The Family Wash Is Very Much One Makes Of It

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 225, 19 June 1936, Page 5

The Family Wash Is Very Much One Makes Of It

TO be well over wash-day is for many ■*" of us the equivalent of being well over the worst day of the week. Much as we appreciate seeing those piles of clean mangled and ironed clothes, all set ready for packing into the linen cupboard or into the chest of drawers, we find it hard to forget the steamy details of wash-day at home. Actually, the day need not be so much of a nightmare if it is tackled with method and if every possible advantage is taken of labour-saving aids. Lives there a modern housewife who does not realise the huge saving in labour if she puts the most soiled of the white clothes to soak in cold water plus a little borax overnight? By comparison the dirt just slips out when the actual washing has to be done, and, in addiiton, the strain of hard rubbing on the clothes is considerably lessened. How much it helps to spend, a few minutes going over the children’s clothes, looking for those stains which will not readily come out in the wash unless they are given a preliminary treatment! • Tar stains on small frocks and shirts, for instance, will usually yield when rubbed for a few seconds in turpentine. Later, when the garment is washed in warm soapy water, all trace of the marks will have disappeared. Oil marks, especially the oil from machinery, are difficult to remove from men’s shirts and overalls without a little preliminary help in the form of carboh tetrachloride, which can be obtained from any largo chemist’s and is quite cheap. It is as effective as petrol an( j—what is important—is not inflammable. . ... Should a tablecloth have met with disaster from spilt fruit juice, it is always best to treat it separately before adding it to the wash. Spread the stained part over a basin and rub it thoroughly with borax. Then pour boiling water through. If tea or coffee stains are the trouble, long soaking in cold water will start the work of removing them, so that after .they are laundered and have been hung out in the air, particularly in frosty air, they completely fade out While the piles of soiled articles are being sorted, the whites all in one heap, the coloured cottons in another, the artificial silks into a neat little pile

with a separate pile for the silk stockings lieside them, there is wisdom in throwing all the soiled handkerchiefs immediately into a pail of well-salted water. Leave them to soak for a while, then swirl them round vigorously with a stick and pour the water away. Laundering the handkerchiefs, after this treatment, is a simple and no longer unpleasant business. Most coloured goods nowadays are colour-fast. Yet there still remain a few that have to be treated with caution. If you have any doubts on the matter, just soak the coloured cottons in cold water to which a liberal handful of salt has been added. But if the garment is dyed black instead of in some bright colour, substitute a couple of tablcspoonfuls of vinegar to a small tubful of cold water, and allow the garment to soak before washing.

There is a snag which some of us have learned by experience about washing silk stockings. Not only should the soap-suds into which the stockings are plunged be merely mildly hot, but only one pair of stockings should be washed at a time, starting with the lightest coloured pair. Sometimes the dye of stockings is not “fast,” a fact that only matters. seriously if you try to wash your palest beige pair after darker shades have stained the water! When it comes to the actual serious business of washing, modern devices can ease up the work considerably. If you are lucky enough to possess a washing machine, the whole business is, of course, nothing much more than preparing ample supplies of hot soapy water and plenty of rinsing water and of turning the handle of the washingmachine with discretion, before running the washed garments through the rubber rollers of the little wringer fixed to the side.

A wooden slatted mat or a thick rubber mat for standing on is the greatest comfort. It saves aching ankles and aching backs, particularly when the scullery floor is of stone. Have a small and not too stiff brush handy for scrubbing the grease marks along collars. And see that you keep a really soapy lather going, because it is the action of the millions of tiny soap bubbles Working between the weave of the materials which so greatly helps to get soiled clothes clean.