How did you learn to do laundry?
@GardenGerty (169489)
United States
February 1, 2018 7:55pm CST
Okay, so how did you learn to do laundry, and how old were you?
I was not responsible for my own wash until I went away to college. I had done some parts of it for the family and was pretty familiar, except we had never had a dryer.
Mom had taught me to treat spots and stains and extra soiled things though.
Today we began teaching one of our students to do laundry. She had brought some from home.
It is a good life skill for her. Something she can be responsible for and useful.
We drove to the bus facility, not far, but it is cold and we had a load to carry. The schools in the district wash towels etc. there.
Any memories about whites turned pinks, cause you included red?
My worst memory from growing up is Mom made dipped starch for my petticoats, and they itched because she forgot and made it extra stiff.
14 people like this
18 responses
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
2 Feb 18
Around ten years old. It was the chore I was responsible for, well alongside my sister, but I hated doing it and so hardly did. I was yelled at alot for not doing it, but what 10 year old wants to wash her father's underwear and her mother' negligee's?
4 people like this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
2 Feb 18
I believe that is why my mom never made us do wash by ourselves. We washed it all together. I probably started folding towels and wash cloths when I was four or so.
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
2 Feb 18
@scarlet_woman Mine too! Well, I got away with not doing it as much as possible.
@BelleStarr (61463)
• United States
2 Feb 18
My mom taught me on a wringer washer, I had to learn how not to stick my cute little fingers in there and then we hung the clothes on the line and when it was dry iron most everything. I was probably about 8 or 9.
4 people like this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
2 Feb 18
One of my co workers a few years back had lost her thumb to a wringer washer. Yes, lots of ironing. I learned when I was nine and I loved it.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
2 Feb 18
I hung clothes and helped bring them in as far back as I can remember.
@Morleyhunt (21741)
• Canada
2 Feb 18
The first time i did laundry totally on my own I was 17. I did the family (8 children) all by myself, using the wringer wash machine and the clothesline.
4 people like this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
2 Feb 18
I am a close friend of clotheslines. My mom had a hanging method of sorting, as well. I prefer that to this day.
2 people like this
@Courtlynn (67089)
• United States
2 Feb 18
I always helped around the house as a kid so I learned young. But never did it myself til about 5 years ago.
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
2 Feb 18
That is often how it is when it is a shared household. Someone is responsible but others help.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
3 Feb 18
@Courtlynn 
Good for you. My kids helped with some chores growing up, even when they were very little.
Good for you. My kids helped with some chores growing up, even when they were very little.1 person likes this
@Courtlynn (67089)
• United States
2 Feb 18
@GardenGerty i just liked helping around the house and taught my nieces and nephews to fo the same.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
2 Feb 18
Not until I was out on my own but my mother already drilled into to my head you separate whites from colors.
3 people like this
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
2 Feb 18
i've been doing laundry since i was in the single digits..i really don't remember.
it was probably my grandmother that showed me..
2 people like this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
2 Feb 18
My grandmother washed in a cauldron over wood fire in the back yard when I was very young. Stirred it with a stick. In her later years they went to the laundromat.
1 person likes this
@shaggin (74987)
• United States
3 Feb 18
I never learned to do my own laundry until I moved out and the first thing I wound up doing was accidentally dying all the whites pink 
It took me many many years to stop throwing the stained clothes away and realize stain remover had to set on the stain for awhile before washing.
It took me many many years to stop throwing the stained clothes away and realize stain remover had to set on the stain for awhile before washing.1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
3 Feb 18
You did learn, though and that is good. I hope you like pink.
1 person likes this
@shaggin (74987)
• United States
3 Feb 18
Lol well pink is my favorite color but I don't think my husband liked pink socks 
@infatuatedbby (94909)
• United States
2 Feb 18
Same here, I was not responsible for laundry. Even til' this day if I do laundry, they quickly do it even though I insist. But I hardly do laundry at home. I do my laundry at my fiancés place since all my clothes that I wear are there. We have a dryer but at my parents' they hang dry outdoors. At my fiancés it goes from the washing machine directly to dryer, much easier.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
3 Feb 18
There is a lot to be said for both dryer and clothesline. However, when you work, having the dryer is much more convenient.
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@infatuatedbby (94909)
• United States
4 Feb 18
@GardenGerty The dryer is a convenient. But my parents use the clothesline, saves electric :)
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32760)
• Calgary, Alberta
5 Feb 18
It was part of the elementary Home economics subject. It is part of the school curriculum.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
6 Feb 18
I do not remember that, but we are talking about more than fifty years ago for me. I remember budgeting for food, cooking, arranging flowers, and sewing. It SHOULD be part of the curriculum. We do not have "home economics" here any more. It is "consumer sciences".
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32760)
• Calgary, Alberta
6 Feb 18
@GardenGerty I know basic sewing, gardening and carpentry because of it too. It is also how I learned to cook. I remember boys looks down on this subject seeing it as girly but it is more useful in my life than Freaking algebra or Greek Mythology.
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
2 Feb 18
Actually, they were "blouse slips", blouses with the petticoat attached. Boy was that starch sharp in my armpits.
1 person likes this
@sallypup (69190)
• Centralia, Washington
2 Feb 18
@GardenGerty That garment is a new one on me. Interesting and sounds painful.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
3 Feb 18
@sallypup I have never known anyone else to have one. Mom had a revolving account with the Jewel Tea company and shopped there, and that is where she got them. Very practical, unless your mom starches them like a board.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
4 Feb 18
That would have been a lot to learn about.
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@JudyEv (382259)
• Rockingham, Australia
5 Feb 18
@GardenGerty The washing machine made such a difference to my mother's workload.
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
7 Feb 18
You are so right. Making mistakes IS how we learn. Those mistakes stay with us so we improve.
1 person likes this
@Daelii (5619)
• United States
3 Feb 18
My mom and grandmother both had washers. I recall sorting colors for my grandmother and shed wash clothes. I'd help fold them and match socks.
By middle school I handled my own clothes at home. Sometimes my grandmother would ask to do s load or would help on stains!
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
4 Feb 18
I never had a dryer of my own until after my oldest was born. I folded towels, and washcloths and matched socks very early on. I was never asked to do my own at home, even when I was at home from college. We never had a great laundry area. I have not had in my other houses, either, but in this house I am working on some good storage for the room.
1 person likes this
@Daelii (5619)
• United States
4 Feb 18
@GardenGerty awesome! My grandmother would hang clothes outside too.
I prefer outside to a dryer ( I dont own one). We do plan to remodel our laundry room at some point!
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
2 Feb 18
I honestly don't remember but I was probably around 11 or 12
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@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
2 Feb 18
Obviously it was not traumatic, either.
1 person likes this
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
3 Feb 18
I think I may have been about 12 or 13 and my mum showed me how to use the washing machine and the iron too lol... When we got a tumble dryer I shrunk my favourite jumper ... 
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
4 Feb 18
I did help. My mom felt like I would have to be a grown up for a long time and did not have to be totally responsible as a kid.
1 person likes this
@pitsipeahie (5758)
•
2 Feb 18
I think it was around high school that I learned to wash undergarments and around 20 when I took charge of our laundry. I learned from my mother.and my own experience.
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@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
3 Feb 18
Mom had us washing our undergarments early on.
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