“Efficient housekeeping is the beginning of good citizenship.”

—Professor Martha van Rensselaer.

The Budget. Many young people hesitate to marry on a modest income, either through confessed inability to manage a small budget, or an unwillingness to begin humbly and live simply. Many mothers are sorely perplexed over the problem of finding time and energy from their household work for the education of and play with their children. Parents are perplexed over how to provide for and educate more than one or two children in what they consider a fitting manner.

Efficiency Methods. The whole complexity may be reduced to definite problems of philosophy, scientific efficiency, physics, and mathematics. The first step is to appreciate the relative value of life and of things, of genuine simplicity and vulgar show; of educating the children to share, to carry responsibility, to be self-reliant, or to be selfish, dependent, luxury-loving.

Second, all the labor-saving machinery in the world will but slightly reduce the output of time and energy in the household work unless the worker will apply her mind to the problem, adapt herself to new ways of performing a piece of work, and be willing to think.

Third, the individual problem must be studied. Have a regular monthly session to analyze seriously, with pencil and paper, the household situation, and to question every process of work and every expenditure. Can the household régime be made simpler yet socially efficient? Where is there waste of energy, time, materials, income? How can the accumulation of dirt and dust be reduced? How can dishwashing and laundry work be reduced? How can time spent in cooking be decreased? How could any work be done in a less tiring position? Where could there be a reduction in the number of steps, trips, arm movements, duplications of work, arranging which requires later disarrangement? Where could pipes, drains, hose lines, faucets, pulleys, speaking tubes, signals, or other simple mechanical devices reduce time and labor? What work could be done by a part-time helper at an hourly or daily rate? What is the difference in cost between food cooked at home or purchased already cooked? What has been the loss from food wasted, spoiled, thrown away, improperly cooked? Could any foods be purchased directly from the producer, with a saving of cost? Are the dealers sending honest measures and correct bills? How could a reduction be made in the cost of fuel or of lighting?

Domestic engineers, housekeeping experiment stations, household efficiency laboratories already exist, but they are so new that the terms are not yet quite familiar. It may prove a great saving of time and energy to consult one of the new domestic engineers, whose business it is to analyze a kitchen or a house or a family budget, plan its rearrangement for economy of time, energy, and money, recommend labor-saving machinery, or organize a system of routine.

Fourth, begin at once to put efficiency principles into practice in the household work. Do not dawdle or potter over work. Analyze the work of the household into units, for example, preparation of breakfast, laying and clearing the dining table, care of a bedroom, washing the dishes. Specify the maximum amount of time each unit is worth, then see how this can be reduced, using the fewest arm motions and least walking.

Saving Time and Energy. Learn to plan and organize work. Have a monthly, weekly, and daily schedule of work. It will often be necessary to vary this, but a well-planned schedule will nevertheless reduce the time otherwise wasted in unnecessary duplication and without definite purpose. “A stitch in time saves nine.” This applies to sanitation, plumbing, cleaning, gardening, colds, and sore throats, as well as to socks and frocks.

Study how to eliminate useless motions. Make exact studies, using a watch and a record pad. Observe how many trips were made in laying the table, and the length of time required. Discover ways of reducing this by half, through use of a tray, more convenient arrangement of supplies, fewer dishes, simpler service. Make similar studies with other processes, such as cleaning a room, or preparing a meal.

In an ordinary household, preparation of breakfast for a family of five persons should not require more than half an hour; lunch from twenty minutes to an hour; dinner from half an hour to two hours. The daily care of a bedroom should be completed in ten to twenty minutes. Washing of dishes, clearing of dining room and kitchen, should be finished in from twenty to sixty minutes after a meal. The weekly washing for such a family should be completed in four to six hours, and likewise the ironing. Five hours a week is enough to spend in baking, and only two should be necessary if bread is not made.

