Twenty-some odd years ago, at a Thanksgiving Dinner attended by my eighties something mother-in-law Josie Treggett of Ellenburg Depot and her son's equally aged mother-in-law, I asked the two venerable ladies what was the most important invention that had been made in their time.  Their reply was instantaneous and unanimous:  "The Washing Machine".  Needless to say, my experience with domestic washing back in the early decades of the 20th century was non-existent.  I just had no idea how much work was involved.  Modern detergents didn't come of age until World War 1, due to a scarcity of fats used in making soap.  Well water was often far too hard from dissolved minerals, which  made washing with soap virtually impossible unless you had a rain barrel to collect soft water.
Modern detergents carry their own water softener, making things a bit easier, but we still need a water softener for eveeryday use.

Thirty years before Josie Treggett was born, Ivory Soap published this ad, pointing out that clothes had to be boiled to release accumulated sweat and grime, to say nothing of killing off stray bacteria.  This was done, of course, on a cast iron stove, in the heat and humidity of summer and the cold of winter. Few houses in the north had a summer kitchen outdoors.   Drying was done on the clothesline, which to this day has several advantages over an electric or gas heated rotary dryer.  All of my grandparents and great-grandparents did have a young servant girl, usually Irish, to help out with domestic duties.  Not everyone was so fortunate.  Even with help, doing the wash was pure drudgery.  But no complaint has drifted down to my generation.  Our ancestors were made of great stuff.  We should be proud of them and respect them for the daily work that they did with their bare hands.