Attention to Details.
Hotel housekeeping is a science. The crowning excellence, as all acknowledge, lies in giving strict attention to small things. Successful hotel-keeping is an artistic achievement in which everything is in its right place, is of the proper grade, shade, quality, and cleanliness, harmonizing in every particular.
Details are repulsive to the lazy or the listless. Let the housekeeper feel the greatness of her position and the importance of her duties, if she so desires to succeed. Enthusiasm is an element that can least be spared—one that must accompany the housekeeper at every step.
The question has arisen whether the housekeeper should learn without rules, by blundering experience, or should she take what the approved experience of others has found to be the best. No one doubts the answer. The true way is to submit to rules and regulations and methods of experienced and practical hotel housekeepers that have made their profession a life-long study.
The Progressive Housekeeper.
The ocean is an everchanging wonder of kaleidoscopic views and no eye ever wearies of its beauty. The earth arrays herself in such gorgeous costumes so pleasing to man's sight that few there are who want to leave her to try another. The child tires of the old ragdoll and cries for the "Teddy bear." Put a new dress on the old ragdoll and it will again become the favorite.
If a housekeeper is not progressive, her employer will tire of her. The onward trick of nature is too much for the average housekeeper, and gladly would she anchor, but to do so means to sink. She must keep up with the times, she must travel the pace of progress.
There is nothing new under the sun, but there is constant metamorphosis. Time brings changes. Competition is strong and housekeepers must be on the alert for any accomplishment that will aid in their calling.
In America, life is a universal race for exalted positions. Then get out of the rut and keep up the long list of illusions, of which a rapid succession of changes and moods and styles and ideas is the secret.
You must keep busy. There is only one sin that you can commit; that sin is idleness. Polish the old things and make them look like new. Do not let your footsteps become so narrow that they will end in a turkey-track. Keep up your practice of thoroughly cleaning rooms, overhauling furniture, and sending out a mattress now and then to have it repaired. Take up a carpet and have it cleaned. Give the radiators a coat of bronze. Have the ceiling lights cleaned. Paste up the wall-paper that is hanging from the wall. Polish the brass on the stairs. Put in an order for some new material of which to make dresser covers.
Decorative Dresser Covers.
The writer has just completed some very pretty dresser covers for the parlor floor rooms, en suite. The work is fascinating, and the linen-room girls and parlor-maids can lend a hand at making them. Any kind of linen material can be adapted that can be laundered with ease and success. Plain white linen is a well-deserved favorite and makes thoroughly useful, as well as fashionable, dresser-covers. A cheaper material can be found in linen toweling—just as pretty and just as durable as the plain white linen.
The dresser cover just covering the dresser and not allowed to hang down is the favorite mode just now. It can be simply hemmed; but a charming and more attractive pattern is with scalloped edges and elaborated ends. These scallops are made with a spool, medium size, No 50 being especially suitable. Put the spool on the edge of the material and with a lead pencil, draw a crescent and then another, clear across the end. Pad the scallops with common white darning-cotton, using the old fashioned chain-stitch. Before putting the work in the embroidery-hoops, sew a strip of muslin, about six inches in width to the edge of the dresser cover. This will aid in getting the work placed in the hoops and will enable you to do smoother and more satisfactory work.
Embroider the scallops with linen embroidery floss, size "D," using the buttonhole stitch. An eyelet at the termination and just above each crescent will add materially to its effectiveness. Rip off the muslin and launder before cutting out the scallops. This will prevent the ugly fringe seen on so many embroidered dresser-covers.
The Housekeeper's Salary.
Too many housekeepers of the present day neglect the small things. They want to draw large salaries and let the house take care of itself, while they visit with the guests and gossip and have a good time. The clerks are kind and do not report to the manager the little complaints that come to the office every day; but the housekeeper's conscience should tell her that she is not earning her money.
The housekeeper that is above her profession, is not interested in her work, and that is trying to get into some church society, had better not engage in hotel housekeeping, for her housekeeping duties will require her constant attention at the hotel. There will be some difficulties to settle at all times, which will require her presence. Maids work better when they are conscious of a vigilant overseer. They take more pride in their work when they know that every nook and corner is being inspected by the housekeeper. Especially is this true if the housekeeper is successful in commanding the respect of her subordinates.
The housekeeper that lays the blame of some grave mistake on her assistants is not worthy of the name of housekeeper. Had she been there, attending to her affairs, it would not have happened, for she would have prevented or stopped it.