Make out the menus for a whole week, revising daily as necessary. This will assure better-balanced menus, more variety, economy of time and money in marketing, and will prevent the worry of unpreparedness. In marketing, purchase a two or four months’ supply of such staples as can be bought and stored advantageously. Have a regular day weekly to inspect supplies and order staples. Have two or three regular days a week for purchasing fresh vegetables, fruits, meats.

The general architectural plan of a house, finish of walls and floors, construction of windows, doors, wainscoting, corners, mopboards, can make hours of difference in the week’s labor. Even when the general architecture cannot be altered, the floors may be improved. Carpeted or waxed floors are the most difficult to care for, while those painted or oiled are easiest. Useless bric-a-brac, carved and ornate furniture, all are dust and germ holders, and consume an extravagant amount of time for their care. For every unnecessary and useless piece of furniture, drapery, or utensil, the housekeeper must pay a tax of time and strength in handling. The Japanese have learned the beauty of simplicity in house furnishing.

Rearrange the plan of the kitchen until supplies, utensils, stove, water, sink are so placed that there are fewest steps and motions, and it is as convenient as an apartment house kitchenette. Tables, sinks, and ironing boards adjusted to the height of the worker will economize energy. A low stool to stand upon will reduce the height of work tables; a detached wooden frame or block on top of a low kitchen table or sink will often give the desired height without stooping. A cushioned stool or chair to sit upon while doing stationary work, or a soft rug under feet while standing, all add to comfort.

Electricity is the housekeeper’s man-of-all-work. It can heat, light, cook, supply the energy for the vacuum cleaner, washing machine, wringer, dishwasher. In some communities it is now furnished at a sufficiently low rate for such general use, and other communities can have the same low rates whenever the housekeepers organize and demand it.

Simple cooking is more digestible, nourishing, economical of labor, and, to a natural appetite, more appetizing. The most valuable part of potatoes and apples is next the skin, the removal of which before cooking is wasteful of time and materials. A coal stove is an enormous consumer of time and energy. An alcohol stove furnishes the cleanest method of cooking, quite practicable, with a fireless cooker and steam cooker, for a small family. Next in convenience, and more economical, are the gas or oil vapor stoves. A good fireless cooker vastly reduces the time required in the kitchen, and cuts the fuel bill in half.

In serving meals, labor is saved by using a tray, or better still a wheeled tray with several shelves, which may be drawn up to the table to hold the additional courses and the soiled dishes as removed. A special tray that will fit the cupboard shelf, to hold the constant accessories, will save handling.

Dishwashing is an ever-recurring, three-times-a-day problem. There are several fairly good dishwashing machines now on the market, both electric and hand-power. If dishes must be washed in the old-fashioned way, engineering efficiency can be put into it. After washing, scald the china in a wire basket such as business offices use for holding letters, and leave to dry without wiping, then place directly on trays to take to the table instead of placing on shelves only to take down again. In times of stress or of picnic spirit, papier-mâché or wooden dishes will save time.

For cleaning have a vacuum cleaner, carpet sweeper, hair floor brush, dustless mop, dustless dusters or cheesecloth dampened with kerosene, wax oil or furniture polish. It takes an hour or two after sweeping for dust to settle; this interval should be allowed before dusting furniture.

If good laundries, guiltless of injurious chemicals and extravagant rates, are not available in the locality, a coöperative laundry providing these features may be organized and conducted by the women of the community, as in many places in Wisconsin. If laundry work must be done at home, an equipment of a good washing machine or even a hand vacuum washer, a wringer, stationary tubs, hose lines, running hot and cold water, with sewer connection for waste, greatly reduce the time and energy cost. A cold mangle or one heated by gas or charcoal costs but a few dollars and reduces by about seventy-five per cent. the labor of ironing flat work. Gas or electric irons are inexpensive and energy saving. Necessary laundry work may be greatly minimized by providing silk or cotton crepon for underwear and dresses, seersucker for children’s rompers, dresses, and aprons, with doilies or paper napkins in place of tablecloth, at least for breakfast and lunch, and paper towels for kitchen and bathroom.

