Factoid: The weekly Saturday night bath was much the rule in Christian industrialized lands in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. A half day's work on Saturday was the norm for factory workers allowing them some leisure to prepare for the Sunday day of rest. Following a Saturday bath one's Sunday best clothes could then be put on a clean body for church the next day. The workers' Saturday half day off allowed time and leisure for the considerable labor of drawing, carrying, and heating water, filling the bath and then afterward emptying it. (Servants, indoor plumbing, more especially with hot water, were the luxury of a very few.) As an economy of effort, bath water was shared by all the immediate family members. Precedence in bath order could lead to contention since the first user enjoyed the cleanest and warmest water. Indoor plumbing became more common in the 20th century and commercial advertising campaigns pushing new bath products began to influence public ideas about cleanliness and the daily shower or bath then became more the rule.
Of course in many households the bath was in order by seniority, which led to the phrase "don't throw the baby out with the bath water"
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