Tub for boiling linens with potbellied stove visible to the left.

The Gibson family hired a resident laundress for a period, but usually paid a part-time laundress to work a couple of days per week. The laundress would have used the three-chambered soapstone sink and boiler tub for washing and the potbellied stove for heating irons—all of which are original to the house. Vents connect the coal-burning stove and boiler tub to the adjacent drying room. The heat provided by these fixtures would dry the clean, wet linens hanging on ropes strung between the walls. A manual washing machine with mangle (a pair of rollers that press water out of clothes) is a later addition.