Paying for someone else to wash your clothes was a luxury for the rich and upper middle class back then just like it is today. This was not an option for the large majority of households.

Laundry was overwhelmingly unpaid household labor, done mainly by women, and it was one of the most time-consuming and physically demanding domestic tasks. Doing a single load by hand could take the better part of a day of heating water, scrubbing, rinsing, wringing, and ironing. Once electric machines became common, that work collapsed to a small fraction of the previous hours and physical effort