mistress, it may be repeated that it is difficult to define with
clearness the exact duties of the maid-of-all-work. She understands that
she is to do cooking, waiting, and chamber-work, and probably washing
and ironing. Should the family be small she will perform nearly all
these duties herself--that is, if the family live in a simple fashion.
Should the household be large, the maid may expect a helper with the
laundry-work, and the lighter house-work will devolve upon the mistress
of the house or her daughters. One pair of hands, even when backed by a
quick head and a willing heart, cannot accomplish everything in the work
of the house without neglecting or slighting something. The mistress of
one maid must recognize this and be prepared to take her share of the
labor when this is heavy. What her part is to be she must define as
clearly as possible at the first, in order that the maid may know just
what she has to do and be able to arrange her occupations to the best
advantage. When the mistress does something outside of the duties she
has assumed, she should have it thoroughly understood that her act is
an exception, performed for some specific reason. It is very easy to let
the exception glide into a rule, and what the maid received at first as
a favor which would spare her extra toil she regards later as a right to
which she is entitled.
At the beginning, the mistress does well to lay out the routine of the
work of the day for the benefit of the new maid. After the latter
has learned the ways of the house, and finds that she can make slight
alterations which will render her work easier, she should be permitted
to do so if the mistress finds that the tasks are discharged as well
as under the earlier plan. Many a mistress gains good points from
a servant, and the intelligent housekeeper, knowing this, is on the
lookout for suggestions she may find of service.
Certain regular duties are practically the same each day, no matter what
the other work may be. Early rising should be insisted upon. Six o'clock
is none too early for a maid to be up in a house where breakfast is
at seven-thirty or eight o'clock. By half after six the maid should be
dressed and down-stairs. If the care of the furnace falls upon her, her
first duty in winter is to open the draughts of the furnace and put on
a little coal. While this is kindling she can go back to her work
up-stairs. The kitchen fire must be lighted, the kettle filled freshly
and set to boil, the cereal put over the fire, before the maid goes into
the living-rooms to open the windows. While these rooms are airing she
may brush out the front hall and sweep off the steps, unless there is
a man engaged to take care of the outside work of the house and to look
after the furnace. When there is a gas-stove, the maid's work is
much simpler, and in that case she may open the windows and do the
brushing-up before she puts the kettle to boil. When the furnace fire
has come up, she may go down, put on more coal, and close the draughts.
In most families where but one maid is employed the mistress of the
house dusts her drawing-room. When this is the rule, the maid has only
to air the rooms, straighten the furniture that is out of place, and
brush up any scraps or dust that need to be removed. If the floors
or parts of them are bare, she should go over them with a damp cloth.
Should the family be very small, consisting of but two or three persons,
it is possible for the maid to do all the dusting. If this does not
devolve upon her, there are other small duties she can perform at this
time, such as filling and cleaning lamps. When there is a sitting-room,
this, too, should be set in order.
Whatever else may be postponed until after breakfast, the dining-room
must not be overlooked. It must be brushed up and thoroughly dusted. Few
things are more de-appetizing than to sit down to the first meal of
the day in a room which is still, so to speak, in curl-papers. If the
servant is brisk about her work she can look after the drawing-room,
halls, and dining-room, and set the table before she has to go back to
the kitchen. In households where a heavy breakfast is served, or where
the rooms are elaborately furnished, she may have to get up earlier
or leave part of the dusting to be done later. But the dusting of the
dining-room must never be omitted. The morning tasks may be lightened a
little by setting the breakfast-table overnight, and when this is done a
thin cover--a sheet of cheese-cloth is excellent--should be thrown
over the table after it is set to protect the dishes and other
table-furniture from dust.
