---
title: How to Make Your Household Linens Last Longer
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/how-to-make-household-linens-last-longer-1941/
description: A practical sheet of mending and washing hints, with drawn sheets, towels and tea cloths around a central 'Washing and Ironing Hints' panel.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. How to Make Your Household Linens Last Longer

[![How to Make Your Household Linens Last Longer, 1941 UK poster: A practical sheet of mending and washing hints, with drawn](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/how-to-make-household-linens-last-longer-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/how-to-make-household-linens-last-longer-1941.jpg)

# How to Make Your Household Linens Last Longer

A practical sheet of mending and washing hints, with drawn sheets, towels and tea cloths around a central 'Washing and Ironing Hints' panel. The only persuasive device is the Board of Trade crest and 'Issued by the Board of Trade', which lends official authority to household advice (transfer).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
ISSUED BY THE BOARD OF TRADE
HOW TO MAKE YOUR HOUSEHOLD LINENS LAST LONGER
MEND TEARS
Mend tears before laundering. If you haven't time, tack together roughly and mend properly later.
WASHING and IRONING HINTS
Use soft water if possible—rain water is best.
Avoid bleaching, which is an expert's job—dry in the sun instead.
Soak White things only over night in cold soapy water.
Only sufficient soap is needed to get a good lather, and it must be completely dissolved.
Wash in hot soapy water and it is safe to boil white cottons and linens, but not coloured or patterned.
Rinse out all soap.
Dry out of doors if possible—the whites in the sun and the colours in the shade.
Finish by mangling if you can, then very little ironing is needed.
Household linens should be ironed on the right side unless of dark colours, and dresses on the wrong side and avoid shine. Never iron over folds.
TOWELS
Patch worn towels with scraps from a discarded towel. Lay it on flat and machine or herringbone over the edges. Lightly darn the two thicknesses together.
If no patching material is available, a scrap of old curtain net makes an excellent base for a darn worked loosely with mending cotton.
TEA CLOTHS & DUSTERS
Do zig-zag machine or hand stitching all over tea cloths and dusters to prevent their tearing when they get thin.
Diamond-stitch two badly worn ones together.
PILLOW CASES . . .
When pillow cases get really thin, stitch back and front together and add a new back of any washing material.
Bolster cases are not essential—make these into pillow cases, hand towels, tea-cloths.
SHEETS
Cut worn sheets down the centre, sew the selvedges together and hem the new outside edges.
Darn tears and thin spots promptly. Patch holes.
Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by H. Manly & Son Ltd. London, N.22 51-9633
B.O.T. 1007.
```

[← Freedom Shall Prevail!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/freedom-shall-prevail-united-nations-flags-1942/) [Ils assassinent ! Enveloppés dans les plis de notre drapeau (They murder! Wrapped in the folds of our flag) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ils-assassinent-vichy-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)