The laundresses in Cubelles

At the end of the 19th century, the washing of clothing became a common event due to the social hygiene movement, which aimed to foster the public health and hygiene, and thus stop epidemics and infections.

Communal washhouses were places where women would go to do the laundry, but also to gather and chat. This is the origin of the Catalan idiom "fer safareig" (lit. "to do laundry"), which means "to gossip".

Doing the laundry was really a labour and had to be done no matter if it was sunny, rainy, windy or cold. The laundry process included several tasks: washing, scrubbing, rinsing and drying.

The soap women did their laundry with was homemade with used cooking oil, lye and water. They used ashes as well, for the bleaching of clothing. For soaping and scrubbing, flagstones or washboards were used, as well as brushes and washing bats. Clothes were washed and rinsed in the basins. The one where clothes had been rinsed on one day was used to wash on the next day, and the one that had been used to wash was emptied by the end of the day and filled with clean water. The water, that went in through a pipe and out through a drain, was used to irrigate the nearby orchards and vegetable gardens.

The washhouse in Cubelles was frequently used and, many times, women had to share the flagstones. They would go in the early morning, for it was the moment of the day when the water was cleaner and clearer. At the time, women used to do the laundry twice a week, although the duration and the frequency of the process depended on the number of the family members. Some mothers took their children with them and, depending on how old the children were, they cooperated in filling buckets, carrying baskets or folding garments.

Most of the women dried their laundry at home because the communal washhouse wasn't very sunny and there wasn't place enough for all of them either. But those who could not do it at home used strings that they had previously set up themselves.

>>The public washhouse in the sixties of the 20th century. Author: Antoni Pineda. Neg. 8482. Private file Antoni Pineda i Gavaldà. (AMCUB)

>>The public washhouse in 2007, before being restored. Col. Associació de dones La Fita de Cubelles (AMCUB).