THE UPPER HOUSE MAID.
In large families, where there is much work, two or more house maids are kept, but as the Upper House Maid has generally the superintendence and responsibility of all, we shall include their principal labours under one general head.
The Upper House Maid should be fully competent to undertake the management of all the household business of a gentleman’s family; and to be perfectly qualified for her situation, she ought to have been previously initiated in the capacity of Under House Maid.
In most families she has the care of all the household linen, bed and table linen, napkins, towels, &c. which she also makes and keeps in repair, and besides cleaning the house and furniture, and making the beds, she washes her own clothes, and has sometimes to assist the laundry-maid in getting up the fine linen, washing silk stockings, &c. instead of the lady’s maid; but these latter are considered as rather extra labours, and are not, in all families, deemed a necessary part of the house maid’s business. She also cleans all the coal skuttles in use above stairs, and all the kettles used for warming water in the dressing-rooms, &c. When there are dinner parties the house-maid washes up the plate and china.
The house-maid, in a regular family, will find it necessary to rise about five o’clock, and her first business will be to open the shutters of the usual family sitting-rooms; as the breakfast-room and library, whence she clears away all the superfluous articles that may have been left there, and prepares for cleaning the stoves, fire-places, and hearths, by rolling up the hearth rugs, carefully carrying them out to be shaken, and then laying down a piece of canvas, or coarse cloth, to keep the place clean, while she rakes out the ashes, takes them up, and brushes up the fire-place. She then rubs the bright bars of the stoves, and the fire-irons, first with oil, and afterwards with emery-paper, No. 3, or with brick-dust, till clean and bright—and, finally, with scouring-paper; and this should be done in the summer time, particularly when the stoves may have acquired spots for want of constant use.
The backs and sides of the fire-places are next to be brushed over with black-lead, and then rubbed dry and bright with a hard brush kept for the purpose.
The fires are next lighted, and the marble hearths washed with flannel, dipped in a strong hot lather of soap and water, which must be cleaned off and wiped dry with a linen cloth;—the marble chimney pieces need not be thus cleaned above once or twice a week.
Common free-stone hearths may be scoured with soap and sand and cold water, and afterwards rubbed dry with a clean house cloth.
By this time the footman will have done all his work in the pantry, and have rubbed all the tables, chairs, cellerets, and other mahogany furniture, and cleaned the brass and other ornaments, the mirrors, looking-glasses, &c. in these rooms, when the carpets are to be swept, on ordinary occasions, with a carpet mop to take off the flue, lint, and dust; or more thoroughly, once a week with a long hair-brush or carpet-broom, first having strewed them over with damp tea-leaves, (see receipt for scouring and cleaning carpets.) The sides of the carpet are then turned up all round the room, and the dust on the floor swept away, or, occasionally, the floor scoured with soap and water. The carpet is then turned back again; the chairs and other furniture dusted singly, and removed from the middle of the room, where they were cleaned to their proper places.
The window curtains and hangings may not require to be shaken and dusted every day, but the dust on the windows should be removed with a long hair-broom, and the cobwebs or any dirt on the ceiling, and in the corners of the room, must be sought for and removed.
Every thing being adjusted in the rooms for the reception of the family, the house-maid next opens the shutters of the dining-room, and drawing-room, where she and the footman regularly proceed with their respective business in the manner above mentioned. The house-maid with the fires and fire-place, floors, carpets, &c. scouring, washing, brushing, and dusting them; and the footman, rubbing and cleaning the mahogany furniture, looking-glasses, and other articles in his department, till all is made quite clean, and the rooms are fit for the reception of the family.
At an appointed time she repairs to the dressing-rooms of the master and mistress, and others in use, empties the slops, replenishes the ewers and water-carofts with fresh spring and soft water, and fills the kettles for warm water—cleans up the fire-places, lights the fires, brushes the carpets, sweeps the rooms, dusts the furniture, and puts the rooms in order before the lady’s-maid and valet come to make their arrangements previous to the rising of their superiors.—Having done these, she sweeps down the principal stair-case and goes to her breakfast.
