8. Hygiene after use of the privy was less than pleasant
What the Founding Fathers used to clean themselves after using the privy – their term for outhouses – depended in large part on where they lived. Farmers and those who dwelled in small towns frequently resorted to corn cobs. Their effectiveness can only be imagined. In larger cities, people resorted to newspapers, the leaves of books, or more frequently, old rags, which were then tossed into the privy pit. Some contained a rag or sponge on a stick, stored in a basin of water in which each user rinsed it. Most privies were located outside, in blocks, for use of anyone, while larger homes had their own located in their backyard gardens.
There were indoor facilities in some buildings, small closets which contained a seat installed over a chamber pot. Emptying the pot required the servant allotted the task to carry it to one of the privies outside, though frequently they were simply dumped in the gutters, which also carried the waste of horses, mules, and pigs. The cities in Revolutionary America could be smelled from miles away, and the formerly pristine rivers carried wastes, many of them of the toxic variety, far downstream. Technology for more advanced sanitation and hygiene simply did not exist at the time of the Founding Fathers, who made do with what was available to them. Early in the first administration of George Washington, the problem of sanitation in cities rose to the fore among civic leaders across the United States.