Improvements to the Dungeon - Talking Laundry

Like so many millions of other homemakers, my laundry "room" is in the unfinished basement.   When we built our house in 2005 we had lots of great ideas and plans, which included finishing the basement.   But over the years cancer, lack of finances and lack of energy (called old age) have taken their toll.   Making the laundry area look good was WAY down on the "home improvement priority list".   But recently we decided that something could be done to improve things, however small.
     First on the list I wanted a nice large table for folding laundry.  Then I wanted to incorporate a couple of antique washing day items we had.  Many years ago when Harold was an over the road truck driver, he went to a garage sale in Winnipeg Canada and saw an old clothes wringer, hand-crank style.   He thought it was interesting and bought it as a conversation piece with the idea he might be able to sell it as an antique someday.   Also, somewhere along the line, we inherited an old washboard.  We have no idea where or when we got it, but it, too, is an interesting conversation piece.  I thought these two items would be great to hang on a wall in my laundry area!
     First we had to finish the one wall in the area.   Since we both hate working with sheet rock, we decided that painted plywood would be just fine!  After a couple of evenings the wall was up and painted and I even put up a bit of wallpaper trim I got for free somewhere.   Meanwhile Harold built and painted a really nice, sturdy table for the laundry area - 4 ft x 5 ft.   Another reason for wanting a big table is that I have a laundry chute, which comes from upstairs down into the laundry area, and I needed a big place for the clothes to fall down on.   Also the large table will be great for a cutting table for my many sewing and craft projects!
     Here is a photo of the antique clothes wringer that Harold bought in Canada back in 1998 or so.

The front side of the Dowswell, Lees & Co wringer.  The writing on the front of the bottom board says:  "Wringers last longer and work better if clothes are evenly spread out and not bunched or twisted when passing through the rollers.   Always remove pressure from rollers by releasing top screws when not in use.   Keep bearings well lubricated.  Oil injures the rubbers."   I wonder how you can oil the bearings without getting oil on the rubber rollers?  Perhaps folks back then knew how!

Can you just imagine the work it took to hand crank and push and pull the clothes through the wringer?  Multiply that times the loads of wash and the number of household members, and you get an idea of just how busy Mother was!!

A close-up of the back of the clothes wringer.  A search on the internet showed this wringer to be about circa pre-1930 vintage and worth about $40 to $90

     Another item is the washboard.   I am not sure how old this item is, but with research on web sites my best guess is around 1940 or so.  During the WWII years, washboards were often made out of heavy duty glass so as to save metal for the war cause.

I have tried to find out what the 725 number means.  Numbers go up to 830 and the company went out of business in the early 1950's.   Cajun bands are about the only ones who use these old washboards now!

Here is the nice table Harold made for me:

And here is everything put together:

The laundry chute and my finished folding area.   The washing machine and dryer and tub is off to the right in this photo.   The laundry "room" is still a little rustic, but vastly improved!

Speaking of laundry stuff, I can remember helping my own mother put clothes through the wringer back in the late 50's.  I was just about 9 years old then.  When she would do a load of whites and the items went through the wringer, she would put them in "bluing" to whiten them.    If you can remember bluing, then you are as old as I am!  My Mom got a new washer and dryer sometime in the 1960's and gave up the old wringer washer, but it was fun for me as a kid helping her with the clothes back in those wringer days.   I also remember that boxes of laundry soap came with bath towels inside the box!  Boxes of Duz Detergent had nifty bath towels tucked inside.   I think every home had those towels, fairly thin flowered towels.  They weren't as thick and big as today's bath towels, but we thought they were something special!  I also enjoyed hanging clothes outside for my Mom.  I still love to hang clothes outside!   They come in so fresh smelling!  I am so glad I live in the country where the air is really fresh and breezy so that I can hang lines of laundry.  Perhaps few women do this today, but I still enjoy it.
      As for appliances, I am still using my old Maytag washer bought in 1983.  All those commercials about the "lonely Maytag repairman" are true!   I haven't had a thing go wrong with the washing machine since then.  We are also using a dryer that Harold had given to him 15 years ago, used, a Whirlpool.   I think those old American made appliances were pretty good back then.   Today's washing machines are something else, though, aren't they?   Huge, using a minimum of water and soap, and special kind of soap, and high efficiency (and very expensive, too!).   We sure have come a long way from using the old wringers and washboards, haven't we?