Secrets from the Past Part 1: Vintage Household Hacks, Bizarre Remedies & Lost Cleaning Tricks | The Strange History Podcast

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, my beautifully strange history lovers, Welcome back. Today we

0:04 Speaker 1: begin a two episode ad venture into the practical and

0:08 Speaker 1: occasionally deeply unhinged world of vintage household hacks. These were

0:13 Speaker 1: the tricks used by people who lived in a world

0:15 Speaker 1: where cleaning wasn't a chore, it was a moral ranking system.

0:20 Speaker 1: Your worth as a human being was measured by how

0:23 Speaker 1: shiny your stovetop was, and if you bought something new,

0:27 Speaker 1: you were expected to keep it forever, have it in

0:30 Speaker 1: your will, and pass it down to at least three generations.

0:34 Speaker 1: So grab your vinegar, your emotional baggage, and possibly something alcoholic.

0:39 Speaker 1: Because some of these tips are brilliant and some are

0:42 Speaker 1: absolutely a cry for help, let's get started.

0:45 Speaker 2: Cleaning and maintenance also known as things people tried before, magic, erasers,

0:51 Speaker 2: and therapy, the vinegar, soap, scum miracle.

0:57 Speaker 1: All right, vinegar the unofficial mas mascot of old fashioned cleaning.

1:02 Speaker 1: Victorians adored vinegar. They used it to clean surfaces, brighten laundry,

1:08 Speaker 1: disinfect wounds, preserve food, deodorized kitchen drains, treat headaches, remove

1:13 Speaker 1: ink stains, and, based on some journals, probably solve marital disputes.

1:21 Speaker 1: One eighteen ninety two Housekeeping Guide confidently announces vinegar restores

1:26 Speaker 1: not only porcelain and glass, but order to the home,

1:30 Speaker 1: which is such a Victorian sentence. It sounds both poetic

1:33 Speaker 1: and passive, aggressive, like the author wrote it while staring

1:37 Speaker 1: directly at someone leaving muddy footprints. And truthfully it works

1:42 Speaker 1: even today. Vinegar slices through soap scum like it has

1:46 Speaker 1: a personal vendetta against bathtubs. The downside, your bathroom smells

1:52 Speaker 1: like pickles and sorrow for about an hour, but honestly

1:56 Speaker 1: worth it.

1:57 Speaker 2: Fixing scratched furniture with a walnut.

2:00 Speaker 1: Now this is one of those hacks where hearing it

2:03 Speaker 1: makes you pause and wonder who discovered it and what

2:06 Speaker 1: emotional state they were in, because I imagine the first

2:10 Speaker 1: person rubbing a walnut across their dining table wasn't confident.

2:14 Speaker 1: They weren't thinking ah, yes, science, they were thinking, well,

2:20 Speaker 1: nothing else has worked. Let's see what happens if I

2:23 Speaker 1: feed the furniture. But it works. The oils darkened, scratches,

2:28 Speaker 1: furniture comes back to life like it just had a

2:31 Speaker 1: really good spa day, so good, in fact, that in

2:34 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties some furniture stores included a small pouch

2:39 Speaker 1: of walnuts with every table purchase. Imagine Ikea doing that today.

2:44 Speaker 2: Lemon and salt for copper and brass.

2:47 Speaker 1: Before commercial polishes existed, people relied on kitchen chemistry. Lemon

2:52 Speaker 1: plus salt equals instant shine. This hack was especially popular

2:57 Speaker 1: on ships, including the Titanic, because apparently, even if you're

3:01 Speaker 1: crossing an ocean with questionable lifeboat math, someone still wants

3:05 Speaker 1: gleaming brass railings. It's still used by chefs today, so

3:10 Speaker 1: unlike many hacks will cover, this one gets full approval

3:13 Speaker 1: from both science and history.

3:16 Speaker 2: Newspaper plus vinegar for glass and mirrors.

3:20 Speaker 1: This one fascinates me because it survived over a century.

3:24 Speaker 1: Professional cleaners, hotels, and yes, White house staff used newspaper

3:29 Speaker 1: to polish glass until the nineteen eighties. Why because old

3:34 Speaker 1: ink had oils in it that made a streak free shine,

3:37 Speaker 1: which means there is a tiny chance someone once cleaned

3:40 Speaker 1: a mirror while reading headlines about Watergate. Housekeeping meets political crisis.

3:46 Speaker 2: Coca Cola for rust removal.

3:49 Speaker 1: Coca Cola is many things, a beverage, a cultural icon,

3:54 Speaker 1: and an unofficial rust remover mechanics, especially loved this hack

3:59 Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifty They soaked tools in it, bicycle chains,

4:03 Speaker 1: nuts and bolts. Some even cleaned engine parts in it.

4:07 Speaker 1: The reason is simple, phosphoric acid dissolves rust. The funniest

4:11 Speaker 1: part people knew this and kept drinking it anyway. Humanity

4:15 Speaker 1: is a weird, humorous chaos.

4:19 Speaker 2: Polishing wood with black tea.

