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Things that used to be common place in people’s homes

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takno

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We called them ‘Ewbanks’ after the manufacturers name, like Hoovers.
I don't know if we ever needed a word for it. There would just be some strangled shouting about crumbs, and it would be clear what needed to happen next.
 
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talltim

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HaHa, you've given me a chuckle :lol: - no not what I meant. I was suggesting that an alternative method of cleaning the toilet bowl would be by using some toilet paper, after which you'd need to wash your hands properly!
How do you scrub below the waterline with toilet paper, even if you can get past the 'putting your hand in there side' of things?

Yes, pretty much throughout the house.

They are vital, in combination with blackout linings on the curtains, in avoiding any ingress of light into the room at night.
I just shut my eyes
 

swt_passenger

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There must still be a fair few washing machines around which have hot and cold inlets. My current washing machine only has cold, but the previous one (which died after its extended warranty elapsed - grr) had both, and it was less than ten years ago that it was purchased.
I’ve just changed out a dual feed washing machine, although it was about 20 years old. IIRC the logic for dropping hot fill was that the vast majority of machines were far enough away from the stored hot water that the hot fill was effectively unused, due to the amount of cold sitting in the pipes. The latest machines use far less water usually at relatively low temperatures anyway.

So with it being unlikely hot fill will ever be needed again I decided to rationalise the fixed plumbing to get rid of some poor quality pipe work and soldering from the original build...
 

SHD

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How do you scrub below the waterline with toilet paper, even if you can get past the 'putting your hand in there side' of things?

With a spare roll of Izal!

Have travel guides been mentioned? I have not bought one since 2010 or so, although I fancy reading outdated ones, sometimes seriously outdated.
 

S&CLER

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With a spare roll of Izal!

Have travel guides been mentioned? I have not bought one since 2010 or so, although I fancy reading outdated ones, sometimes seriously outdated.
Seriously outdated travel guides are great for rail travel because they take it as the norm and give you advice on what to look out for from the carriage window, which side to sit on etc. I toured Austria and Hungary with my 1914 Baedeker of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and have others of similar date for several other European countries.
 

trainophile

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When I was caring for my elderly parents in their home back in 2002-2007 their dual fill washing machine was a godsend as a load only took about 35 minutes, likewise their tumble dryer that wasn't a condenser but had a tube that you stuck through the window and took half the time of a modern condenser dryer. I was able to do all their washing in my three hours visits. At one time cold fill only machines were pretty much unknown. Had a big shock when we tried to replace our dual fill one and could no longer get one.
 
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trebor79

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Ebac still do dual fill washing machines.
On the subject of laundry - twin tub machines. My grandmother had one and when it broke in the early 90s bought another. Came with Formica worktop so it formed a kitchen counter when not in use.
 

xotGD

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One problem with a hot fill washing machine is that unless you remember to run the hot tap in the sink first it just fills the machine with cold water from the pipework. By the time the hot water has worked its way through it has stopped filling.
 

takno

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One problem with a hot fill washing machine is that unless you remember to run the hot tap in the sink first it just fills the machine with cold water from the pipework. By the time the hot water has worked its way through it has stopped filling.
That's true of some houses, and certainly became more true with the growth of combi-boilers over hot water tanks. It isn't by any means universally true though. It's a bit frustrating that they aren't available at all. The modern move of course is to washing everything at barely-above cold anyway, and then only being able to wear clothes once as a result because they fundamentally aren't clean.
 

swt_passenger

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Ebac still do dual fill washing machines.
On the subject of laundry - twin tub machines. My grandmother had one and when it broke in the early 90s bought another. Came with Formica worktop so it formed a kitchen counter when not in use.
Laundry machinery such as twin tubs, spin dryers and mangles etc was well discussed at the very start of the thread...
 

najaB

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The modern move of course is to washing everything at barely-above cold anyway, and then only being able to wear clothes once as a result because they fundamentally aren't clean.
If you use the correct detergent, clothes are just as clean at 40°C as they would have been at 60° or even 80° using traditional formulations. With the added advantage that they last longer and you use significantly less energy to wash them.
 

PG

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The modern move of course is to washing everything at barely-above cold anyway, and then only being able to wear clothes once as a result because they fundamentally aren't clean.
If you use the correct detergent, clothes are just as clean at 40°C as they would have been at 60° or even 80° using traditional formulations. With the added advantage that they last longer and you use significantly less energy to wash them.
We now have machines with 20° and 30° normal wash cycles with anything higher being considered niche. I'll go along with 30° but 20° seems a bit pointless - might as well just wash on the cold cycle and have done with it!
 

najaB

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We now have machines with 20° and 30° normal wash cycles with anything higher being considered niche. I'll go along with 30° but 20° seems a bit pointless - might as well just wash on the cold cycle and have done with it!
I agree that 20° seems a bit on the cold side, but I suppose during winter the incoming water might be down to 10° or less so it's still better than not heating the water at all.
 

dgl

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When I was caring for my elderly parents in their home back in 2002-2007 their dual fill washing machine was a godsend as a load only took about 35 minutes, likewise their tumble dryer that wasn't a condenser but had a tube that you stuck through the window and took half the time of a modern condenser dryer. I was able to do all their washing in my three hours visits. At one time cold fill only machines were pretty much unknown. Had a big shock when we tried to replace our dual fill one and could no longer get one.
Remember though that the old vented dryers are horrendously inefficient, iirc none got above a C energy rating and even that was rare, our Heat Pump Condenser might take a while but it's A+++ rated and only uses ~1.5kWh for a full load on it's default cottons setting.
 

trainophile

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Remember though that the old vented dryers are horrendously inefficient, iirc none got above a C energy rating and even that was rare, our Heat Pump Condenser might take a while but it's A+++ rated and only uses ~1.5kWh for a full load on it's default cottons setting.