The preparation of the breakfast is the maid's next duty. The extent of
the work this involves varies, of course, in different households. In
some homes the old-fashioned American breakfast of hot meat or fish,
warm bread, and potatoes cooked in some form is still preserved. Other
families have adopted a modification of the Continental breakfast, and
find all they need for the morning meal in fruit, a cereal, rolls or
toast, eggs or bacon, and coffee. The latter breakfast simplifies the
work of the household, but it is not popular everywhere. Whatever the
breakfast, it should be in readiness at the hour appointed, if the
members of the family are on hand or not. It need not be served until it
is ordered, but it should be entirely ready. When all the persons in a
household can reconcile themselves to breakfasting together, it makes
work easier and saves time. Should they find it impossible to partake of
it in harmony as well as in unison, and each one eats alone, it renders
the meal a more prolonged function. Under such circumstances, the food
may be kept hot for the tardy ones and they may be granted the privilege
of getting it for themselves from the kitchen when they arrive, instead
of impeding progress by making the duties of the day yield to their
convenience.
The fruit-course may be on the table when the family is summoned. At
breakfast they usually do for themselves such waiting as passing plates,
cups and saucers, and the like. A plate and finger-bowl may be in front
of each person, and the porridge-bowl and saucer may be close by also,
if it is desirable to simplify the service. Or these dishes may be on
the serving-table or sideboard, and the maid may put them on the table
with the cereal when she comes in to take out the fruit-plates. After
the cereal-dishes have been removed and the rest of the breakfast
served, the maid may be excused to go about her other work. The time
of her own breakfast may be settled by the mistress and herself. The
sensible course is for the maid to eat something and take a cup of tea
or coffee in the intervals of her early work, but there are few servants
who can be persuaded to do this. If the maid prefers she can take her
breakfast while the family is eating, but most maids and mistresses seem
to find it more convenient to dispose of the bedroom work as early as
possible.
When this is the case the maid should go to the chambers as soon as the
substantial part of the breakfast is on the table. The occupants of
the beds should have stripped these on rising and opened the windows
on leaving the rooms. If this has been done the bedclothing has had a
chance to air. In order that such airing may be adequately done, the
covers should be taken from the bed and spread across a couple of
chairs placed back to back. The covers must not drag on the floor. The
mattresses should be beaten and turned back over the foot of the bed
that the air may reach them from both sides. To freshen them thoroughly,
they should be left thus, the windows open, for from fifteen minutes to
half an hour. While this is going on the rooms may be brushed or gone
over with a carpet-sweeper--not thoroughly swept: this comes at another
time. The beds may now be made and the dusting done.
In a small family it is taken for granted that the maid should do this
work, but in a household of more than two or three it is customary for
the women of the family to look after the beds. In that case the maid
need only brush up the rooms, strip the beds, and empty soiled water,
leaving the rest of the up-stairs work undone while she goes back to
the kitchen. She may now take her own breakfast if she has not had it
earlier, and clear the table. After every meal the dishes should be
removed from the table as soon as possible. They should be carried into
the kitchen or the butler's pantry, the cloth brushed--never shaken--and
folded, and the dining-room put in order, the crumbs brushed from about
the table, the chairs put in their places, the room darkened, if it is
warm weather. If the mistress of the house dusts the chambers, the maid
may now wash the dishes; if not, she may scrape them and leave them to
soak in warm water while she goes back to her dusting and cleans and
arranges the bath-room.
To clean the bath-room properly, there should always be a bottle
of household ammonia at hand, one of forty per cent. solution of
formaldehyde or other good disinfectant, a couple of cloths, a
long-handled brush, and a scrubbing-brush. It is also well to have a can
of concentrated lye or one of the preparations like it which will cut
accumulations in waste-pipes. The hand-basin, tub, and closet should
be scoured out each morning, the drain-pipes flushed twice a week with
water to which has been added formaldehyde or the lye. The former
is admirable for removing stains and deposits, but if these are very
obstinate the formaldehyde must be left in the basin overnight.
The long-handled brush enables the maid to clean the closet basin
satisfactorily. Ammonia on the cloth used in washing the tub and basin
will remove greasy deposits. The nickel fittings and woodwork must be
wiped off, the soap-dishes and tooth-brush racks washed. The vessels
used in the bedrooms must be cleansed in the same manner, the
water-pitchers rinsed out and filled fresh every day, and the slop-jars
and commodes scalded daily.
