Revisiting the Past: This is What Hygiene Was Like in Colonial America
This article appeared in vibeforest.com and has been published here with permission.
A Basin of Water and a Wet Cloth
Since plumbing didn't exist during the colonial era, full-body baths were not expected from the colonials. The only people that ever received such a luxury were children, and it wasn't given to clean them, instead, to harden them.
As for adults, they usually bathed by wiping the dirt off their bare skin with a cloth dipped into a pail of water. It's similar to how you'd wipe stains off your shelf.
Outhouses
This fact might be obvious, but during the colonial era, houses had outhouses nearby, and chamber privy pots indoors for excretion. Unfortunately, these chambers were emptied by throwing their content out the window whenever it was full.

Sadly, these human waste found its way into streams, lakes, and rivers, resulting in the contamination of drinking water and spreading of diseases. This lack of an efficient disposal system led to the death of many colonials.