PART III_The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping

MY HERITAGE

"The lot has fallen unto me in a fair ground, yea, I

have a goodly heritage."

THERE is a deep surprise and joy in these words, which grows to

exultation. They might have been spoken by one who had climbed a height

to look for the first time on the place where henceforth his life and

work were to be, and saw in the curve of many-folded, blue hills,

white roads with crops warming in the fields on either hand, woods and

streams, laden orchards, and vines in garlands.

"It is a fair ground." Then--"yea, I have a goodly heritage." There

is joy in beauty, and in possession--and more than that. There is

exultation in the vision of seed-time and harvest, of growing beauty

and usefulness, of life renewed; and in the strength and power to work

for all this and to achieve it.

It is not fanciful to say that a woman may regard her heritage in some

such way as this. The childhood, and the homes of the world are hers,

and her work is the making of men and women. If she chooses to say that

God has exalted His handmaiden, who is able to deny it?

The particular work of women is not just like any other work; indolence

and failure in doing it, however, have been too often excused on

account of this fact. Their work is yearly becoming more and more

allied with other commercial, intellectual and moral activities.

Even their housekeeping is no longer a disagreeable thing kept out

of sight as much as possible, as the plumbing used to be. Its varied

problems are being recognized and studied. Nobody denies that they

are difficult, but it is not reasonable to suppose that they are the

most difficult in the world, nor that they are unsolvable. One reason

why they are difficult is that they are an attempt to establish order

and law, without destroying individuality and freedom; and another

reason is that the housewife exercises her profession chiefly for the

benefit of her own family. If the physician had to doctor himself, the

preacher preach to his wife, and the teacher teach his own children,

their professions might be in as much confusion as the housekeeping

profession is. The efforts to do away with these difficulties by

having families live together, eat together, or do anything else in a

wholesale way, have not succeeded and have led in a wrong direction.

What is wanted is a way to preserve the separate family and the

separate family home, not a way to make them into something else.

Difficulty is a characteristic of their work which should appeal to

women. They are seeking to do difficult things. They are seeking to

prove that there is no profession, nor labour, nor art in which they

cannot succeed. In many cases they have succeeded admirably; it has

not proved the point they set out to prove however, but another. What

they have proved by their activities is that they are amply able to

solve the problems and accomplish the organization of the work which is

especially their own. They cannot get it believed that they are equal

to anything while their own work lies undone--while they wilfully leave

the home or helplessly stay in it.

Things which we are proud to do in other fields, we neither see nor do

in our own. For the sake of a college degree, or a paper to be read

before a club, we delve in difficult books; yet we do not study, nor

even read about our own work. We would be proud to invent a flying

machine, or a mud-digger, yet most of the inventions to aid housework

are made by men. We aspire to be stockbrokers, merchants, accountants,

bankers--while housekeeping finance has become a stock joke. We are

eager to study social problems and take up settlement work, but we do

not think it worth while to study our own cooks. We feel in ourselves

a power to organize and betake us to the club, and leave the cook and

the nursemaid to organize our homes and our children's lives. We have

raised the woman's work of teaching and of nursing into excellent

professions, and yet we are ready to sit down and cry before the

difficulties of housekeeping.

Unpleasant and monotonous things, which we claim make our own work

unbearable, we ignore in occupations which we covet or admire. Under

Mr. Kipling's influence we cultivate an enthusiasm for machinery and

engineering, but we neglect his constantly emphasized lesson that the

digging of a canal or the building of a bridge involves humble toil and

unsightly details far beyond any we may encounter in peeling potatoes

or washing dishes. We look at the wide, slow waters which have been let

into the land and they silence us; we follow with our eyes the great

span of the bridge and hold our breath as if it were music. It is right

that we wonder and admire. They are great things. But see that woman

beside you who is looking at the bridge with such especial interest. Is

the bridge any more wonderful than her son, who built it? He is what

she has built. It seems to me, one might peel several tons of potatoes

as a thank-offering for a son.

