash Clothes On a Washboard

I am sure there are not a lot of us today who have ever washed clothes on a washboard like the pioneers did.

Cleaning your clothes are just as important today as they were in the pioneer days. If we were suddenly thrown back in time, with no electricity or modern day washing machines how would we wash our clothes?

This is an attempt to give a few simple instructions on how this could be achieved should the need arise.

Reading instructions is probably not enough, like most things you will have to learn by doing.

What you will need:

3 large wash tubs                                    1 large washboard

1 bar of laundry soap                               Hot and cold water

Laundry basket                                         Clothes pins and clothesline

1. Heat the water in one of the tubs over a hot fire.

2. Set the other two tubs up on blocks or a tree stump side by side 10-15 feet away from the fire.

3. Make certain all tubs are secure.

4. Fill one tub with boiling water, adding enough cold water to make it tolerable for your hands.

5. Add a few white clothes to the wash water

6. Put the washboard in the tub and rub the surface with a bar of soap.

7. Take a piece of laundry out of the water, lay it the length of and on top of the wash board. Rub soap on material.

8. With the edge of the material held in your hand between thumb and fingers, begin to rub up and down the board with the heel of your hand, gathering and pulling the material toward you.

9. Push the material down in the water and start from the beginning.

10. Scrub each garment vigorously four to eight times.

11. Dip into water, rinse, wring out water and put in next tub filled with warm rinse water.

12. Rinse in second water, wring dry, and hang on clothesline.

Sound complicated? It really isn’t. After a sore back and a few blisters you will become an expert in no time.