Could You Survive Without Modern Appliances?

Here in the 21st century, we take our push-button conveniences for granted, as long as they're working. We may gripe about emptying the dishwasher or folding laundry, but these tasks are a minor nuisance compared with the hard, manual labor that was needed just a century ago to keep the average home clean. The next time you're waiting for the microwave to heat a meal in minutes, think back to the way things were, and you'll find a new appreciation for our modern solutions.

Laundry
In the 1900s, most homes still lacked electricity, so laundry was a manual task. Using a metal washboard and a large basin, clothes and linens were scrubbed by hand with strong soap, sometimes with lye, a highly alkaline cleaner that can eat through skin in high concentrations. Laundry was then clipped to clotheslines to dry. Some people still air-dry their clothes and linens, because air drying imparts a natural freshness to the fabric.

If you lived in a city, you might have used a laundry service. Horse-drawn carriages, and later motorized trucks, would take laundry to a central facility where steam-powered washers would clean it. Manglers used to wring out the laundry before drying presented the risk of death or mutilation to employees, many of whom were children.

Cooking
If you lived near a large city, you may have been lucky enough to have a gas stove. These worked exactly like the gas stoves of today, with one exception: the gas was usually turned off when the stove wasn't in use, and cooks would need to keep a supply of wooden matches handy for the pilot light.

If you didn't have gas, you cooked with wood, building a fire inside the stove to heat the cooking surfaces. This required firewood, patience and a good deal of experience to learn how to control the temperature. To prepare a family dinner, cooking had to begin in midafternoon to prepare the stove. During winter, the stove often doubled as a heat source for the home. Regular cleaning of the interior and the vent were needed to prevent chimney fires.

Trash Removal
Americans living at the start of the 20th century didn't generate as much trash as we do today. Individually packaged products were scarce, and the tins and cans used in packaging often found new uses around the home. At that time, ash removal was a bigger problem, since the average American generated 200 pounds of rubbish and garbage a year and more than 300 pounds of ash.

Large cities began building incinerators to remove trash and garbage in the late 1800s. People living outside of cities would have to haul their rubbish to the local dump, since curbside collection didn't exist. This could be a time-consuming trip, and many homes had garbage piled up outside. One novel solution to the garbage problem was the in-ground disposal, a cast-iron lid with a foot lever that was placed over a deep hole. Food waste could be thrown into the hole and covered, keeping animals away and allowing it to decompose naturally.

Housekeeping
Dishes, like clothes, were scrubbed by hand, and the lack of hot water meant that strong cleaners like lye were frequently used.

In most homes, you were far more likely to find wood floors than carpet. Wood could be swept and polished, while carpet had to be taken outdoors and beaten by hand until it was clean. Not that washing floors was much simpler. Although early mops existed, most people still used a sponge and a bucket of water to scrub floors clean.

Wealthy families would have an entire staff to see to various housekeeping needs. In average homes, everyone would pitch in with housekeeping duties. Women handled much of the cooking and laundry, while children helped with general cleaning. Men would need to split logs for fires, perform home repairs and take garbage to the dump.

Beginning in 1905, the centuries-old traditions of housekeeping began to disappear as electricity became common in homes. This brought a new generation of reliable household appliances that freed people from everyday chores.