The housekeeper, by diligence, attendance to her duties, and by economies, figures greatly in the success of a hotel, and makes her own position. The position does not make her. Then it is fairly reasonable to suppose that such a housekeeper should make her own salary; that she should command and receive her price; that she should be paid according to the amount she is really worth, and not the fixed scale that the hotel pays. If a housekeeper can show by her books, by her management, and by her economies, that she is worth more than her predecessor, she is entitled to more pay, and by all means should receive more pay. The average salary paid a housekeeper is not enough to properly clothe a housekeeper. After her laundry bills are paid, what has she left to lay up for the "rainy day," to say nothing of an old age, when parsimony and incompatibility of temper and "set ways" make her, in any place, an unwelcome personage.
The Faithful, Efficient Housekeeper.
The housekeeper that sticks to her post and is always looking after her work is surely worth more to her employer than one that has worn the carpet threadbare in front of her mirror, or one that puts in a great portion of her time at the bargain-counter, or the theater, or with a novel in her hand. Surely, the hard-working housekeeper, the one that makes her occupation a study and is always at her post, is worth more to her employer than the housekeeper that is trying to do society "stunts," to ring in with people of fashion, to "out-dress" them. But the majority of hotels pay much the same salaries to housekeepers, good, bad, and indifferent.
The progressive housekeeper that thus looks after her employer's business every day, always at her post in the linen-room, is uncomplaining, shoulders the blame, and is not always knocking on his private-office door and entering complaints about this or that, is surely worth more than thirty dollars a month to any hotel man. If he does not think so, he should not blame the progressive, faithful, reliable housekeeper, if she promptly accepts a position with better pay.
Inspection and Cleaning of Rooms.
The housekeeper, or her assistant, should go through every room twice a day. In the morning, the housekeeper should take the house-plan, inspect every room, and check up the rooms that have been occupied. If the bed in a room has been used, and if there is baggage, she should check this also, and should turn the report into the office by nine o'clock. Then, in the afternoon, when the maids are supposed to have finished their work, the housekeeper should take her pencil and pad and thoroughly inspect every room and the maids' work. She may find a ragged sheet or pillow slip; if so, she should make a note of it. Some room may be short of a towel, soap or matches; she should make a note of this also. Around the gas-jets and in the corners, she may find "Irish curtains" (cobwebs); in the commode, she may find a vessel that was forgotten; in a dresser drawer, a man may have left his cast-off hose, and suspenders. Some maid may have swept the center of the room, while under the bed and under the dresser there may be dust of two weeks' standing; in another room, the housekeeper may find a bathtub forgotten—all of which she should write on the pad. This work will occupy two hours of her time in a two-hundred-room house. When the maids come on watch at six o'clock, each one should be given instructions to go back and finish her work. In some hotels, the maids do not go off duty of an afternoon, but continue working until six o'clock. In this case, the housekeeper should issue her instructions at once.
How to Clean a Room.
There are many ways to clean a room, but there is just one best way to clean it thoroughly. "Dig out the corners" should be the watchword of every successful housekeeper. She would rather the maid would leave the dirt in a pile in the center of the room than fail to clean out the corners.
If one word could be selected that means the most and needs the most emphasis in the science of housekeeping, that word would be "cleanliness." The first desideratum, therefore, of the chambermaid, is the scrub-pail and a piece of oilcloth—some maids use a newspaper—under it to protect the carpet. The first thing to do is to clean the small pieces of furniture. If the furniture is new, it should be only wiped with the dust-cloth. If it is old and marred, it should be washed with warm water and soap, and oiled with a good furniture-polish. It should then be set in the hall. The dresser drawers should be washed and the marble cleaned with sapolio; the mirrors should be polished, the windows washed, and the shutters dusted. The crockery should be cleaned and put in the hall. The bed should be covered with a dust-cover. The cobwebs should be swept down with a long-handled broom. The lace curtains should be shaken, and either taken down or pinned up. The closet should be swept out. The toilet-bowl should be scrubbed inside and out with the toilet-brush, and a disinfectant powder put in. The stationary wash-bowl should be scrubbed with sapolio, and the faucets polished, not forgetting the chain. The bathtub should also be scrubbed with sapolio, and the floor washed.
