Imagine what life was like for women in the nineteenth century. Everyday tasks and chores such as cooking dinner or cleaning up multiply in complexity when compared to the standard of modern-day-living. From dawn until dusk, the time and energy it took to run a house in the nineteenth century is truly fascinating.
Housework in the nineteenth century was relatively complex and labor-intensive. Preparing even a simple meal was often time-consuming and physically draining. Although some upper-middle-class women were able to employ the services of a maid or a cook for these tedious chores, a large percentage of women did not. This meant that a relatively large number of women were doing every household chore herself or sometimes with the help of her daughters.
Prior to the invention of the electric and gas stoves, meals were prepared on either a wood-burning or coal stove. Unlike their modern counterparts, stoves in the late nineteenth century had to be monitored the entire time they were being used. The temperature of these stoves often fluctuated and therefore housewives needed to continually stoke the fire to maintain a relatively even heat source for cooking and baking. At least twice a day, the ash box was emptied, a task that required a woman to gather ashes and cinders in a grate and then dump them into a pan below. On average, a housewife spent four hours or more every day sifting ashes, adjusting dampers, lighting fires, carrying coal or wood, and rubbing the stove with thick black wax to keep it from rusting. In comparison, many modern ovens have a self-clean option that can be used on occasion. Furthermore, most modern stoves only require flipping a nob to the desired temperature.
In addition to maintenance on the stove, a housewife in the nineteenth century cooked all meals with unprocessed foods. In a modern society where the words raw and unprocessed are associated with certain health trends, redefining the nineteenth-century context is vital. The definition of unprocessed in the nineteenth-century often referred to food that was not modified before being purchased. Unprocessed foods in the nineteenth century included things such as preparing poultry that was still alive, descaling a fish before one could cook it, pounding sugar or roasting and grinding green coffee.
Cleaning was another chore that was particularly daunting in the nineteenth century. Often soot from the everpresent fireplaces and stove blackened walls and left residue on drapes and carpets. As a result, the walls, floors, carpets, and drapes were frequently washed to prevent a buildup of soot. However, simply washing these things was also time-consuming and relatively labor-intensive. Today murphy’s oil soap and a bucket of warm water, conveniently obtained from a sink inside the house, go a long way. Consequently, any cleaning in the nineteenth century that required water was particularly labor-intensive before the invention of plumbing. All the water used for laundry, cleaning, and dishwashing was hauled from a nearby hydrant, well, pump, or stream.
Laundry was perhaps the most demanding task required of a nineteenth-century housewife. Clothing was soaked for hours in warm water and then was scrubbed with lye soap. Thereafter, the housewife proceeded to churn the clothing in boiling water with a wooden stick. After this, the clothing would be rinsed and hung out to dry. The final task in the laundry sequence was pressing the clothing with hot, heavy irons to rid the garments of wrinkles. It is highly probable that a nineteenth-century housewife took an entire day or more to complete the task of laundering clothes.
Although the world of the nineteenth-century housewife appears distant from the modern conveniences of the present day, one can still experience this fascinating world. The Alpine Hills Museum has an 1890s Amish Kitchen exhibit where history seems to come alive. This kitchen reflects many of the aspects of nineteenth-century domestic life including cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Artifacts from the time period are displayed with thoughtfulness and is reflective of the experiences of many housewives from the time period.