As soon as the best bed-rooms and dressing-rooms are at liberty, she repairs thither, puts out the fires, or not, according as the weather is,—throws open the windows, (or the doors only, in unfavourable weather) to air the rooms, and the beds; opens all the beds, throws the bed-clothes off, on the backs of chairs, placed at the foot of the bed, shakes up each bed, and then proceeds to her other business in the rooms, in order to give as much time as can be spared for airing the beds. Meanwhile, she cleans up the fire-places, again, lays the fires to be ready when wanted, and having washed her hands and put on a clean apron, she makes the beds. (In this business she is usually assisted by the under house-maid, as it requires two persons to make a bed well.) This done, she mops or brushes the carpets, to clean off the flue or feathers and dust,—sweeps out the rooms, rubs and dusts the furniture, supplies the ewers and carofts with clean water, and then retires; leaving the rooms properly arranged against the coming of the lady’s-maid and valet to prepare for their master’s and mistress’s dressing, previous to their going out.
She next proceeds to the other bed-rooms—opens the windows and makes the beds—empties the slops—cleans out the rooms, rubs and dusts the furniture, and puts them in proper order.
Having finished all the bed-rooms, the stair-cases, landings, and passages, will next claim her attention, which are also to be swept, the carpets brushed or swept, and the floor-cloths rubbed over with a clean wet flannel, and wiped dry with a clean house-cloth. On the appointed general cleaning days, the floor-cloths must be scoured with warm soap suds, and afterwards wiped dry, with a clean linen cloth.
On the general cleaning days also, which are usually Tuesdays and Saturdays, every branch of the household work must be thoroughly done, in the best manner;—the rooms are then to be scoured instead of being merely wiped or swept;—the carpets are to be well brushed or taken up to be beaten or shaken;—the stoves and fire-places brightened and cleaned with particular care;—the marble hearths and chimney-pieces scoured;—the mahogany furniture and the brass or other ornaments in the best rooms, and the mirrors and looking-glasses cleaned, with more than ordinary attention;—the bed-furniture, window-curtains and hangings well shaken, whisked and brushed: in short, the best practical methods for thoroughly cleaning the whole house, must be resorted to on that day.
If the house maid rise in good time, and employ herself busily, she will get every thing done above stairs in time to clean and make herself comfortable for dinner, about one o’clock; after which she will attend to her needle work, under the direction of the housekeeper. About four, in the winter, the fires in the dressing-rooms are to be lighted—the slops emptied—clean water supplied, (hot and cold) and the dressing-rooms again dusted and cleaned, preparatory to the lady and gentleman dressing for dinner. While the family is at dinner, the dressing-rooms must be again prepared; and in the evening the shutters of the bed-rooms and dressing-rooms must be fastened—the curtains let down—the beds turned down—the fires lighted, and the rooms put into proper condition for the night. Wages from 12 to 16 guineas a year.
TO CLEAN CARPETS.
First well beat and brush the carpet,—then to a gallon of water add eight potatoes grated, and with this liquid wash it slightly over with a sponge, which will not only clean it but restore it to its original beauty when dry. Or, after it has been well beaten and brushed, put an ox gall into a pint of water, wash the carpet over on the right side, and it will have the same effect.
TO SCOUR CARPETS, HEARTH-RUGS, &c.
Rub a piece of soap on every spot of grease or dirt; then take a hard brush dipped in boiling water, and rub the spots well. If very dirty, a solution of soap must be put into a tub, with hot water, and the carpet well beat in it, rinsing it in several clean waters, and putting in the last water a table-spoonful of oil of vitriol, to brighten the colours.
TO DUST CARPETS AND FLOORS.
Carpets should not be swept with a whisk-brush more than once a week; at other times sprinkle tea-leaves on them, and sweep carefully with a hair-broom, after which they should be gently brushed on the knees with a clothes’-brush.
TO CLEAN ALL SORTS OF METAL.
Mix half a pint of refined neat’s-foot oil, and half a gill of spirits of turpentine; wet a woollen rag therewith, dip it into a little scraped rotten-stone, and rub the metal well. Wipe it off with a soft cloth, polish with dry leather, and use more of the powder. If steel is very rusty, use a little powder of pumice with liquid, on a separate woollen rag, first.
TO RESTORE HANGINGS, CARPETS, CHAIRS, &C.