The linen-closet should be in the charge of the mistress of the house,
and the maid should have nothing to do with giving out fresh linen for
the beds or towels for the bath-room.
When the bath-room work is finished, the maid may return to the kitchen,
wash and put away the dishes, and get the kitchen and pantries in order.
The maid who takes proper care of her china, glass, and silver will
rinse her dishes thoroughly in one water and then wash them in hot suds,
the glass first, then the silver, and then the china, drying each piece
as it comes from the suds. The breakfast-dishes washed, the dish-towels
should be rubbed out. Once a day they should be boiled.
This is the time when the mistress inspects the contents of the
refrigerator and decides what shall be the meals for the day. Either
before or after such inspection the maid must wipe off the shelves of
the ice-box, and three times a week it must be scoured out with hot
water and washing-soda.
The general work of the house--of which more later--is undertaken now,
and after it comes the preparation of the mid-day luncheon. At this meal
little waiting is required. The table is set as for breakfast. If the
work is properly managed there should be no heavy tasks for the maid to
accomplish in the afternoon, except on washing and ironing days. She may
perhaps attend to some light work like the polishing of silver, but,
if her duties are arranged as they should be and she is brisk in their
performance, she ought to be able to have a little time to herself in
the afternoon. The preparation of dinner is seldom undertaken until
after four o'clock in houses where dinner is served at seven.
The maid is expected to discharge the work of a regular waitress at
dinner, so far as serving the dishes, passing plates, and the like are
concerned. She is not required to remain in the room, but to come when
rung for. Her work of clearing away and washing dishes is practically
the same after luncheon and dinner as after breakfast.
The usual costume of the maid-of-all-work in the early part of the day
is a neat wash-frock and white apron. While waiting at table she should
wear a cap. She should have a colored apron on when working in the
kitchen, but there should always be a fresh white apron at hand for her
to slip on when she answers the bell. When she dresses to wait at dinner
she should put on a black frock, white collar and apron and cap. Since
she must wear the frock in the kitchen, it is better to have it of wash
goods. The mistress should be in readiness to answer the bell when the
maid is dressing for dinner, or when she is at the wash-tub or doing
any other work it is difficult for her to leave. A great deal of
consideration is demanded of both mistress and maid when there is but
one servant and the family desires to live daintily and in accordance
with good form.
A general outline of the daily work has thus been given, but each day
must have its share of the week's duties. By general consent Monday and
Tuesday are given over to washing and ironing, and on these days, unless
a laundress is hired to help, the mistress of the house must take charge
of the chamber-work and of all the dusting, and, if the wash is large,
will perhaps feel it well to wash the dishes after breakfast, and to
lend a hand in the preparation of luncheon. The plan practised in some
houses of having all the sweeping done on Friday is open to criticism.
Even if there is baking to be done on Wednesday, a portion of
the sweeping or other cleaning may also be accomplished then. The
dining-room or drawing-room, as being near the kitchen, may be cleaned
on the days when the maid must watch her cooking closely.
This method of apportioning the work has much to commend it. Washing
windows is tiresome, and the maid will feel it less if she does a few
every day than if she gives a whole morning or afternoon to them. The
scouring of large pieces of brass or silver and the cleaning of paint it
is well to discharge all at one time, and this may be done on Thursday,
while the sweeping of the bedrooms and cleaning of the upper part of
the house may be reserved for Friday. The woodwork about the doorknobs
should be wiped off, the stairs brushed down, and the halls gone over
with the carpet-sweeper daily, and the house, from top to bottom, swept
well at least once a week.
V
DUTIES OF TWO OR MORE SERVANTS
With specialization in the household come complications. The manual
labor of the mistress may be lessened when she adds to her domestic
force, but with every new maid she assumes more responsibilities. She
has to reconstruct the system to which she had become accustomed when
she employed but one servant, and very often the whole tone of the
establishment is changed from what it was in the days to which she
sometimes looks back as comparatively care free.
