This was how your great-great-grandmother started her week. Keep in mind that "one wash, one boiling, and one rinse used about fifty gallons of water--or four hundred pounds--which had to be moved from pump or well or faucet to stove and tub, in buckets and wash boilers that might weigh as much as forty or fifty pounds."

Without miracle fabrics, washing machines, or detergents, getting clothes really clean was a complicated process, described in almost identical detail by [household-advice writers] Catharine Beecher in 1841 and Helen Campbell forty years later as the "common mode of washing." Sort the clothes first by color, fabric, and degree of soil, they suggested, and soak them overnight in separate tubs full of warm water; with few soaps or washing fluids, overnight soaking saved "considerable labor." The next morning, drain off that water and pour hot suds on the finest clothes. . . . Wash each article in that suds bath, rubbing it against the washboard. Wring them out, rub soap on the most soiled spots, then cover them with water in the boiler on the stove and "boil them up." . . . Take them out of the boiler, rub dirty spots again, rinse in plain water, wring out, rinse again in water with bluing, wring very dry, dip the articles to be stiffened in starch, and wring once more. Hang clothes on the line until perfectly dry. And while that load is on the line, repeat the entire process on progressively coarser and dirtier loads of clothes. (from "Blue Monday," in Susan Strasser's Never Done: A History of American Housework)

Imagine the work this would involve, just for two people. Now imagine a family with ten children, or with boarders (very common in, say, the coal fields). Now imagine trying to get brick dust out of those clothes, or consider the fate of the clean clothes on the line in a town where the air is full of industrial soot. Imagine the amount of fuel (coal or wood) necessary to haul to keep those stoves at top heat for boiling these enormous quantities of water. Imagine trying to wring out long wool dresses by hand. Imagine babies crawling around the kitchen, getting burnt on stoves or scalded by spilled water. Imagine all of the ironing that came next. And then imagine you repeat this chore, Monday after Monday after Monday, for the rest of your life.