ON SYSTEMATIC FAMILY ARRANGEMENT, AND MODE OF DOING WORK.
Nothing secures ease and success in housekeeping so efficiently as
_system_ in arranging work. In order to aid those who are novices
in these matters, the following outlines are furnished by an
accomplished housekeeper. They are the details of family work, in a
family of ten persons, where a cook, chambermaid, and boy, are all
the domestics employed, and where the style of living is plain, but
every way comfortable. The mistress of this family arranges the work
for each domestic, and writes it on a large card, which is suspended
in the kitchen for guidance and reference. On hiring a new cook, or
chambermaid, these details are read to her, and the agreement made,
with a full understanding, on both sides, of what is expected. The
following is copied, verbatim, from these cards prepared for the cook
and chambermaid.
_Directions for the Cook._
_Sunday._--Rise as early as on other days. No work is to be done that
can be properly avoided.
_Monday._--Rise early in hot weather, to have the cool of the day for
work. Try to have everything done in the best manner. See that the
clothes line is brought in at night, and the clothes pins counted and
put in the bag. Put the tubs, barrel, and pails used, on the cellar
bottom.
Inquire every night, before going to bed, respecting breakfast, so as
to make preparation beforehand.
_Tuesday._--Clean the kitchen and sink-room. Bake, and fold the clothes
to iron the next day.
_Wednesday._--Rise early in warm weather, so as to iron in the cool of
the day.
_Thursday._--Fold off the clothes. No other special work.
_Friday._--Clean all the closets, the kitchen windows, the cellar
stairs, and the privies. Try up all the grease, and put it away for use.
_Saturday._--Bake, and prepare a dinner for Sunday.
Every day but Monday, wipe the shelves in the pantry and kitchen closet.
Be careful to have clean dish towels, and never use them for other
purposes.
Keep a good supply of holders, both for cooking and ironing, and keep
them hung up when not in use.
Keep your boiler for dish water covered.
Sweep and dust the kitchen every day.
Never throw dirt, bones, or paper around the doors or yard.
Never give or lend what belongs to the family without leave.
Try to keep everything neat, clean, and in order.
_Have a time for everything, a place for everything, and everything in
its place._
The hour for going to bed is ten o’clock. Those who work hard should go
to bed early, or else health and eyesight will fail.
_Directions for the Chambermaid._
Sweep the sitting-room before breakfast on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Wednesday, give all the chambers a thorough sweeping, and wash down the
stairs.
Thursday, sweep the bedroom and nursery, and wipe the paint. Put up the
clean clothes, after the cook folds them.
Friday, wash the windows and the piazzas.
Saturday, sweep the chambers, wash the bowls and pitchers in hot suds,
and scald the other vessels, unless they are washed in hot suds daily,
when they will not need it.
After doing the daily chamber-work, collect the lamps, and fix them in
this manner:
First pick up the wicks, and cut them off square (and for this purpose
keep sharp scissors), then clean all the black sediment from the tubes.
Wash them in suds as hot as you can bear your hand in, and wipe them
dry with a cloth kept clean for the purpose, and used for nothing else.
Be careful not to fill them full, lest the oil swell and run over.
Screw them very tight, and see that the little air-hole is kept open,
or the lamp will not burn.
Wash the outside of the oil filler, and wipe the scissors clean. Wash
the cloths used in fresh, clean suds, dry them, and then put them in
their place. Wipe the basin used, and put it in its place.
After cleaning the lamps, wash and scour the knives, thus:
Wash them first, and be careful not to put the handles in the water.
Wipe them dry, and then scour them with Bath brick, and a cork dipped
in soft soap. Never rub a knife on a board in scouring it, as it wears
it out very fast.
After scouring, do not wash them, but wipe them with a dry cloth, and
be careful to get the brick out from between the fork tines. Use a
small stick prepared for the purpose. If the handles are soiled by
scouring, wipe them with a damp cloth.
Lay the large knives in one side of the knife basket, and the small
ones the other side, and put the handles of the knives one way, and the
handles of the forks the opposite way.
Always fill the boiler after you take out dish water, lest the cook be
disturbed by your neglecting it.
Arrange the china-closet in order, after putting up the breakfast
dishes. Dishes not often used must be wiped when used.