Yet with the increase in a family or with an alteration in the mode of
living additional service becomes necessary, and, unless the housekeeper
is of the type who takes life hard, there is no reason why she
should not soon adapt herself to the new conditions. As in all other
circumstances where she must make plans for her domestics, she should
have her scheme of action clear in her own mind before she gives it to
her servants. Vacillation and uncertainty on the part of the mistress
shake the maid's confidence in the judgment of the ruling brain, and
dispose her to question decisions and to neglect the duties which she
thinks do not strike even the mistress as absolutely essential.
It is hard to change the method of work when the former general
household servant is put into the place of cook or waitress and a second
maid engaged. The former factotum is likely to criticise the way in
which her late duties are performed, and perhaps to feel that the lion's
share still falls to her. So, unless it is an exceptionally competent
maid who has been doing all the work, it is usually well to begin a new
deal of this sort by getting two maids and dividing the work between
them from the outset.
The duties assigned to the different domestics in a house where two or
more servants are employed are not easy to define explicitly. They must
be determined largely by the individual wants and conditions. The size
of the family, the arrangement of the house, the style of living,
the fact of there being small children in the home, all suggest
modifications of any general outline. Therefore, the schedule of
ordinary household duties following must be subordinate to the
conditions mentioned, and also to the capabilities of the individual
servant. In a household where more than one servant is employed it is
desirable that there should be from the beginning as clear as possible
an understanding of the duties to be discharged, since with the
specialization comes a disinclination to undertake any work outside of
the particular line for which the servant was employed. In the household
of more than one servant there is a strong probability that the
statement, "I was not engaged to do this kind of work," will be heard,
sooner or later.
"It seems absurd that I should employ a man-servant besides the coachman
and the gardener," said a housekeeper to me the other day. "I have
plenty of maids, and, as nearly as I can make out, I took on this extra
man for the sake of having him sweep off the stone platform in front
of the porch steps. It was nobody's work. The waitress said she did not
hire to do outside work, and the coachman said it had nothing to do
with his work. It was not the gardener's business, and they were all so
strenuous about it that I told my husband I seemed to be the only one
to whose lot it really fell by rights to keep that platform clean. There
was so much discussion over it that I finally hired a houseman for the
especial purpose of having that platform swept. Of course, he looks
after the furnace and brushes off the porch and washes windows and
does other things of that sort, but they are merely incidents. The real
reason I keep him is so that my husband or I won't have to sweep that
platform!"
Bearing in mind the possibility of such complications, the mistress
should tell her second maid when she engages her that she may have to
perform other tasks than those which lie exactly within an over-rigid
conception of her duties. If this is understood from the start it averts
later annoyance.
In a family of adults where two maids are kept, these are usually the
cook and the waitress and chambermaid. Unless some special provision has
been made to that effect, the cook does nothing outside of the kitchen
in the early morning. She may perhaps take care of the furnace (this
would be her first duty when she came down-stairs), and it is also
possible that she may brush off the front steps and sidewalk, but
with that her extra kitchen-work ceases for the moment. She gets
the breakfast and should be up early enough to do this, brush up her
kitchen, and perhaps make preparations for cooking that is to be done
later in the day. After breakfast she may assist the waitress to wash
the dishes. This depends upon the work the latter has to do.
Upon the waitress comes the work of opening and airing the living-rooms,
brushing out the halls, sweeping down the stairs, and dusting the rooms.
All this should be done before breakfast, and in order to achieve
this, the waitress must rise as early as the cook. As with the general
housework maid, the hour of rising should be not later than six when
breakfast is at half-after seven or eight.
In most homes it is customary to excuse the waitress as soon as the
principal part of the breakfast has been served, that she may go about
her chamber-work and be ready to come down to her breakfast by the time
the family has finished. Before she goes to her own meal she clears
the dining-room table and takes the dishes into the kitchen or butler's
pantry.