But I will not take such high ground as to suppose that we might be

willing to do some hard and disagreeable things just because we feel

very earnestly the privilege and glory of being women. Much more

ordinary considerations urge us to get about our work. If the engineer

son of whom we were speaking said, "Estimates make me nervous," or, "I

hate dealing with dirty, foreign labourers," or, "You can't expect me

to concern myself with the nasty river-bottom when I have the arch of a

bridge in my mind," or, "This work is so monotonous, I certainly have

a right to one day a week when I can go to town and shop"--if he said

these things, we should say he was--effeminate.

Effeminate!

Our times are so quick that, if we went earnestly to work, the next

generation would see nothing in the remarks quoted above, to suggest a

_woman_.

And do you know that this work of ours is a profession in which we

can be as clever, and independent, and advanced, and emancipated as we

please, and no man will like us the less for it. They like us to be

inconsistent and unexpected, and they do not like us to know more than

they do. But if we can keep house thriftily and comfortably and not

bother them with it, they like that. In this we are not their rivals.

They like our charming unexpectedness better elsewhere than in the

butcher's bills; and they love the inconsistency of the woman who, in

the home which her cleverness and toil have made peaceful and adequate,

is yet full of pleasure and wonder at the things her husband or her son

has accomplished.

This is my thought of our fair heritage of clever, helpful and devoted

work, with its goodly promise of a harvest of people whom we have

helped to be happier and better. Such is the country of my Vision.

THE PLAN

IF WE want something, we plan to get it. We say, "I will do this, not

that; I will use my time, as I have little strength; I will give my

strength, as I have little money; or, I will give my money as I have

little time to give." A plan is merely a series of choices, a record of

things taken and things left for the sake of obtaining some end or of

following some ideal.

If we wish the people for whom we keep house to be well and happy, and

good, we shall plan to make them so, as earnestly and definitely as if

we were making a train schedule, or drawing the plans of a house, or

writing the outline of a book.

The object of a housekeeping plan may be an ideal, but the plan is

based on a definite, practical fact--the amount of income. The plan

itself is the record of the choices made in the outlay of that amount

of income.

The first thing for a family to do when they wish to make a plan, is

to impress on their minds, not what they think they will have or what

they think they ought to have, but the definite amount of money which

they have. Some people gamble who do not go to races or play cards.

They bet on futurity by spending something they expect to make, or risk

a purchase on the security of Aunt Maria's usual Christmas present.

The indications of this sort of gambling are the casual remarks one

hears too often; "I just had to have it," or "We could not keep up

our position without it," or, "I can't have my children dressed like

beggars," or "It was awfully expensive, but I will save on something

else." They are silly words and not honest. Silly, because they mean

that some momentary self-indulgence has been thought worth the price

of long unrest and anxiety; not honest, because if people have what

they cannot pay for, they have what some one else has paid for as truly

as if they had carried off a parcel belonging to the person standing

beside them at a counter. In that matter of Aunt Maria, there is an

extra offense. A gift should bring some special pleasure, or meet some

special emergency. Counted on, or spent beforehand, it gives no happy

surprise, no unexpected pleasure or relief; and what is worse, Aunt

Maria gets no more happiness from making the gift than she would from

paying the interest on a mortgage. Counting on gifts is a mean trick.

If a child's parents do this, they cannot reasonably blame him for

calculating the inheritance he will acquire at their death.

The income from some kinds of work is of necessity uncertain. This

makes the housekeeping plan especially difficult. Probably the wisest

way to meet this is to pretend that one's income is an amount somewhat

under one's brightest hopes, and to live on that amount. In case of a

disappointment, there is not then so large a deficit to struggle with;

or, if the hopes come true, the surplus can very easily be put into

a needed garment or a needed pleasure, or perhaps into the savings

bank. Some people manage uncertain incomes by the month instead of the

year. The trouble with this is that there is likely to be "always a

feast or a famine," and that is demoralizing. As far as possible, a

family should have an established style of living, to be changed only

gradually, as an assured income increases.