4:22 Speaker 1: This hack came from Victorian England, where nobody wasted tea,

4:26 Speaker 1: even leftover tea. Strong cooled tea was brushed onto floors

4:31 Speaker 1: and furniture to restore color and gloss. There's a nineteen

4:35 Speaker 1: twenty four Welsh diary that reads, the boy carved his

4:39 Speaker 1: initials into the piano bench. The tea removed it, though

4:42 Speaker 1: not the memory of his crime. That sentence feels very parental.

4:47 Speaker 2: The silver cleaning cauldron trick.

4:50 Speaker 1: Baking soda, boiling water, aluminum foil and a bowl. Combine them,

4:57 Speaker 1: drop in tarnish silver and watch the black gunk disappear,

5:00 Speaker 1: like you're performing forbidden alchemy. This hack surged during World

5:05 Speaker 1: War One, when silver polish was pricey and people had

5:08 Speaker 1: to rely on science or witchcraft, depending on how you

5:12 Speaker 1: see it. Even today, it's mesmerizing and slightly dramatic, which

5:18 Speaker 1: may be wyat survived.

5:20 Speaker 2: Cleaning wallpaper with stale bread.

5:23 Speaker 1: Yes, bread, as in, take a baguette and gently massage

5:28 Speaker 1: it against your walls. The crumbs pick up oils and

5:32 Speaker 1: dirt without scrubbing away the wallpaper pattern, which was important

5:36 Speaker 1: when wallpaper cost more than the average monthly income. A

5:40 Speaker 1: Boston hotel in the nineteen thirties actually hired teenagers to

5:44 Speaker 1: do this between guests. History truly is a buffet of

5:48 Speaker 1: questionable job descriptions.

5:50 Speaker 2: Toothpaste for shining chrome.

5:53 Speaker 1: Early toothpaste was gritty, full of chalk and mild abrasives,

5:57 Speaker 1: perfect for polishing pipes, faucets, and occasionally military buttons. There

6:03 Speaker 1: is a documented case of toothpaste being used to shine

6:06 Speaker 1: part of a B twenty nine bomber engine housing. I

6:09 Speaker 1: don't know what conversation led to that decision, but it

6:11 Speaker 1: must have been spectacular.

6:14 Speaker 2: Removing rust from knives with a potato.

6:17 Speaker 1: This hack comes from nineteenth century Germany. Potatoes contain oxalic acid,

6:22 Speaker 1: which breaks rust apart. One German cookbook suggests insert the

6:27 Speaker 1: blade deeply into a potato, leave it overnight, remove and admire.

6:33 Speaker 1: Another line adds very sincerely if rust remains scold the

6:38 Speaker 1: knife sternly. I love old writing.

6:41 Speaker 2: Laundry, and clothing where science meets fabric and sometimes heartbreak.

6:48 Speaker 2: Baking soda to brighten whites.

6:51 Speaker 1: During the Great Depression, store bought cleaners were expensive luxuries.

6:56 Speaker 1: Baking soda softened hard water, making soap work better. One

7:01 Speaker 1: Kansas homemaker wrote, with baking soda, the linens returned white again,

7:06 Speaker 1: and I felt a small victory over difficulty. Laundry wasn't laundry,

7:11 Speaker 1: it was ritual, a battle, a triumph.

7:15 Speaker 2: Vinegar as fabric softener.

7:18 Speaker 1: If you've ever used this, you know the initial scent

7:20 Speaker 1: is intense. Your washing machine smells like a pickle jar

7:25 Speaker 1: attending church. But once the clothes dry, soft clean, not perfumed,

7:31 Speaker 1: just fresh. Back in the nineteen fifties, a General Electric

7:36 Speaker 1: pamphlet said, if you do not have commercial fabric softener,

7:40 Speaker 1: vinegar will serve quite nicely. You can hear the passive aggressive.

7:44 Speaker 2: Tone aspirin removes sweatstains.

7:48 Speaker 1: This hack became famous because of Hollywood costume departments. Filming

7:52 Speaker 1: under hot studio lights meant actors sweated like joggers in

7:56 Speaker 1: wool suits. A costumer in the nineteen forties, once wrote,

8:00 Speaker 1: we couldn't stop the sweating, but we could save the wardrobe,

8:03 Speaker 1: and honestly, that's a life philosophy.

8:07 Speaker 2: Freshening clothing with vodka spray.

8:10 Speaker 1: Still used in theater and on Broadway because many costumes

8:14 Speaker 1: can't be washed daily. Spraying diluted vodka on clothing kills

8:18 Speaker 1: bacteria and neutralizes odor, while leaving behind a smell that

8:22 Speaker 1: can only be described as clean, but in a possibly

8:26 Speaker 1: suspicious way. Performers reportedly joke, if you smell like vodka

8:32 Speaker 1: before the show, you're fresh. If you smell like it

8:35 Speaker 1: after the show, that's a different conversation.

8:39 Speaker 2: Freezing sweaters to prevent shedding.

8:42 Speaker 1: This one became popular with fluffy sweaters in the nineteen sixties.

