Laundry.

[Yeps]

Just out of curiousity (that and my novel for National Novel Writing Month),

How would a young bachelor have done his laundry in the 1920s?

For that matter, when were laundromats started? Dry Cleaning? Home washing machines?

 

[Corky]

It depends.

An unmarried Detective would drop off his week's worth of shirts at the Chinese laundry, pick them up (along with some key information) a few days later.

A single Merchant Seaman does his laundry once a week using the wringer washing machine supplied for that purpose in the foc'sle and hangs it up to dry in the chain locker.

On the edge of the prairie, a lone Cowboy would saddle his horse and ride the animal across a river in flood and lets his outfit dry on his back.

Your callow Young Bachelor lives in a one room flat on the third floor of a walk-up tenement. He owns one suit and needs to conserve his funds. So he alternates his shirts and washes his extra one each night with brown lye soap in his bathtub (located in his kitchen) and hangs it out to dry on the clothesline that stretches over the air shaft between his building and the one next door.

Click on any of the following:

When were laundromats started?

Dry cleaning?

Home washing machines?

 

[Yeps]

Thank you very much.