This thing called the style of living is the insidious, untiring rival

of that hard, cold fact, the amount of income. The two are forever

quarrelling. Logically, the amount of income should settle the style of

living, but often people spend weary lives trying to stretch the hard

fact to fit its ever-increasing rival. This conflict is the source of

most household troubles, and quarrels, and sorrows. What is the matter?

Why is one less ashamed to wear one's heart on one's sleeve than a

patch? Why would you rather owe the grocer, than say to your friend, "I

can't afford it?" Why, when I say I am not ashamed to be poor, does the

blood rise in my cheeks to belie my words? Poverty is not a badge of

failure and laziness. It is often a decoration for high principle, or

for noble self-sacrifice,--it is the lady-love of saints.

Very soon and very often in housekeeping, whatever may be the income,

the conflict will arise between needs and wants and the financial

ability to supply them. For this struggle we must gather our common

sense and courage. They will help us to choose the things which really

matter, and to laugh at ourselves for pretending to have what we have

not.

* * * * *

Some husbands and wives make the financial plans of the family

together. In other cases, the husband decides what amount of the income

should be spent on the table, and the wife plans only the expenditure

of that. The households in which the wife buys and the husband pays

without consultation or agreement, exist, but let us hope they are

few. Then, there is the household in which the woman is financier,

and the man lives on an allowance. And, of course, there are a great

number of households which are not complete families, but are groups

of people, related or unrelated, who make their homes together, and in

which the division of income is made by one person, or by the group, as

they wish or are compelled by circumstances.

Plans for a whole income are considered here because they include the

problems and details of less elaborate plans.

As has been said, the first thing for a family to do is to find out

their definite income, irrespective of Aunt Maria. Incomes of all sizes

are lived on in some way. The way which their income will cover, is the

style of living suitable for a family. If the family income pinches,

however, and there is some way of increasing it which does not destroy

the home life, nor work some member of the family to death, then it

is well to take that way. But only in cases verging on starvation,

should an increase in income be made by the homemaker leaving her

housekeeping, or the breadwinner working eighteen hours a day.

When the amount of the income is found out, the next thing is to

divide it among the family needs in a reasonable proportion. This

proportion is decided in the first place according to necessity, and in

the second, according to taste.

Let us take for illustration a family with an income of $2,000 a year.

And then let us take, from Mrs. Ellen H. Richards's book called "The

Cost of Living," the following proportions for an income of that amount.

1/4 for food.

1/6 " rent.

3/20 " running expenses.

3/20 " clothes.

1/4 " miscellaneous expenses.

Translated into dollars this is:

$500 for food.

400 " rent.

300 " running expenses.

300 " clothes.

500 " miscellaneous expenses.

The next thing is to find out whether this is a possible proportion for

us, if this income is our own.

Food, $500 a year, $9.61 a week, $1.37 a day--we shall probably think

this a possible allowance.

Rent $400 a year, $33 a month--here there may be a difficulty.

If we own a house in a country town or a suburb, we can probably pay

the taxes and make repairs, and have something left from $400. If

we rent a house in a country town or in a not too popular suburb we

can perhaps get it for less than $400, but in the latter case, the

remainder may need to be used in carfares if some member of the family

has to go to the city every day. If we live in a flat in a large city,

it is an uninviting one that can be had for $33 a month, and even so,

nothing is left for carfares. Regular carfares are usually reckoned in

the department with the rent, because the place where one's home is

situated determines their amount.

Here are two cases, then, in which the proportion for rent does not

work. The first, in which there is more money than is necessary to

provide a dwelling, is easily arranged. The surplus can be used for

more clothes, or more "help," or to satisfy more of the unfailing

supply of miscellaneous needs, or it can be put by for future needs.

