Directions for washing:

1. Have plenty of hot water before beginning the washing. If possible the water should be soft; if it is not, soften it as directed on pages 252 and 253.

2. Make a soap solution; use one cake of soap to two or three quarts of water.

3. Rinse the clothes from water in which they were soaked, removing as much of the dirt as possible. Parts of the clothing that are very much soiled should be rubbed a little and rinsed in fresh water before the garments are put into a tub or a washing-machine. The precaution of rinsing saves wear and tear on the whole garment.

4. Pour warm water into tub or washing-machine; if the water is hard, soften it with washing-soda solution or borax. Add enough soap solution or soap to make a good suds. A tablespoon of turpentine, kerosene, or benzine may be added to the washing water as well as to the water in which clothing has soaked. Put in clothes to be washed. Rubbing is essential for soiled garments. It may be accomplished in one of two ways: by using the washboard and old-fashioned tub, or by using a washing-machine. It is well to have a board for very soiled parts, such as hems and edges, but the washing-machine is a great improvement on the older method.

Whenever the water becomes dirty, use fresh suds. Clothes cannot be made clean without the use of plenty of water. Keep up a good suds while washing, and add hot water from time to time. If a washing-machine is used, do not put enough water in the machine to float the clothes; if this is done, they will escape the mechanical action of the dasher and will not be sufficiently rubbed. Clothes should be wrung from the wash water through the wringer. The screws of the wringer should be adjusted to bring its rolls close together and clothing should be folded so as to give it an even thickness in passing through the wringer; for heavier garments loosen the screws of the wringer. Fold in buttons and hooks and turn the wringer slowly.

5. A second suds is generally necessary, though it may be omitted if the clothing has been only slightly soiled. Shake out clothes wrung from the first suds, look them over for soiled parts, turn them wrong side out, and drop them into a second suds. Wash and wring them ready for boiling.

6. Clothes should be clean before they are boiled, as the boiling process is intended not so much to remove visible dirt as to destroy germs and purify the clothing as well as to whiten it. Boiling is omitted when a naphtha soap is used, because the soap loses its effect in very hot water; it is asserted that boiling is not needed because naphtha itself is a purifier. Nevertheless, at least once a month, the clothing washed at other times with naphtha soap should be boiled.

Fill the boiler half full of cold water; if the water is hard, soften it. Add enough soap solution to make a fight suds. Half fill the boiler with clothes, wrung and shaken out from the last suds. Use plenty of water and do not put too many clothes into the boiler. Bring the water very gradually to the boiling point, and boil it for ten minutes.

Kerosene or turpentine is sometimes added to the boiler water to counteract the yellow color given clothing by the use of the dark resin soaps. It is better to avoid kerosene and turpentine at this point if possible, because clothing treated by them requires very thorough rinsing to remove the odor. Each boilerful of clothes should be started with clean cold water. Cloths or clothes containing lampblack or machine oil may be placed in the hot water left in the boiler after the last clothes have been wrung from it. Kerosene or turpentine should then be added, since they are the solvents for such dirt. ___

7. Rinsing is an important part of the washing process, for if soap or some of the strong alkalis are left in the cloth, they may be very detrimental in the bluing or starching process.

If water is hard, it should be softened for rinsing with either borax or ammonia and not with washing-soda. The rinsing water should be hot. The clothes should be slowly lifted with a clean stick from the boiler into a dishpan, and drained or wrung and shaken before being put into the rinse water. It is not always practicable to use more than one rinse water before bluing the clothes, but better results are obtained when the clothes are rinsed more than once. With some kinds of bluing, the presence of soap or an alkali precipitates the blue as iron-rust. If the starch used is not pure, and any lye or washing-soda or soap has been left in the cloth, a yellow color is produced from the starch impurities by the action of those alkalis. Wring the clothes from the rinsing water, and shake them out.

8. It is impossible to give any rule for the amount of bluing to use or the depth of color to be decided on. Some fabrics, such as soft, loosely-woven ones, absorb more bluing than others. The amount of bluing to be used is a matter for experimentation by the launderer. Clothes should not be allowed to stand in the bluing water, as they might become streaked.

