For centuries, women doing laundry used traditional tools and methods passed down through the generations. After 1800, rising standards of cleanliness and more clothes made "Blue Monday"--the traditional wash day--more difficult. Sensing a market, inventors patented thousands of new washing, drying, and ironing devices to relieve the drudgery. Women who could afford it, of course, continued to pay a laundress or commercial service to do the work.