Sadie took the clothes and hung them on a line outside. Some people also hung their clothes in the basement next to the wood stove. This process took a good portion of the day. Drying took all day. Only when the clothes were dry, did the ironing take place.
To iron the freshly dried clothes, Sadie took the iron and set it on the stove to heat up. Then she placed the clothing on a pantry board, or table, and one piece at a time ironed the clothing to get the wrinkles out. This could only happen when the iron was hot. She did this for all of her family’s laundry.
When Rena was young, her mother did this chore. As Rena grew older, she helped. Washing the clothes took two to three hours. Some women also did laundry for other people, such as neighbors and friends, to make extra money. This, of course, was not as easy as people think. Women, such as Rena’s mother, put a lot of effort into keeping not only their clothes neat, but keeping their families in order as well.