The second case, in which we feel we must have a $40 flat and have

only $33 with which to pay for it, is not as hopeless as it looks. For

the next thing in the table of proportions is $300 a year for running

expenses, that is, wages, fuel, light, water, etc. Here is at once a

partial solution of the rent difficulty. In that forty-dollar flat,

heat and water are supplied. If we use gas for cooking, $7 a month

will be an average gas bill for a careful family, that is $84 a year.

This amount will likewise cover the expense if we use gas for light

and coal for the range. Then if we pay three dollars a week to an

inexperienced girl, or $1.50 a day for two days a week to a combination

washerwoman and scrubwoman, that will be $156 a year. Our running

expenses will then be $240 a year. The $60 saved will pay $5 a month

on the rent, and we shall then need only $2 a month more to secure the

forty-dollar flat.

Next, $300 for clothes. In a year when things have lasted over, we may

be able to get the $2 a month for the rent from this department. If, on

the contrary, there is a new overcoat, or a new street dress to buy, or

a new member of the family to clothe, then it cannot be spared.

The next division is $500 for holidays, recreations, books, charity,

savings, doctors' bills and all unclassified expenses. This is the

division which is most difficult to manage. If we think we cannot spare

that $24 from the clothes department, we shall need to consider very

carefully whether we take it from this, or from the food department.

We shall have to consider the price of food in the neighbourhood; the

health of the family; how much they need a holiday; whether there

is any special purpose for which we must save; whether there is some

piece of furniture much needed; whether there is a present which we

greatly desire to give. And these are only samples of the things which

will need to be considered. A choice must be made, though, however

difficult, for when one item of expenditure in the family life is

exceptionally large, there is but one thing to do, that is, to decide,

reasonably and carefully, in what other department of living the

expenditure can be lessened.

In this case of a high rent which has just been described, see in the

table below what has happened.

+-----------------+------+------+----------+---------+---------------+

|-----------------+------+------+----------+---------+---------------+

| Mrs. Richards's | 500 | 400 | 300 | 300 | 500 |

+-----------------+------+------+----------+---------+---------------+

| Division | 500 | 480 | 240 | 300 | 480 |

+-----------------+------+------+----------+---------+---------------+

80 60 20

The high rent is balanced by a saving in running expenses and in some

item of miscellaneous expense.

This is merely a suggestion of the way in which a housekeeping plan

is worked out. Every family has its own needs and wants, and its

income must be proportioned to suit them as far as possible. If your

income is larger than the one used as an example, you will find that

the department of miscellaneous expenses will grow and need to be

subdivided many times--you will have more concerts than cabbages--if,

on the contrary, your income is less than the example, you will find

that the food and rent departments will begin to swallow up the other

departments.

An example of the extreme of this is exhibited by a budget of

housekeeping expenses given by Mr. Arthur Morrison in the _Fortnightly

Review_ a few years ago, for a family with an income of £1 10s. a

week--about $7.50 a week and $390 a year.

s. d.

Rent 7 0

Meat and fish 5 5

Bread and flour 2 1½

Groceries 1 8

Cheese, butter, eggs, bacon 1 11

Green groceries 1 3

Fuel 2 0

Oil, etc 1 7½

Clothes 2 0

Club and insurance 1 0

Beer and tobacco 2 9

Balance 1 3

--------

£1 10s.

This table, roughly calculated, gives the following proportions:

A little more than 2/5 for food.

A little more than 1/5 for rent.

A little more than 2/25 for running expenses.

A little more than 1/15 for clothes.

A little more than 2/15 for other expenses.

Nearly half the income was used for food; the same proportion for rent

as it is reckoned should be paid by a family with an income of $2,000;

and about a third ($2.50 in our money) was left for fuel, clothes, and

every other need or want. Yet Mr. Morrison says that if the wife is

not lazy and the husband does not drink, a family can live in London

on this income and manage to be well and decent. "Pretty hard!"--yes.