The door should now be closed and the sweeping begun. A very good plan is to scatter wet paper over the floor to keep the dust down. The corners should be dug out and the dirt swept to the center of the room and taken up in the dust-pan. If the carpet is old, it should be sponged with warm water and soap, to which a little ammonia has been added. The carpet will look like new after this process. After the dust is well settled, all the wood work in the room should be washed; the bed and dresser should be washed and oiled, and all the furniture should be symmetrically arranged, and the windows closed on account of storms.
One chambermaid can successfully look after eighteen or twenty rooms a day. Not all of the rooms are occupied every night. The maid should take advantage of the dull days to clean her rooms thoroughly; she should clean one room every day.
The Importance of Good Beds.
Competition is great, and success will come to the best and cleanest hotel. The traveler loves to slip into a bed with perfectly laundered sheets that do not look as if the maids had sprinkled, folded, and pressed them between the mattress, as chambermaids ordinarily do in hotels where there is a scant supply of linen.
Sometimes the chambermaid will ask the laundryman for a pair of sheets to make up a sample-room, as the guest wants to receive a customer. The laundryman replies: "Well, just as soon as the machinery starts again, you may have them." There has been a breakdown; the belt is off; or something has gone wrong, and they have sent for the engineer to fix it. Then the housekeeper must go to some unoccupied room and strip the bed and use the linen for making up the bed in the sample-room, while the guest walks the floor and frets over the delay. Much time is saved if the hotel is supplied with plenty of linen.
Sheets that cover only two-thirds of the mattress do not add to the cheerfulness and comfort of the guests. Many well grounded complaints are entered about this. Special laws have been enacted in some states, within the last year, regarding the length of sheets.
Occasionally a guest finds it expedient to make his bed over, if he would have any comfort. The maid has put the double fold of the blanket to the top; it is a warm night, yet he fears to throw the blanket off—he might take cold. So he concludes to make his own bed, putting the single fold to the top, that he may throw some of it back.
How a Bed is Made.
Good bed-making is the one trait par excellence in all good chambermaid work. To make a bed artistically is one important feature, and to make it so that the guest may rest comfortably is another, and, finally, just how is the best way to make a bed is a question worthy of consideration.
In our big country of America, the traveler from Maine to California sees many styles of bed-making. In New Orleans is seen the picturesque canopy of pure white mosquito-netting tucked in neatly all around. In Kansas City is seen the snowy spreads plaited half way to the foot with numerous little folds. In New York is seen the pure linen hemstitched sheets, turned back with a single fold.
To begin to make a bed, first, the mattress should be turned. The bottom sheet should then be tucked in carefully by raising the mattress with one hand and smoothing the sheet down with the other. The large hems should always be at the head, in order that no one may be compelled to lay his face where some one's feet have been. After the bottom sheet has been tucked in at the head, it should be tightly drawn and tucked in at the foot in the same way. Sheets should be long enough to tuck in one foot at the head and one at the bottom. If it is a brass bed, the sheets should be left to hang down.
After the bottom sheet is on perfectly, it is easy to make a pretty bed, and one in which the guest may rest well. The top sheet should be put on, and tucked in at the foot only. The blanket should be put on with the single fold at the head. If the guest should get too warm, he can throw half of the blanket to the foot and yet have sufficient covering. After the spread is put on, a single fold as large as your hand should be made, then another fold one foot in width should complete the folding, and the spread should be neatly tucked in. The pillows should now be smoothed evenly and placed up aright, and the bed is made.
How to Clean Walls.
To clean a painted canvas wall does not require so much skill as patience.
A painted canvas wall is very easily cleaned. Many housekeepers have them washed with ivory soap and water, and obtain good results. Others add a little ammonia to the water, and still others use the powdered pumice.
The cost of painted walls are great, and it is a great saving to any proprietor, if the housekeeper can successfully clean a painted wall without calling the decorators.
Perhaps the most practical and most economical way to do the work and obtain the best results is to wash the wall with water, in which has been dissolved a cake of sapolio.