Beat the dust out of them as clean as possible, then rub them over with a dry brush, and make a good lather with Castille soap, and rub them well over with a hard brush, then take clean water and with it wash off the froth; make a water with alum, and wash them over with it, and when dry, most of the colours will be restored in a short time; and those that are yet too faint, must be touched up with a pencil dipped in suitable colours; it may be run all over in the same manner with water colours mixed well with gum water, and it will look at a distance like new.
TO CLEAN PAPER HANGINGS.
Cut into eight half quarters a stale quartern loaf: with one of these pieces, after having blown off all the dust from the paper, to be cleaned by means of a good pair of bellows, begin at the top of the room, holding the crust in the hand, and wiping lightly downwards with the crumb, about half a yard at each stroke, till the upper part of the hangings is completely cleaned all round; then go again round with the like sweeping stroke downwards, always commencing each successive course a little higher than the upper stroke had extended, till the bottom be finished. This operation, if carefully performed, will frequently make very old paper look almost equal to new. Great caution must be used not by any means to rub the paper hard, nor to attempt cleaning it the cross or horizontal way. The dirty part of the bread too must be each time cut away, and the pieces renewed as soon as necessary.
TO WHITE WASH.
Put some lumps of quick-lime into a bucket of cold water, and stir it about till dissolved and mixed, after which a brush with a large head, and a long handle to reach the ceiling of the room, is used to spread it thinly on the walls, &c. When dry it is beautifully white, but its known cheapness has induced the plasterers to substitute a mixture of glue size and whiting for the houses of their opulent customers; and this, when once used, precludes the employment of lime-washing ever after; for the latter, when laid on whiting becomes yellow.
White-washing is an admirable manner of rendering the dwellings of the poor clean and wholesome.
TO PRESERVE POLISHED IRONS FROM RUST.
Polished iron-work may be preserved from rust by a mixture not very expensive, consisting of copal varnish intimately mixed with as much olive oil as will give it a degree of greasiness, adding thereto nearly as much spirit of turpentine as of varnish. The cast iron-work is best preserved by rubbing it with black-lead.
But where rust has begun to make its appearance on grates or fire-irons, apply a mixture of tripoli with half its quantity of sulphur, intimately mingled on a marble slab, and laid on with a piece of soft leather: or emery and oil may be applied with excellent effect, laid on with a spongy piece of the fig-tree fully saturated with the mixture. This will not only clean but polish, and render the use of whiting unnecessary.
TO CLEAN MARBLE.
Take verdigris and pumice-stone, well powdered, with lime newly slacked. Mix with soap lees, to the consistence of putty. Put it in a woollen rag, and rub the stains well one way. Wash off with soap and water. Repeat, if not removed.
TO CLEAN FLOOR-CLOTHS.
Sweep them and wipe them with a damp flannel, after which wet them all over with milk, and rub them till bright with a dry cloth.
N. B. Floor-cloths should be chosen that are painted on fine cloth, well covered with colour and perfectly dry. The durability of the cloth depends greatly on these points, and particularly on its having had time for the paint to get quite dry. Old carpets answer extremely well, if painted and hung up to season some time, before they are laid down for use.
TO CLEAN LOOKING-GLASSES.
Remove fly stains or any other soil from the glass with a damp cloth, then polish with a woollen cloth and powder-blue.
TO TAKE SPOTS OF GREASE OR OIL OUT OF BOARDS.
Drop a few drops of oil of turpentine on the spots and rub it hard with your finger; this will dissolve the grease, and make it mix with the soap (or suds) and water when the room is washed.
Another Way.
Mix together fuller’s-earth and soap lees, and rub them on the boards. Let the mixture dry, and then scour it off with strong soft soap and sand, or use lees to scour it with. It should be put on hot, by heating the lees.
TO EXTRACT LAMP OIL, &C. OUT OF STONE OR MARBLE HALLS, &C.
Mix well together a pint of strong soap lees, some fuller’s earth, well dried, and a little pipe-clay, powdered fine; lay it on the part which is oiled, then put a hot iron upon it till dry. If all the oil come not out the first time, repeat it, and rub it well in. By doing it two or three times it will come out.