In doing chamber-work, turn up the vallance of the beds, set the
windows open, brush down cobwebs, move every moveable article, to sweep
under it, and _sweep with short strokes_.
Always hang the cloths kept for wiping bowls and pitchers on the towel
frames, and use them for nothing else.
Have a dust cloth with a loop for every room, and put it in the wash
once a fortnight.
Wash the breakfast dishes thus:--Rinse the cups, scrape the plates very
clean, put the bits of butter on the butter plate, and empty all the
slops into the slop bowl, and then empty it.
First wash the glass things with a swab in suds, as hot as possible,
wiping each one as soon as taken out of the water. When glass is very
cold, put a little warm water in it before putting it into the hot
suds, or you will crack it.
Next wash the silver and Britannia, wiping each as soon as taken out.
Then wash the other articles.
Keep the castors bright and clean, and well filled. Wipe the salt
spoons dry, and do not lay them so as to touch the salt. If the salt is
damp, take it out and dry it, mashing it to powder.
Wipe off the china-closet shelves every day, and Saturdays wash them.
Rub the silver and Britannia every Saturday, after washing them.
* * * * *
In the Domestic Economy, at p. 318, will be found directions for
washing dishes _in the kitchen_, which are to be hung over the sink.
Every family must vary somewhat from all others in its routine of
family work, and it often is the case, that such written directions
will be of little or no use to domestics. But the fact of having them
written, and the reading of them over to all new-comers, as what is
expected of them, and occasional reference to them, as what was agreed
on when making the bargain, often will be of much service. And it is an
aid to the housekeeper herself, who is liable to forget many things in
teaching new-comers their duties.
_Odds and Ends._
There are certain _odds and ends_, where every housekeeper will gain
much by having a _regular time_ to attend to them. Let this time be
the last Saturday forenoon in every month, or any other time more
agreeable, but let there be a _regular fixed time_ once a month, in
which the housekeeper will attend to the following things:
First, go around to every room, drawer, and closet in the house,
and see what is out of order, and what needs to be done, and make
arrangements as to time and manner of doing it.
Second, examine the store-closet, and see if there is a proper supply
of all articles needed there.
Third, go to the cellar, and see if the salted provision, vegetables,
pickles, vinegar, and all other articles stored in the cellar are in
proper order, and examine all the preserves and jellies.
Fourth, examine the trunk, or closet of family linen, and see what
needs to be repaired and renewed.
Fifth, see if there is a supply of dish towels, dish cloths, bags,
holders, floor cloths, dust cloths, wrapping paper, twine, lamp-wicks,
and all other articles needed in kitchen work.
Sixth, count over the spoons, knives, and forks, and examine all the
various household utensils, to see what need replacing, and what should
be repaired.
A housekeeper who will have _a regular time_ for attending to these
particulars, will find her whole family machinery moving easily and
well; but one who does not, will constantly be finding something out of
joint, and an unquiet, secret apprehension of duties left undone, or
forgotten, which no other method will so effectually remove.
A housekeeper will often be much annoyed by the accumulation of
articles not immediately needed, that must be saved for future use. The
following method, adopted by a thrifty housekeeper, may be imitated
with advantage. She bought some cheap calico, and made bags of various
sizes, and wrote the following labels with indelible ink on a bit of
broad tape, and sewed them on one side of the bags:—_Old Linens_; _Old
Cottons_; _Old Black Silks_; _Old Colored Silks_; _Old Stockings_; _Old
Colored Woollens_; _Old Flannels_; _New Linen_; _New Cotton_; _New
Woollens_; _New Silks_; _Pieces of Dresses_; _Pieces of Boys’ Clothes_,
&c. These bags were hung around a closet, and filled with the above
articles, and then it was known where to look for each, and where to
put each when not in use.
Another excellent plan is for a housekeeper once a month to make out
_a bill of fare_ for the four weeks to come. To do this, let her look
over this book, and find out what kind of dishes the season of the year
and her own stores will enable her to provide, and then make out a list
of the dishes she will provide through the month, so as to have an
agreeable variety for breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. Some systematic
arrangement of this kind at regular periods will secure great comfort
and enjoyment to a family.