To proceed to clean the parlor walls: first, take out all the bric-a-brac and tapestry and furniture; then take up the carpet. Have the carpenter erect a scaffolding for the houseman to stand on. Have two pails of hot water, and in one let a cake of sapolio dissolve. Keep the other pail of water for rinsing. Have two large sponges, one for cleaning and the other for rinsing. Souse the cleaning-sponge in the pail in which the sapolio has been dissolved, then squeeze the water out of the sponge. Then begin on the ceiling or in one corner, cleaning only a small square at a time. After cleaning, rinse with the sponge from the clean pail, not making the sponge too dry. Do not wipe the wall with a cloth, but leave moist, after which have ready a pail of starch, and with an ordinary paint or white-wash-brush, starch the square that you have cleaned, before it is thoroughly dry. The starching-process is very necessary. It will leave a gloss on the paint, and also preserves it the next time it is washed; for, in this case, it will be the starch that will be washed off instead of the paint. To make the starch take ordinary laundry starch and dissolve one cupful in one pint of cold water. Into this pour boiling water until it is as thick as cream and let boil, stirring constantly.
The following is an excellent preparation for cleaning wall-paper, and perhaps it might serve as well to clean walls hung with burlap:
½ pound of wheat flour.
1 handful of salt.
Mix well together with water and bake one hour in the oven. Then peel and work back into a dough, adding ½ ounce of ammonia and ½ ounce of gasoline.
This is not an expensive preparation and will clean papered or burlap walls very nicely.
Calcimined walls will have to be re-decorated.
A good way to clean hardwood floors in halls where the carpet does not entirely cover the floor, is to take a can of linseed oil and a small woolen cloth and dip one end of the cloth in the oil, being careful not to spill the oil on the carpet, or touch the edge of the carpet while cleaning; this will remove the dust and dirt, after which the floor may be polished with ordinary floor-wax put on with a flannel cloth and polished with a brick, over which has been sewed a piece of Brussels carpet.
How to Scrub a Floor.
What is prettier than a hardwood floor after it has been properly scrubbed? To scrub a floor and get satisfactory results is a science. To change the water frequently is one secret of success. "Elbow grease" is another. Mops are impossible, and this is another subject on which the housekeeper can wax eloquent. What is more disgusting than to see the baseboards of a room smeared, or the dirt shoved in the corners with an old dirty mop?
Before commencing to scrub, place every article of furniture on the table and then sweep. Beginning in the rear of the door so as not to track over the clean part until it is perfectly dry, scrub with a brush a small section at a time; first wipe up with a damp rag and then with a dry one. The New York Knitting Mills, of Albany, N. Y., furnish remnants of cloth that are indispensable for scrubbing. Enough of these remnants can be bought for $3 to last six months.
A little ammonia in the water will help to whiten the floors. The modern skewers from the kitchen are very useful in getting into the corners of the window sills and into the corners of the stair steps. A weak solution of oxalic acid and boiling water will remove the very worst kind of ink-stains from the floor.
Pads for kneeling on are made of burlap, and one is given to each scrubber. The unnatural position that the scrubber assumes makes the work laborious; the scrubber may change her position frequently by getting clean water.
How to Get Rid of Vermin.
The worst kind of house-pests, if you do not know how to get rid of them, but not the easiest to exterminate, are bedbugs. They do not confine themselves to any section of the country, though the International Encyclopedia gives the belief "that up to Shakespeare's time they were not known in England," and that "they came originally from India."
In Kansas, the bedbug is improperly called the chintz-bug, and is believed to dwell under the bark of the cotton-wood tree. There is no authentic truth for this belief.
The spread of the bedbug is mainly due to its being carried from place to place in furniture and clothing. It has the power of resisting great cold and of fasting indefinitely. The eggs of the bedbug are very small, whitish, oval objects, laid in clusters in the crevices used by the bugs for concealment; they hatch in eight days. Under favorable conditions and slovenly housekeeping, their multiplication is extremely rapid. The greatest trouble lies with the housekeeper who allows the bugs to increase unchecked until they are so numerous in the floors and walls that it is nearly impossible to kill them off.
It is useless waste of time to try to exterminate with Persian insect powder, or sulphur candles. These remedies have been recommended by the International Encyclopedia, but have not demonstrated their worth when subjected to tests by careful experimental methods, by the author.
Scientific Way of Extermination.
The only scientific and practical way to get rid of them is to clean thoroughly, religiously, and scrupulously the room and every article in it. Bedbugs are exceedingly difficult to fight, owing both to their ability to withstand the action of many insecticides and owing also to the protection afforded them by the walls and the woodwork of the room.