"Pretty sordid!"--no. Courage and perseverance and self-denial made

that budget, such as most of us save up for heroic occasions, and would

not think of expending upon marketing and meal getting.

One cannot be as definite about housekeeping plans as one would like to

be in dealing with such a definite and practical subject. In the nature

of things, each family must decide on the purposes for which its income

is used, and on the amount to be devoted to each. I cannot, however,

emphasize too strongly the necessity of definiteness on the part of

those dealing with their own actual incomes. A carefully thought out

plan of expenditure, written down and earnestly adhered to, is a family

backbone. A first plan has to be made somewhat in the dark, but every

year brings enlightenment and confidence. Though the purposes for which

their income is used are for each family to decide upon, yet I venture

to lay stress upon three purposes which are often subdivisions of that

general and entirely voluntary department of miscellaneous expenses.

For convenience, I shall call them, "Allowances," "The Tenth," and

"Savings."

There is an odd sort of innate privacy about money matters. Children

are taught that it is ill-bred to open other peoples' pocketbooks or

checkbooks, or to ask them what their possessions cost. As they grow

up they find that business affairs are considered confidential, and

that no honourable person investigates another's money affairs without

some authority. It is desirable that these rules of honour should be

preserved, and one simple way to help in this is to arrange that each

member of the family has an allowance, if it is only five cents a

week--an allowance for which he is responsible to himself alone. These

allowances should go down in the family accounts as "Allowances," the

details belong to the individual. The members of families in which this

arrangement is made should conscientiously keep their private expenses

within the amount agreed upon, for allowances not only teach the

right of individual privacy, they teach that old and difficult lesson

that "you can't eat your cake and have it too";--that one can't have

marbles and candy the same week. An allowance also supplies each person

with something to give away, which is really his to give. He may not

have earned it by work, but he has earned it by going without something

he would have liked to spend it for. There is yet another purpose

which allowances serve. They help to prevent the failure of a plan of

expenditure. For they keep a strict and careful plan from becoming a

galling chain. They prevent the absorption of personal privacy and

freedom by the regulations of the family as a group against which the

individual, sooner or later, invariably rebels.

"The Tenth" is that part of the family income, more or less than an

actual tenth, which is given away. It is not mine to offer advice as

to the size or use of this division. I merely emphasize its necessity.

It is the small thing, which keeps meanness and bitterness out of the

management of scanty means, and selfishness and brutality out of the

management of ample means. Establish a give-away division in your plan,

for the sake of your own disposition, if you are not urged to it by any

other consideration.

Next to this division, which is considered the generous

division, comes one which has a less agreeable reputation, but

undeservedly--"Savings." Many people who will say giving is a good

thing, will deny that saving is. And is it? Why? What is it for? It is

to provide those who suffer adversity, or who live to old age, against

becoming a "public charge"; or against dependence upon relatives and

friends. There is a fine honour in not taking the risk of these things.

One ought to be willing to struggle hard and self-denyingly to save

oneself and one's family from becoming burdens to other people.

Perhaps you say, "But why pinch and save for something which may never

happen?" If you speak as one solitary individual, it is true, you may

die before old age; it is the rare family, however, in which some

member does not need a provision for a last period of helplessness.

Then, there are those things called adversities, and those things

called opportunities, which turn to adversities if they cannot be used.

Do you know many people, who have not at some time been in a difficulty

where they needed money, or who have not had a chance that depended on

an outfit or a pledge? Is it reasonable to expect to run to some one

else for help at such times?

And, by the way, to whom would you run? To the friend who is the

open-handed, good companion, or to the careful, farseeing friend?

Of the two, which is the more to be depended upon, the more finely

honourable, the more worthy to be imitated?

There are two very usual ways of keeping savings. Life insurance is

one of them. It is more than a way of keeping savings, for in most

cases, the amount finally received is more than the amount paid in.

