[ClumsyPilot]

Have your ever seen what it's like to wash clothes by hand? It's like a 3 hour hour process. Its arduous, tedious, and keeoing the house in order used to be a full-time job

Washing machine has done more to liberate women than all political efforts combined.

[tootie]

I think the distinction is we have 50X more clothing to wash. And it's partly because washing is so easy. I have a family of four and spend a lot of time folding clean clothes.

[ClumsyPilot]

I am not sure how this works. Even if you have a million pairs of pants, you only wear, and hence need to wash, one at a time.

My grandma really spent a lot of time washing clothes, so i dont think this is a significant factor

[IlliOnato]

I grew up in Russia in 70th and 80th, and most people around me were wearing the same cloths all week long. On Saturday you would have a bath and done a fresh set of underwear at least, perhaps a shirt too.

Women typically would change a bit more often, and generally tried to have fresh panties every day (they would wash them separately from the main laundry). Men who considered themselves sophisticated would change _socks_ every day, but this was a minority. Nobody washed a shirt that they only wore once. Nobody washed pants until they had visible spots or smelled really bad.

And these were civilized XX century households, with access to hot and cold running water, gas, and electricity (but not always a bath or a shower, and rarely a washing machine).

Try wearing the same briefs and socks and shirt for a week, and you will show much you reduce your laundry load...