If the mattress is old, it should be burned. The bed should be taken apart, the slats and springs taken to the bathroom and scalded, and then treated with a mixture of corrosive sublimate and alcohol, liberally applied, after which a coat of varnish should be given to the entire bed—slats, springs and all. The carpet should be taken up and sent to the cleaners. The paper should be scraped from the walls and sent to the furnace and burned, and the walls should be left bare until the bugs are exterminated. The holes in the walls and woodwork and the cracks and crevices in the floor should be filled up with common yellow soap. This is better than to fill them with putty; it is more practical and is easier to handle. Use the thumb or an old knife to put the soap into the holes; the workman should get the stepladder and go over the entire ceiling, getting the soap into every crack and crevice. After this is done, it will be impossible for the eggs to hatch or the bugs to get out. This is the most important part of the extermination of bugs. The floor should then be scrubbed, after which it should be well poisoned with the mixture of corrosive sublimate and alcohol. Every piece of furniture in the room should be washed and poisoned, and given a coat of varnish.
Treating the Mattress.
If the mattress is too good to be thrown away, the following will be found a good method to destroy the vermin in it: dissolve two pounds of alum in one gallon of water; let it remain twenty-four hours until all the alum is dissolved. Then, with a whisk-broom, apply while boiling hot. This is also a good way to rid the walls and ceiling of bugs. Getting on the stepladder, the workman should apply the wash with the whisk-broom, never missing an inch of the entire ceiling and walls, keeping the liquid boiling hot while using. It should be poured in all the cracks of the floor, in the corners, over the doors and over the windows. The operation should be repeated every day for two weeks, after which the woodwork should be painted and the walls papered.
A strict watch should be kept on all the help's rooms, and any signs of bugs should be promptly treated with the mixture of corrosive sublimate and alcohol.
Cleanliness a Necessity.
Cleanliness is a prime factor in ridding rooms of vermin. In many of the hotels there is one woman appointed to look after the bugs, and she has no other duty.
A good night's sleep is necessary to health and happiness. It can not be found in a room with vermin. The housekeeper should keep up the continual warfare against the standing army of bugs, and never allow the enemy to take possession.
Roaches, or water-bugs, are easily exterminated. Hellebore sprinkled on the floor will soon kill them off. It is poison. They eat it at night and are killed. Some people object to having poison around. In that case, powdered borax will prove an expedient eradicator.
A good way to keep rats from a room is to saturate a rag with cayenne pepper and stuff it in the hole; no rat or mouse will touch the rag, not if it would open a communication with a depot of eatables.
Of all the obnoxious being that get into a hotel, the one whose feet smell to the heavens is the worst. Every housekeeper in America—heaven bless them—if she has a normal and simple mind as fits her calling, finds smelling feet an intolerable nuisance.
Health requires at least one bath a day for the feet, and when they perspire freely they should be bathed twice a day. What must be said of the maid who, on entering a room, compels you to leave it on account of the sickening odor from her feet. In a case like this, the housekeeper must "take the bull by the horns," tell the maid that "her feet smell" and that "she must keep herself cleaner." The maid's feelings are not to be spared in the performance of this important duty. After washing the feet carefully twice a day for a week a cure will be effected. Clean hosiery should be put on every day. A very good remedy for offensive feet is a few drops of muriatic acid in the water when bathing the feet before retiring to bed.
The Superiority of Vacuum Cleaning.
This is an age of surprises and scientific researches. The up-to-date vacuum-cleaning machine is a huge debt to an ancient past. It is a big improvement over the methods employed in days gone by. As a preventive for moths, it has no equal. In hotels where this labor-saving device has not been installed, carpets must be carried to the roof to be cleaned, or sent to the regular carpet-cleaners, and soon converted into ravelings. Carpets are very expensive, and, if you want your money's worth from them, you must preserve them from moths. In order to do this, they must be either vacuum-cleaned or taken to the roof every six months and given a beating. After the moths get a start in a carpet it is surprising to learn what vast inroads toward destruction they can make in a few weeks. Moving the furniture and thoroughly sweeping and brushing the edges with turpentine are good preventives. But nothing will so effectually destroy them as does the vacuum-cleaning process.
In order to secure detailed information regarding the workings of the vacuum-cleaning system for hotels, I wrote to a gentleman in Milwaukee, who is probably the best informed man on that subject in the country. Besides being in the vacuum-cleaning business, he is a hotel man himself and therefore knows how to meet the needs of the hotel housekeeper. I quote a part of his reply:
System Explained by an Expert.