Even if the chambermaid is competent, it is well for the mistress to
make it possible to enter the bedrooms occasionally while work is going
on there to make sure that it is all being accomplished properly. It
is easy for the best employées to drift into careless habits, and the
details of bed-making are too often neglected. Under no circumstances
should the mistress delegate the care of her linen-closet to a servant.
She herself should lay out the linen that is to be used, taking it out
in a certain routine so that it may all be worn alike. On the days when
the beds are to be changed, she should select the sheets, pillow-slips,
spreads, etc., before she goes down to breakfast, that the chambermaid
may not be hindered in her work. Clean towels should also be given out
by the mistress. In a very large establishment, or in the case of an
exceptionally trustworthy maid, this work may perhaps be safe in the
hands of some one besides the mistress, but, simple as is the task, it
requires a discretion and familiarity with the household supplies that
only the mistress is likely to possess.
After the waitress has had her breakfast she returns and finishes any
work she has left undone in the bedrooms. It is possible she may not
have had time to dust properly, or that the dust had not had a chance to
settle after she gave the room its morning brushing. The bath-room,
too, is attended to at this time. After this the waitress washes the
breakfast-dishes. Before she left the kitchen after her own breakfast
she should have scraped the dishes and put them in soak. This will
lessen the work of washing-up when she comes down. If there is a special
arrangement by which the cook washes the dishes, the waitress is free
for other work. Sometimes the dish-washing is divided, the cook taking
charge of the dishes in which the food has been served, while the
waitress looks after the glass, silver, and the finer china. It is not
easy to apportion the work in this fashion if the dish-washing is
all done in the kitchen, but where there is a butler's pantry it is
comparatively simple. In this case the fine tableware should never go
into the kitchen at all. This plan lightens the work of the waitress and
makes her responsible for the more delicate dining-room ware.
A word here about the dish-washing. If the maid is open to suggestion
the time she takes to do her dishes may be shortened. The general
habit of servants is to leave all the dishes until the entire meal is
concluded and then attack the mountain that has accumulated. Much time
can be saved if they will wash the dishes as they come from the table.
As a matter of course, this cannot be done in a family where the
waitress is required to remain in the room during the entire meal. But
this is seldom the practice in the average home, when only the family
is present. There is a preference for what some one has called
"unexpurgated meals," and the freedom of conversation that is not
possible when servants are present. If this is the case, it is an easy
matter for the waitress to wash the soup-plates while the heaviest
course of the meal is being eaten, and to get some of the dishes of the
second course out of the way while the family is discussing the salad.
In a large family all the china may not be washed then, but the silver
at least and some of the smaller pieces may be clean and out of the way
by the time the meal is at an end. The science that is known as "making
the head save the heels" is not understood and appreciated by the
average maid, and if she could receive and apply a little instruction
along these lines she would find her hours of work shortened and her
toil lightened. If the butler's pantry adjoins the dining-room too
closely, it is not always feasible to wash dishes while the family is
eating, unless it can be done so carefully that unpleasant clatter is
spared. But a little thought and skill given to the matter will usually
lessen the labor of washing-up after a long meal.
To return to the routine of work. Except when there is a great deal of
cooking done it is well to arrange to have the cook take a share in the
sweeping. What part this shall be circumstances must decide. She
may sweep the first floor, including dining-room, drawing-room,
sitting-room, and halls, once a week. Or there may be a day on which she
goes up-stairs and gives the bedrooms a thorough sweeping. Again, it may
be stipulated when she is engaged that she is to wash the windows. If
one set of these tasks devolves upon her it leaves the waitress more
free for her special duties. These vary, according to the size of the
family. When this consists of but two or three members, the second maid
should have time in a small house to keep everything in her domain in
perfect order and even to do a little of the mending. If the family is
larger she will have leisure for nothing outside of her regular duties,
and the case will be the same if there is a good deal of entertaining
done.