If a ball bluing is used, tie it in a thick cloth, wet, and squeeze it into a bowlful of hot water. Use a part of the resulting solution for bluing the water. More of the bluing in the bowl should be added to the bluing in the tub from time to time as the clothing takes it up. As some kinds of bluing are in the form of minute particles, the bluing water should be stirred each time before adding clothes to it. After they are wrung, unstarched clothes will then be ready for drying.

9. Make the starch according to directions on pages 259 to 261. Starch those garments requiring thick starch first, because moisture from the clothing gradually thins the starch, and a medium stiff, medium thin, and thin starch gradually result.

Stiff starch: Collars, cuffs, shirt bosoms.

Medium stiff starch: Shirt waists, collars and cuffs, coarse lace curtains.

Medium thin starch: White petticoats, duck skirts, and some dresses.

Thin starch: Skirts and dresses when a stiff finish is not desired; shirt waists.

Clear starch: Infants' dresses, fine laces, curtains, light-weight table linen when it is desirable to give it some body.

Raw starch: Collars, cuffs, shirt bosoms when an extra stiffness is desired; some light curtains.

The starch should be thoroughly worked into the cloth so as to distribute it evenly through the threads of the fabric. Such working insures a smooth, even stiffness and prevents starch spots in ironing. All garments starched with boiled starch should be dried thoroughly before being dampened. They should be dampened several hours before being ironed. If articles are to be raw-starched, they should be thoroughly dried first. They are then dipped into the raw starch and rubbed as for washing, squeezed dry, and spread out on a clean sheet or cloth, but not one over the other. They should cover only half the sheet. The other half of the sheet should be folded over them. Then the sheet with its contents should be rolled tightly and allowed to stand for two or three hours to insure even distribution of moisture.

10. When possible the process of drying should accomplish more than the mere removal of moisture. Clothing should be hung where it will be freely exposed to the action of fresh air and sunshine. Such exposure purifies and bleaches at the same time.

The launderer should be provided with a clothes-pin bag or, better still, with a clothes-pin apron having a deep wide pocket.

When possible, lines should be taken down each week, but when they cannot be, they should be well wiped with a damp cloth before hanging up clothes. The clothes-pins should be clean. Each article should be , turned wrong side out and hung with the threads of the material straight; the garment should be shaped as nearly as possible in its natural shape. Avoid hanging pieces by corners, for thus hung they would be pulled out of shape. Fasten garments by their bands when possible. Table linen, bed linen, and towels should be well stretched and hung very straight; the larger pieces should be pinned in at least four places, as it is nearly impossible to iron properly a piece that has been improperly hung. Careful hanging greatly reduces the labor of ironing. When the clothes are brought in from the line, the clothes-pins should be put into the apron or basket kept for that purpose and placed where they will be clean.

Starched pieces should not be allowed to freeze and should be removed from the line as soon as dry. Long hanging reduces their stiffness. If flannel underwear is properly stretched and hung, it may be folded and put away without further treatment.

11. Clothes should be dampened some hours before being ironed, because during the interval between moistening and ironing the moisture becomes distributed evenly and does away with the necessity of using a superfluous amount of water. The dampening is best done at night, but only as many articles should be sprinkled as can be ironed next day, for damp fabric will mildew if left wet for a few days, especially in hot weather. Although clothes should be well dampened, they should not be drenched. Very often, trouble in ironing starched pieces is owing to overwetting. The starched part is soaked and made limp and sticky. A clean whisk-broom kept for the purpose is the best thing to use for sprinkling clothes. Some persons have used a toy sprinkling pot. There is, however, a danger in its use, for it may rust and give rise to rust spots on clothing. Large pieces should be sprinkled and folded separately. Small pieces may be sprinkled and laid together before folding. Care should be taken to fold and roll garments smoothly, since this aids in their ironing. The rolls of dampened pieces should be packed closely in a basket lined with a clean cloth and covered with a clean cloth.

Table linen and other linen should be made very damp, not wet. If table linen is sprinkled with a mixture of one part alcohol and four parts water, the result after ironing will be a slight stiffness resembling that of new linen.

If an ironing machine is used, unstarched pieces may be removed from the line while still damp and ironed immediately without the preliminary sprinkling.