"The vacuum-cleaning system in a hotel will pay for itself every year by reducing the cleaning force and by increasing the life of carpets, rugs, hangings, upholstery, and decorations, whether paper, fresco, or paint.
"In hotels where this system is in use—and their number is increasing every month—carpets and rugs are cleaned on the floor. Right here is a big saving. First, taking up and relaying carpets is expensive. There is nothing that wears them out quicker than this sort of handling and the beating and "tumbling." Vacuum-cleaning not only saves this, but saves the daily wear and tear of grinding in the dirt and wearing off the nap with a broom. Third, with the vacuum-system, valuable rooms are never put out of commission while the carpets and rugs are away being cleaned.
"Not only are the carpets and rugs kept cleaner by the vacuum-system, but everything else is cleaner because dust is kept down. The housekeeper of a certain hotel told the owner that since he put in the vacuum-system, the transoms had to be washed only one-fourth as often as before. Now, the dust on those transoms came out of the air. It settled everywhere, but it showed plainly only on the transoms. With the vacuum-system, there is only one-fourth as much dust to settle on the walls and decorations, and even that little is quickly removed with the vacuum-wall-brush. Dust on the walls is what causes the unpleasant, musty smell of many hotel rooms. Keeping walls clean means less frequent redecorating.
Purifies Nearly Everything.
"Upholstered furniture is quickly and thoroughly cleaned by the vacuum-method. Dust is removed not only from the surface, but also from the folds and creases and even the interior of the cushions. Moths and their eggs are sucked out from their hiding places under the upholstery buttons or in the corners.
"Mattresses and pillows are kept clean and sweet by vacuum-treatment. Passing the cleaning tool over the surface prevents dust from accumulating and sifting in. It sucks out the stale dusty air inside and draws in fresh air, thus preventing that unpleasant musty smell which hotel beds sometimes have.
"By the vacuum-method, tapestries and hangings are kept fresh and bright without the trouble and expense of taking them down. One hotel manager told me his vacuum-system saved him $10 every time he cleaned the hangings in his dining-room, for it used to cost him that sum to have them re-draped.
"By means of a special brush, wood and tile floors can be cleaned without the dust of dry sweeping, or the muddy aftermarks of sawdust.
Vacuum Always on Tap.
"The most and recent important improvement in vacuum-cleaning consists in having the vacuum or 'suction power' always 'on tap' on every floor. At convenient points in the corridors, nickel-plated taps are placed. To these, the housemen or maids can quickly attach the rubber hose connected with the cleaning-tools. Opening a valve turns on the suction or vacuum. Then, as fast as the tool is moved over the surface to be cleaned, dust and dirt are sucked through the hose into the pipes and away to an air-tight dust-tank in the basement. The 'on tap' vacuum is always ready for use. No need to telephone or send word to the engineer to start that pump or to stop it when the work is done.
"Although the vacuum, or suction, is kept on tap all the time, practically no power is consumed except when the cleaning is going on. Even then the amount of power used—whether it be steam or electricity—is automatically proportioned to the number and the size of the cleaning tools in use. Whenever you lay down the sweeper to move a chair, just so much less power is consumed while the tool is idle. If one sweeper is in use, only one-tenth as much power is needed as when ten sweepers are working. The little upholstery tuft-cleaner consumes only one-ninth as much power as the carpet-sweeper. This means a great saving of power and is a great improvement over the old vacuum-methods, by which it was impossible to keep the vacuum on tap and by which, once the apparatus was started, full power was consumed, no matter how many sweepers were at work."
The Linen-Room and the Linen-Woman.
The linen-woman has in her care all the beautiful and expensive linen in the hotel; if she is careless in counting it when sending it to the different departments, careless in counting it after it has been returned, there will be a deficit in the "stock-report" at the end of the month. The linen-room is a position of trust. The linen-woman should be as accurate in counting her employer's napkins and table-cloths as the cashier is in counting his employer's dollars.
The following set of rules and essential requirements are suggested for the management of the linen-woman:
1. She must be prompt to open the linen-room at 6:30 a.m.
2. Must not leave the linen-room without notifying the housekeeper.
3. Must sort the linen.
4. Must see that no damaged article of linen is sent out to the guest-rooms.
5. Must mend all the linen.
6. Must keep track of the linen.
7. Must keep the linen-room books.
8. Must mark the new linen before sending it out.
The linen-room is the housekeeper's pride. What is more pleasing to a housekeeper than to look into a well-kept linen-room. This room is the housekeeper's "stock-exchange," the room where all her business transactions take place. It is also her home. She has her geraniums in the window and her desk in one corner. She has her sewing-machine, and telephone, and a bright rug or two on the spotless floor. The linen-room is the place where the housekeeper is found or her whereabouts made known.