The physical and mental condition of the worker is a very considerable factor in time and energy cost. Work attempted when one is fatigued, nervous, or tense consumes vastly more energy and time. Learn to relax at intervals; especially lie down for a few minutes about midday. “Never stand when you can sit; never sit when you can lie down.” If becoming nervous or tense, relax completely, and take long, slow, deep breaths of fresh air. Stand with the weight on the balls of the feet, head erect and chest expanded. Keep the house air in winter at efficiency point: between 65° F. and 68° F. in temperature, and sufficiently humid by well-filled water pans in furnace pipe or by large open dishes of water in room, and with a constant intake of fresh outside air.

Making the Most of the Family Income. Analyze the family income and spend it on paper many times before spending it over the counter. Train the family to spend less than is planned, rather than more Ordinarily, for incomes up to three thousand dollars, the following is considered by economists a wise distribution, in a family with three children:

Personal ordering and selection of supplies, paying cash and keeping accounts, will furnish the greatest values for expenditures. Accurate scales and measures in the kitchen, with occasional tests of supplies sent, will check errors or dishonesty of marketmen. Cost of supplies may be reduced by keeping posted on market prices; buying in wholesale quantities where possible, in coöperation with other housekeepers; buying directly from the producer wherever possible; knowing the reliable grades and brands of package goods. A knowledge of the values of common foods and their comparative cost for equivalent food value is indispensable for efficiency. A reasonable allowance is two dollars to two dollars and a half a week for food supplies for each person. An ample quantity (eighteen hundred to two thousand calories a day) of nourishing food of limited variety can be purchased for one dollar a week. Luxuries should be had on a four dollar weekly allowance per person

The following table can be expanded by any housekeeper. For other food stuffs: Note calories per pound. (Given in Government Bulletin Number 28 or Rose’s Laboratory Manual in Dietetics) To find the number of calories for one cent, divide calories per pound by cost per pound. Fruits and green vegetables, although furnishing few calories for one cent, are needed each day, for their vitamines, acids, and minerals.

Comparative Caloric Food Values and Cost

Locating the Home. Life in the open country, town, or suburb reduces the cost of living, as compared with the city, (a) by reducing the stimulation and excitement of daily life, and their energy cost; (b) reducing the temptations to extravagant and frivolous expenditure of money; (c) furnishing better air and more outdoor living, thus increasing the quality of life besides decreasing expenditures for illness; (d) providing a porch and yard where children may play in sight of mother at work, and where the family may find social life; (e) providing space for garden and poultry, whose care is healthful exercise, and whose products may reduce the expenditure for food. By purchasing staples at wholesale and organizing a coöperative marketing group for fruits and vegetables, as wide a variety and as low a cost of food is possible as under most favorable city conditions. The provision of rural traveling libraries, art exhibits, educational picture films, the use of the schoolhouse as a social center, the improvement of education in the rural and suburban school with its ideal natural environment, all are part of that larger home-making for which every mother and father should feel a responsibility.

The Value of Life and of Things. “The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.” Do not mistake the means for the end in housekeeping. Orderliness, immaculate linen, garnished rooms are means. Good cheer, patience, kindliness, reserve force, poise are of vastly greater value. Often it is necessary to choose between the two. Cherish simplicity, beauty, courtesy, rather than conventionality, aping of passing modes, vulgar show, and ostentation in the house, equipment, household service, the clothing of the family. Train every member of the family to be responsible for the care of his own belongings and to wait upon himself as his share in social coöperation.

Let the children from toddling time help in the household duties and chores. It will be for their guardians a good training in patience, adaptability, and sympathy. What if their work is crude, with many mistakes and mishaps? They are learning motor coördinations, manual dexterity, a knowledge of homely routine, the meaning of labor and service, the joy of workmanship and creation, the satisfaction of self-reliance, the happiness of intimate comradeship with mother and father. Their character development is the great consideration, not the materials they are handling or the petty work they are accomplishing.