Washing Clothes

Contemporary laundry appliances available from John Lewis Stores

Washing Machine (1950)

Washing Machine (1990)

A family of say, two adults and two children might fill four or five washing machines a week. Sorting the clothes out into different colours and materials, stuffing them in the machine, and putting all the powders in might take ten minutes.

Before washing machines became common (in the 1950s and the 1960s for most people, but later for poorer people) washing the same amount of clothes by hand took hours and hours of hard rubbing and squeezing.

And whilst the washing machine – and after that, its trusty friend, the tumble dryer – is doing its work, people get that most precious of modern commodities (products) – time. Time to do other jobs, and hopefully time to relax.