The room should be thoroughly cleaned every Saturday, and swept and dusted every day. It requires skill and labor to keep a well regulated linen-room looking neat and pretty. Linen-shelves are scrubbed, not papered. All heavy articles, such as spreads, blankets, pillows, and table-felts should be kept on the top shelf. The water-glasses, ice-water pitchers, extra slop jars, washbowls and pitchers, should also be kept on the top shelves, and covered with a dust-cover. The other shelves should be scrubbed, and the sheets, slips, face-towels, and bath-towels used for the guest-rooms, put on a shelf by themselves. The helps' linen should be put on another shelf. The table-linen should be placed by itself, and so on—a place for everything and everything in its place.
The table-cloths should be mended first before they are sent to the laundry. The best way to mend table-linen is first to fill the holes with darning-cotton, just as you would if you were darning a stocking; then loosen the presser-foot of your sewing-machine and darn it down neatly with the machine. If the hole is very large—say as large as your hand—the better way is to cover the hole with darning-net before filling it in with the darning-cotton; then it may be finished on the machine.
When the table-cloths are too bad to mend, the large ones can be cut down into small ones and the small ones into tray-covers. Old napkins can be sewed together and used for cleaning-cloths. Table-linen is very expensive and the careful housekeeper will easily save her salary above that of a careless one by properly taking care of the linen.
How Coffee Bags Are Made.
The coffee-bags should be made from the stewards' dictation. No two stewards will have them made the same. Bath-towels, when damaged, may be made into wash-cloths, and used in the public baths. The cases for hot-water bags are made of white flannel.
A supply of soap, matches, toilet-paper, and sanitary powder, should be kept in the linen-room, where it is convenient for the maids.
The progressive housekeeper will not allow the stock of linen to grow too small. She will see that it is replenished each month.
The linen-room should be opened at 6:30 a.m. and closed at 10:00 p.m. If it is a commercial hotel, the linen should be portioned among the maids, in the morning. The linen issued in the morning should be charged to each girl on the slate. The maids should count the soiled linen on their floor, pin the count to the bundle, and bring it to the linen-room, where the linen-woman again should count it and give each maid credit on the slate. The linen-woman should deduct the clean linen issued in the morning from the soiled linen returned, and, if the linen-room owes the maid, she should be given her linen at once. After that, the maid should get only one piece of clean linen for one of soiled. If the maid brings in no soiled linen, she should not get any clean. In this way, the linen-woman will be able to keep track of the linen. She will be able to tell the manager where every piece of linen is at any time of the day.
The dining-room linen should be issued in the same way. The linen-woman should be able to tell by her books how many napkins are in the dining-room, how many are in the laundry, and the number that are on the shelf in the linen-room.
It may not be an innovation, but a blackboard in the linen-room will be of great assistance to the housekeeper in copying the changes that are sent up from time to time during the day. The board may be freshly ruled every day, with as many columns as there are maids, and the maid's name, or number, should be written above her column.
As the changes are sent up on a pad by the clerks, the linen-woman should copy them on the board, putting each maid's changes under her name. The maids should take the chalk and draw a straight line through their changes, indicating that the rooms have received proper attention. As there are few hotels that have not had some trouble about reporting changes, it would be a splendid idea for the clerk to insist on the housekeeper or the linen-woman signing for the changes. The fact that the clerk can produce his duplicate, showing the time to the very minute he sent the change, is not proof that the change was received in the linen-room. The bell-boy may be a new boy, and may have taken the change-slip to some other part of the house. But if the housekeeper, or the linen-woman, signs the pad on which the changes have been sent up, and the pad is returned to the office, the housekeeper or the linen-woman will have to furnish some other excuse for the room being out of order, than that she did not get the change.
The housekeeper should see that an accurate account is taken every month of all the linen, and correctly entered on the linen-room stock-book. This account should show the new linen purchased during the month. The following form is suggested for the stock-book for the linen-room:
Inventory of Linen-Room for month ending January 1, 1908.