V
THE HOUSE IN ORDER
PUTTING the house in order is one thing.
Keeping it in order is quite another.
Once upon a time there was a theory that every house, no matter how well kept, how frequently swept and scrubbed, must be torn up by the roots twice a year, for the spring and fall cleaning. At those dreadful periods mere men fled from before the devastating broom and scrubbing-brush wielded by the woman of the family. Even when they stole home in the evening to the slim meal which was all the worn-out housekeeper could provide, the halls and stairs were likely to be blocked by pails of suds, by furniture or rolls of carpet en route.
To the aged survivors of that epoch the phrase “housecleaning-time” is still enough to provoke a shudder. I have heard the assertion made that it lasted at least six weeks, although all seem to be agreed that the spring visitation was more severe than that of the autumn.
Even in this day and generation there are found certain authorities to declare that a house cannot be kept so clean that it does not once in so often require a thorough going-over. In a way there is an element of truth in their claim. In every home there are nooks and corners not in constant use, and therefore not regularly cleaned; store-closets, trunk-rooms, cupboards or drawers reserved for extra bedding, clothing, furnishings, into whose closed confines dust mysteriously seeps, wherein moth and other vermin make their breeding-places.
At least once a year—and better, twice in a twelvemonth—these “glory-holes” should be emptied, the contents looked over, beaten or dusted, the floors, walls, shelves, etc., wiped off carefully. This is the time to give away or throw away treasured possessions no longer of use to their owners and which may be of service elsewhere; to rearrange such articles as escape banishment; to put aside for the next season the summer or winter clothing, hangings, and the like which are not needed at the moment. So long as dirt and dust continue to exist and to work themselves into the most jealously guarded precincts, so long must the housekeeper bestow at least a semi-annual inspection on her reserves and their quarters.
She fails signally to understand her business, however, if she permits an accumulation of dirt with the comforting conviction that it will all be removed in the spring and fall clearance. More and more we understand the importance of purity to health, and with this comprehension we have grown to perceive that the best method of retaining high cleanliness is by never allowing the dirt to get the better of us. A little brushing and sweeping and cleaning here and there as it is needed, a more attentive treatment once a week, will keep the house clean without making the labor a burden.
The system which should be the housekeeper’s most valued ally in the effort after efficiency comes into play here. By the time she is fairly settled in her new home she should have evolved a routine which, so far from being an irksome groove, will be rather a track on which the domestic wheels revolve without undue friction and the consequent wear and tear.
Take into consideration first the round of the day as it has to do with keeping the house in order. When the maid or the housekeeper herself comes down in the morning to start the breakfast, either by making a fire with wood or coal, or by lighting the oil or gas flame, or turning the key that sets the electric current to work, she should open the windows to let in fresh air and the light which reveals the dusty or the untidy corners.
While the kettle is boiling or the cereal simmering she may have to set the table, or if this has been done the night before and a light cloth thrown over it to protect from the dust, the dust-pan and broom may be called into service or the carpet-sweeper run over the places which demand attention. The fortunate woman who has a vacuum-cleaner, either one of the hand variety or the larger style which connects with the electric current supplying the house, has work simplified and time saved, as well as strength conserved.
In those homes where an early and rather hasty breakfast is obligatory for the sake of the commuter or the business man who must get to his office promptly, or the children who must be off to school, it is better to have done what superficial tidying was possible the night before and to let the sweeping and dusting go until after the morning meal is despatched and the workers on their way. If a system is followed which obliges the readers of books and newspapers to put them in their place before going to bed, which insists that toys, tools, and clothing shall not be left lying about for some one besides the scatterers to put away the next morning, there need be no confusion encompassing the breakfast-table. A few moments should have been snatched for dusting the more conspicuous portions of the dining-room furniture, and distress of digestion should never be induced by the presence of dirt or disorder in the surroundings.
When the housekeeper has the home to herself, has disposed of the details of dish-washing, bed-making, etc., has planned for her meals and made out the list for her marketing, she should turn her attention to the removal of the “matter out of place,” as dirt has been gracefully termed. The living-room will probably require her first efforts after she has reduced the dining-room to the proper condition of shining tidiness.
I have referred to the vacuum-cleaner. I wish I could put one into the hands of every housekeeper! Several kinds are on the market and I carry no brief for any special make, but I know there is more than one good variety. The woman of slender means can use one of the hand-machines, which, while perhaps more tiresome to work than the cleaner run by electricity, will yet make much less call upon the strength than the ordinary broom and do the work much more effectively. Not the least of the advantages of the vacuum-cleaner is a merit it possesses in common with the ordinary carpet-sweeper—that it does not scatter dust as well as gather it up.
More than this, the vacuum-cleaner enables the worker to remove the dust from draperies without taking them down, to clean walls by a less arduous means than going over them with a cloth-wrapped brush or broom. Decidedly, one of the best investments a housekeeper can make is a good vacuum-cleaner; and she will find that it soon pays for itself in the amount of time and toil it saves. The work it takes a woman hours to accomplish is done by the vacuum-cleaner in a fraction of the time she would bestow on cleansing by the old methods, and more than one housekeeper has found that she saved the wages of an extra helper by the purchase of a vacuum-cleaner that she could handle herself.
When such a cleaner is out of the question, a substitute for minor work in this line is a carpet-sweeper. True, it cannot go into corners and its accomplishment must be supplemented by a dust-pan and broom, but even so, it saves much stooping and struggle to the housekeeper. A trustworthy variety should be selected; it should be emptied regularly and kept in perfect working order. With this there should be provided what is known as a dustless mop—there are several makes of these—to use on the bare floors after the rugs have been treated by the sweeper.
