Wash Tubs | Laundry Tubs | Single | Double | Aluminum
If you were growing up in the early to mid 1900s you may have remembered the wringer washer and wash tubs used on laundry day.
Laundry day was a weekly event held in just about every home. It began by setting up the wash equipment which consisted of a wringer or hand operated washing machine and laundry tubs.
Most stored the wringer washer out on a back porch and would wheel it into the kitchen or even outside to fill with a garden hose.
A drain hose would also have to be attached and ran outside or around the side of the house in order to gravity feed when it was time to drain the washing machine tank.
Wash tubs were also attached to a frame on wheels so that they could be wheeled in next to the washing machine.
They were also equipped with a drain valve and standard garden hose connection to drain to the outside.
Yes washing in the winter months was a chore, but without automated spin washers and dryers wash day was a dreaded weekly necessity.
As the clothes were processed in the agitation cycle, the machine would be drained leaving sopping wet clothes in the tank that would need to be removed for the next load. This is where the wash tubs came into play.
Using a double laundry tub the homeowner could place the wet clothes into one side and then using a portable clothes wringer attached between the tubs wring out access water into the second tub and then take the clothes on outside to be hung up on the clothes line.
On the more modern wringer washers the clothes could be wrung out back into the machine tub and then placed over into a single wash tub until it was time to take them outside to dry.
Wash tubs would also be used to presoak or wash out the heavy dirt from farming and gardening before placing items in with other clothes into the machine.
Over the years the popular wash tub became a versatile home piece of equipment used in home canning, butchering, washing dishes, babies, and even icing the beverages down for the 4th of July picnic.
The large tubs are like having a double commercial deep sink, to take care of the big water wash related chores.
Having a set with a lid on top made them a handy counter top for a back porch or even in the corner of a kitchen.
In fact wash tubs are still popular today for many of the same purposes even if they are not being used in the weekly laundry event.
These all aluminum wash tubs are being manufactured and used by the Amish but are available for sale at Cottage Craft Works .com sustainable living general store.
