Oof. I just put a batch of vintage clothing in to soak, which is a whole big production requiring putting a plastic tub in my bathtub (because they’re going to be soaking for at least a full day and I still need to shower in there tomorrow) and filling it up with yellowed dresses and Retro Clean.
This time I decided that historical laundresses probably knew what they were doing, and grabbed a metal pole to stir my DIY laundry cauldron and poke the floaty bit back under the surface. Historical laundresses were right, it works great.
As I stood there, I had a moment where I though, ‘oh wow, so many women in my family tree must have done this exact set of motions throughout history.’ Which should be a humbling and heartwarming feeling of connection, right?
Wrong. I swear I could feel twenty generations of shtetl women going “For this you went to college? You want to work with old shmattes all day, fine, but you could have saved the tuition to buy a house.”
And like. They’re right, but hey.


