Vented was the word I was looking for! I don't really count the cost money-wise when it comes to added convenience, although I suppose I should respect the effect on the planet, which is probably why those old style machines became obsolete.

You can get detergent that reckons it gives as good a result in a cold wash as you would get from a hot one. Sometimes I will use 20 or 30 degrees if I'm not sure whether something might shrink, but very rarely.
 

PeterC

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Looking at the discussion on washing machines reminded me that back in the 50s and 60s most people would normally wear the same garment for several days. Now everthing that I wear next to my skin gets washed daily which means that most things never get dirty enough to need a hot wash.

My old school now mandates white shirts for boys. In my day there would have been uproar from mothers who normally put their little boys into grey shirts to avoid "showing the dirt".
 

najaB

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Looking at the discussion on washing machines reminded me that back in the 50s and 60s most people would normally wear the same garment for several days. Now everthing that I wear next to my skin gets washed daily which means that most things never get dirty enough to need a hot wash.
Maybe I'm just showing how manky I am, but other than in the warmest of summers I'll get at least two days wear out of everything, including undergarmets. Especially in winter.
 

DelW

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Frequency of clothes washing must have increased massively with the switch from hand washing to twin tub machines to automatic machines. Unfortunately this must not only increase electricity and water consumption to some extent, but also the quantities of micro and nano fibres going into the environment and the ocean.

I think we may come under pressure from environmental campaigners to reduce the amount of clothes washing done. I remember watching a documentary a few years ago featuring a woman (ironically, complaining about her electricity bill) who changed her children's clothes three or four times in a day, meaning she ran her washing machine at least once every day.

I used to change shirts and underwear daily when I was working, but since retiring (and with Covid restrictions, not seeing anyone "close up" for weeks on end), I've gone to two days as default, subject to nothing being spilt on them, and passing the "sniff test" on the second morning. I hope that's benefiting the environment as well as my electricity bill, plus extending the lifetime of my clothes.
 

takno

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Maybe I'm just showing how manky I am, but other than in the warmest of summers I'll get at least two days wear out of everything, including undergarmets. Especially in winter.
I think that's a lot more common than might be indicated in surveys tbh. Now we're in lockdown I wouldn't guarantee getting dressed for more than an hour every day, and I'm not washing stuff I've only worn for an hour
 

trebor79

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With lockdown and home working intend to wear the same shirt for a week. I changed my jeans this week having worn them for 4 weeks.
 

SargeNpton

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Looking at the discussion on washing machines reminded me that back in the 50s and 60s most people would normally wear the same garment for several days. Now everthing that I wear next to my skin gets washed daily which means that most things never get dirty enough to need a hot wash.

My old school now mandates white shirts for boys. In my day there would have been uproar from mothers who normally put their little boys into grey shirts to avoid "showing the dirt".
I'd suggest that the habit of wearing something for several days has mostly died out (underwear, socks and shirts particularly) as people have moved on from having one bath a week to having a daily shower.
 

takno

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I'd suggest that the habit of wearing something for several days has mostly died out (underwear, socks and shirts particularly) as people have moved on from having one bath a week to having a daily shower.
I'm not convinced that's quite as prevalent as surveys would have you believe either tbh.
 

birchesgreen

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With lockdown and home working intend to wear the same shirt for a week. I changed my jeans this week having worn them for 4 weeks.
Thats me too, though to be honest i was like that before lockdown...

I don't see the point of changing and washing your clothes every day unless you work in a dirty strenuous job. I work in IT not down a coal mine.
 

PG

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I'd suggest that the habit of wearing something for several days has mostly died out
Did you mean it was the practice itself or those who did it who died out :lol:
[apologies for my weird sense of humour]

as people have moved on from having one bath a week to having a daily shower.
That reminds me of older cousins who were seemingly all thrown into the bath together - presumably from a time when hot water was a scarce commodity!
 

najaB

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That reminds me of older cousins who were seemingly all thrown into the bath together - presumably from a time when hot water was a scarce commodity!
My brothers and I weren't thrown in together, but the bath was only half-emptied and refilled between baths when we lived in a house where the water was heated by a coal fired back boiler. And I'm only 45 years old.
 

Jimini

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Now you mention it, I remember sharing a bath with my brother in the '80s when we were young (probably me 4 and him 6, or thereabouts). I also remember him popping a little turd out once -- I've never moved so quickly!!
 

takno

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That reminds me of older cousins who were seemingly all thrown into the bath together - presumably from a time when hot water was a scarce commodity!
I thought pretty much all small kids had to share baths with siblings when I was little. In many ways it still seems like the most practical way to supervise two small kids at once if you are bathing them.
 

johnnychips

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I only used to have one bath a week, with Fairy Liquid in the tub - I am not lying - but we also had to have two compulsory naked showers a week after PE or sport at school, so I don’t suppose we smelt that bad.
 
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