Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/107

 start your washing as early as you can next morning. If you are quick you will get a boilerful on before breakfast so they can be boiling while you are at the meal and will be ready to come out when you have washed up and put your kitchen tidy. A washing board is a great help to a woman who has her own work to do, but like everything else she must learn how to use it properly or she will scrub the skin off her hands. The most approved way is to first lay the article or rather it will describe the position more clearly if I say draw it up from the tub on to the board, don’t squeeze the water out, soap it as it is (quite wet) turn it down, that is, soaped side towards the board and begin to rub, or scrub better describes the action, on or against the board. If it is a long article rub away, up and down, gradually rolling up or turning over the part you have done till you have come to the end of it and have turned it completely over, then rub that side in the same way, but unless your clothes are very dirty they will not need such very particular treatment. A few good energetic rubs on the board and they should do. As each article is washed wring it out, and if table linen just rub a little soap on any gravy or grease stains and put into the boiler which should be on the fire half filled with cold water, the soap shredded and one tablespoonful of washing soda in it. As you wash each piece shake it out and put into the boiler, the water in which may be warm at the time, but must not be boiling. To avoid this, when you have filled the boiler add more cold water and then let it come to the boil, and boil as fast as it likes for half an hour or more, never less. While that boilerful is on, go on washing, so that you may have enough to fill again directly those are out. Here will be the best place for me to say something about washing powders and fluids of which there are so many on the market. I think I have tried all or most of them and I do not believe any one of them has saved me half an hour’s labour or made my clothes any whiter than I could get them with the ordinary soap and soda. Some of them ruin the clothes, others turn them yellow after a few washings. When washing very greasy or dirty things a tablespoonful of kerosene added to the boiler is a great help, but unless put in just at the right moment, which is when boiling, it is useless. When your clothes have boiled the half hour and been properly poked under with the “pot stick” so that everything has been boiled, they are ready to come out. Place a tub close to the boiler, I am persumingpresuming [sic] that you have no proper copper but merely the large oval boiler placed on a few bricks out in the back yard. Put a couple of clean boards across the tub, a basket in it or anything so that you can drain the clothes. Leave them to drain while you are preparing the blue water, which is done as follows:—Fill or half fill (it is