These vintage cleaning ads—which take you back to a time when Tide cost 67 cents and women cleaned in a dress and heels—make it obvious just how much has changed throughout history. Check out all the throwbacks, below, and cue the nostalgia. This family-friendly Tide ad promises to get your white clothes whiter and colored clothes brighter. Sound familiar? It’s not much different from the Tide promise today, though the outfits may have changed. Most millennials won’t even recognize the appliance in this advertisement—where are all the buttons? The GE imagery showcases how much washing machines have improved over the years. Now with an assortment of specialized settings and temperatures, washing machines are better than ever at taking care of your clothes. This 1940s advertisement for a floor cleaner shows a mother and daughter chatting about household chores. They’re touting Self-Polishing Simoniz for being a dual-use cleaner you can use on your floors and on your car. We’re not sure that cleaning combo would sell today, but we’re all for products with double-duty scrubbing powers. One thing we’re envious of 1950s housewives is their knack for getting the kids to carry out household chores. (Now, if only Dad were there to help.) This ad for the GE Swivel-Top Cleaner and Floor Polisher makes us thankful for today’s lightweight, cordless vacs. Just think about how much space the bulky machine took up in the closet! Ivory soap from Proctor & Gamble has been around since the 1800s. This ad features the product’s first slogan, “It Floats!” along with a man cleaning up in the woods. Sure, he has an ax and a shovel alongside the product, but at least we’re seeing some male representation in a cleaning advertisement! Linit laundry starch promises to make an inexpensive dress look just as nice as one double the price. While we’re impressed with their claim, we’re more drawn to the girls in the advertisement. For being a 1947 ad, we love that it shows two young girls learning math instead of only performing household chores. Linit was ahead of their time, and they didn’t even know it.