As a matter of course everything of this sort, as well as the use of a broom which raises dust, should be concluded before the housekeeper attacks the furniture with the brush for the upholstered pieces, a flannelette or cheese-cloth duster for the hardwood, or one of the so-called oiled dusters. Of these, too, a good choice is offered at house-furnishing establishments. While the cleaning goes on the windows should be open, but not in such a way as to blow the dust, and the doors into the other part of the house should be kept closed. The old method, still practised by untrained maids or by housekeepers whose zeal is in excess of their knowledge, of cleaning two or three rooms at once and driving the dust from one room to another should be entirely out of date in these sanitary days.
The same sort of surface-cleaning should be followed throughout the house, in halls and chambers, as well as in the down-stairs rooms. Even in the tidiest household dust is likely to gather from day to day, and if neglected twenty-four hours its presence is unpleasantly conspicuous.
This superficial care answers excellently for part of the time, but it is not sufficient without a more thorough attack at least once a week. The housekeeper need not follow the modes of her mother and grandmother and have the whole house swept from top to bottom on one day of the week, unless she finds, after study of ways and means, that this simplifies living for her. A better plan is to have one room or two done a day, so that the labor is lightened by being spread out through the week.
The same method should be followed in each room that is to be cleaned. The smaller ornaments should be wiped and laid away, either in the bureau drawer or on some large piece of furniture which cannot be moved but may have its surface and the objects put on it covered with a sweeping-sheet. Lighter articles, such as chairs and small tables, should be dusted and then carried from the room. The postponement of the dusting until they are brought back after the room has been swept means a fresh scattering of the dust about the clean chamber.
Sweeping-sheets, made of cotton cloth bound with red, that they may not be confused with the regulation bed-linen, should be at hand to lay over such large pieces as cannot be removed. The sweeping should be done from the sides of the room toward the center, recollecting always to have at least one window opened and all doors closed. When the dust is all in one compact heap it should be taken up in the dust-pan, transferred at once to a newspaper, this rolled up tight and put aside to be carried down to the furnace or the ash-can. After the dust has settled the walls can be gone over with a cloth or with a broom about which has been wrapped a duster, or a hair brush with a long handle, such as comes for this purpose.
The above method can be followed in a room with a carpeted floor or with a large rug fastened down. When small loose rugs are used they may be swept first, then rolled up and carried from the room, after which the bare floor is dusted or wiped off with oil or rubbed with one of the good waxing preparations which the popularity of the hardwood floor has brought into the market. In a house supplied with a vacuum-cleaner the floor and the rugs can both be cleansed without the labor of carrying out the latter, and the upholstered furniture will not need the offices of the small brush in removing the dust from folds and tufts.
Water should not be used on a hardwood floor. It may be wiped off with a cloth dipped in crude oil and turpentine mingled in equal parts, and the mixture must be well rubbed in. In default of this, kerosene may be employed, observing moderation in the quantity of the oil applied. Too much of any kind of dressing makes an unpleasant odor which lingers persistently.
It may be said, by the way, that when oilcloth is washed the cloth should be wrung out nearly dry. If the water gets under the oilcloth this will rot.
When windows are to be washed the dust and dirt from the frames should be removed before the glass is touched. If not, the panes will be streaked. Warm water should be used, and no soap; this would make the glass cloudy. A little borax or ammonia may be added to the water, and in cold weather alcohol should be mixed with the water to prevent this from freezing on the cloth.
In scouring paint the soap or other preparation should be applied on a flannel or the paint will be scratched. Hardwood finishings, such as door-posts, window-frames, and the like, should have the same sort of oiling as is used for the floors.
If the silver which is in daily family service is always washed as it should be after each meal there is no reason why it should become dull and dingy and require a weekly scouring. Scalding-hot water is an essential; the silver should be rinsed off in hot suds, dropped into the almost boiling clean water, fished out quickly, a piece or two at a time, and dried immediately. No draining of silver or glass should ever be allowed, no matter what compromises are permitted in this line with china and crockery.
Close to the worker’s hand should stand a few helps toward keeping her silver and glass bright and shining. A bottle of household ammonia or a box of borax is one of her best aids. Also she should have a little coarse salt with which to take egg stains from silver, and a cake or box of good silver polish in case some of the pieces look less brilliant than they should. A chamois-skin to give a final polish is also a desideratum. If silver has been laid away and become dull so that a general scouring is demanded, it is well for the housekeeper to have one of the patented devices by which silver can be cleansed by an immersion in a bath of soda and salt contained in an aluminum pan. Again, there are several good articles of this kind for sale at reasonable prices.
The daily equipment for dish-washing should consist of two dish-pans for the housekeeper who does not possess a butler’s-pantry sink with running water. In one of these pans the silver and china should be rinsed free of all grease before they are put into the clean hot suds of the other pan. The glasses should be washed in the clear water before soap has been added; next come the silver pieces, and these, like the glasses, should be wiped dry as soon as they are taken out.
The ideal method is to dry the china in the same way, but if it is perfectly clean when taken from the suds, the pieces ranged in a rack and boiling water poured over them, they will usually dry evenly and show no marks or streaks. This method undoubtedly saves much time and bother. A dish-mop is better for use in washing dishes than a dish-cloth, since it keeps the hands from the hot water, but should be scalded after each service and boiled once a day. The towels should be washed and boiled with equal regularity.