8:47 Speaker 1: People would fold sweaters, place them in freezer bags, and

8:50 Speaker 1: freeze them overnight. Some husbands opened freezers and quietly close

8:55 Speaker 1: them again, unwilling to ask questions. A letter to a

8:59 Speaker 1: homemaker magazine in nineteen seventy two reads, my husband now

9:03 Speaker 1: checks before tasting anything. Growth leads to adaptation and then

9:08 Speaker 1: comes evolution.

9:10 Speaker 2: Chalk for grease stains.

9:12 Speaker 1: Chalk absorbs oil. In Victorian laundries, workers carried chalk in

9:18 Speaker 1: aprons and dabbed it on any stain they found. It

9:21 Speaker 1: worked on chef jackets, train uniforms, and yes, the occasional

9:26 Speaker 1: silk party dress someone spilled roast beef on while pretending

9:30 Speaker 1: it was just a tiny nibble.

9:33 Speaker 2: Aluminum foil under ironing board.

9:36 Speaker 1: Home EC teachers in the nineteen fifties loved this trick.

9:40 Speaker 1: Foil reflects heat cutting ironing time significantly. Students reported feelings

9:45 Speaker 1: of triumph, followed quickly by resentment that ironing existed at all.

9:50 Speaker 2: Salt to prevent dye bleeding.

9:54 Speaker 1: Salt sets dye families used it on handmade quilts, uniforms,

9:59 Speaker 1: and treasured clothing, especially those brought from overseas. Even today,

10:04 Speaker 1: traditional textile workers still use salt baths to lock in color.

10:09 Speaker 1: Some hacks never die, they simply become artisan coffee grounds.

10:14 Speaker 2: To deodorize drawers.

10:16 Speaker 1: This one became wildly popular during Prohibition, when Americans hid

10:20 Speaker 1: alcohol absolutely everywhere. The coffee wasn't just deodorizer, it was camouflage.

10:27 Speaker 1: A Prohibition era diary includes the line drawer smells like

10:31 Speaker 1: coffee good. The bottles remain undetected. History is hilarious.

10:36 Speaker 2: Banana peals for polishing shoes.

10:39 Speaker 1: Potassium and natural oils buff leather beautifully. Kids in the

10:44 Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds used this before school inspections, where teachers

10:48 Speaker 1: checked shoes because apparently there was no privacy ever. Imagine

10:53 Speaker 1: walking into class smelling faintly like fruit salad and shame.

10:58 Speaker 2: Candle Wax for sticky drawer.

11:01 Speaker 1: This is one of the rare hacks where everyone carpenters.

11:04 Speaker 1: Historians and grandma's agree. Wax fixes stuck drawers, rub slide

11:11 Speaker 1: boom furniture glides like it's newly in love.

11:15 Speaker 2: Cornstarch for upholstery stains.

11:19 Speaker 1: Cornstarch pulls oil upward instead of letting it set. One

11:23 Speaker 1: nineteen forties woman reportedly wrote, my husband fell asleep on

11:27 Speaker 1: the sofa after eating fried chicken. The cornstarch helped my

11:32 Speaker 1: patients did not relatable softening leather with vinegar. Civil War

11:39 Speaker 1: soldiers used vinegar to make boots wearable. Letters home described

11:43 Speaker 1: the smell as unpleasant but tolerable, which is the exact

11:47 Speaker 1: same review people give kombucha today.

11:50 Speaker 2: Lemon rhnes repel ants.

11:52 Speaker 1: Early American households placed lemon peels around pantries. It sometimes

11:57 Speaker 1: worked depending on the species of ant. Some ants left,

12:01 Speaker 1: some ants treated it like a citrus buffet. Nature is unpredictable.

12:06 Speaker 2: Peppermint oil to keep mice away.

12:09 Speaker 1: Even Buckingham Palace reportedly use peppermint to discourage mice. And

12:13 Speaker 1: while I cannot prove royal mice discuss this strategy, I

12:17 Speaker 1: like to imagine them sniffing the air offended, saying well

12:21 Speaker 1: that's a bit much.

12:22 Speaker 3: This episode is brought to you by grandmother approved cleaning

12:25 Speaker 3: solutions where everything smells like vinegar, lemon, and emotional discipline.

12:31 Speaker 3: Our slogan if it stings your lungs, it must be working.

12:36 Speaker 1: So that's part one a surprisingly effective and occasionally alarming

12:40 Speaker 1: journey through twenty five vintage hacks. Some of these are brilliant,

12:45 Speaker 1: some are questionable, and some, Let's be honest, remind us

12:49 Speaker 1: that people back then lived with a level of commitment

12:52 Speaker 1: to home care that most of us only experience when

12:55 Speaker 1: guests are coming over and we want them to believe

12:58 Speaker 1: we live like this all the time. Join me next

13:01 Speaker 1: episode as we continue with hacks involving food, beauty, medicine, organization,

13:08 Speaker 1: and the point where tidy housekeeping becomes just a little unhinged.

13:12 Speaker 1: Until then, stay curious stay weird, and if you see

13:16 Speaker 1: a walnut near scratched furniture, now you know what to do.

13:20 Speaker 3: Don't forget to subscribe. Your grandmother would approve.