Do you think you can guess what this is? I have a feeling it’s not something you’re familiar with, but perhaps you can prove me wrong.

Hand laundry, also known as handwashing, was the method used in the past to clean soiled fabrics. Before the advent of indoor plumbing, all the water needed for laundry had to be manually collected from a pump, well, or spring.

The process was laborious. The laundry water had to be carried by hand and then warmed over a fire to make washing easier. Once heated, the water would be transferred into a tub, where the actual washing took place. But here’s the catch – only a limited amount of warm, soapy water could be used. This meant that the least dirty clothes would be cleaned first, and the progressively dirtier laundry would be washed afterwards.

But that’s not all. After washing the clothes, another step was required to remove the soap and water. Clear water was used to rinse away the soap, and then the wet clothes would be rolled up and manually twisted to squeeze out the excess water. And let’s not forget about the drying and ironing that followed – the entire process often took up an entire workday!

Can you imagine going through all this effort every time you needed to do laundry? Thankfully, we now have modern washing machines and dryers that make our lives so much easier.