It has this advantage, and also the advantage that the savings thus

laid by are only available at a time of great need--sickness, accident

or death--or sometimes, after a long period of years. It has the

corresponding disadvantages that these savings are not available for

small needs, and also that they may be lost, if for any reason the

subsequent premiums cannot be paid.

A savings-bank account is another way of keeping savings. Savings

banks will take money in very small sums and will pay a reasonable

interest on it. This method of keeping savings has the advantage

that the money can be drawn whenever it is needed, but the resulting

disadvantage that the account may be small at the moment of sudden

need. If it is possible, as it often is, to have both a life insurance

and a savings-bank account, a household may feel well protected against

calamity, and well provided against sudden wants.

If some member of a family has a life insurance, a definite premium

will have to be paid at definite times. A savings-bank account is not

so insistent. But to succeed in saving and to do it with as little

discomfort as possible, it is better to put ten dollars or ten cents

into an account on the first day of the month, and forget about it,

than to save five cents in carfare on Monday, one cent on a newspaper

on Tuesday, ten cents on lunch on Wednesday, and so on.

You will say that it amounts to the same thing. That if that money

is put into the bank, all these little pinching economies will have

to be borne as a consequence. That is logical, but only to a certain

extent true in practice. In one case, that of the definite amount put

away monthly, the money is saved because it is not there to spend; in

the other case, it is there, but is saved with the thought of saving.

The latter method means going without everything that possibly can be

gone without. It is the method by which one fills a Lenten mitebox--it

is disciplinary, that is, it is meant to hurt a little, and it does.

People do not keep Lent all the year, however; it is an especial

season for an especial purpose. At some time of serious difficulty in

household affairs, it may become necessary to save in this Lenten

way, but the usual, regular sort of saving, which is a duty for life

with most of us, should be done as far as possible by a decision once

carefully made, and afterward automatically carried out.

I wish I could in some way show the pleasant side of the matter of

savings. There is much comfort and gladness in the possession of a

small reserve fund. The mere sight of the big, ugly Savings Bank

which contains it can give new courage. We look up at the building in

passing and know we have there the chance to start again if we are not

succeeding; a holiday if we very much need one; weeks to recover in if

we are ill; protection from dependence upon other people; the power to

keep some one we love from suffering; and the joy of sometimes giving a

gift.

* * * * *

And now, a word more on the subject of choices.

In a little town I know, there live two old women. One will not go

to prayer meeting because she cannot afford to put five cents into

the collection basket; the other goes every week and contributes one

bright penny. She devoutly brightens it on a piece of old carpet before

she starts. As it is such a little gift, it must be made as fair as

possible.

There is a stern business principle in the whole of life. It is that

law of choice of which we spoke at first. If we have a thing, we must

in some way pay for it, we cannot have the thing and its price too. We

pay in various commodities: in work, in money, in time, in ability,

in thoughtfulness, in suffering; but in some way we pay. It is not a

harsh and ungenerous law; it is to be rejoiced in. God meant us to be

self-supporting, not objects of charity.

The trouble with His law is made by us. Some of us try to get out of

paying at all; some of us are angry because we would rather pay in

something we have not. We would rather pay for food and clothes with

money only, instead of with a little money and much thought and labour.

We would like to buy our friend a birthday gift, instead of writing

that birthday letter which costs us thoughtfulness and an ache in our

pride. Because we cannot afford a holiday, we will not pay for comfort

and pleasantness at home with the coin of gaiety, or a favourite

dessert, or a new book from the Library.

Each of you, and I, whatever our incomes, have our choices of this kind

to make, and the price of them to pay.

* * * * *

--It is prayer-meeting night. Shall we stay at home?--Or rub up a

penny?

III

THE ACCOUNTS

WHEN a family have made a plan of yearly expenditure, they must have

some way of testing at short intervals whether they are keeping to it

or not, and some record by which at the end of the year they can tell

whether their plan is a good one. These tests and records are furnished

by _accounts_.

Accounts are as old as the brick books of Assyria. They have been found

necessary to business transactions for ages. One of the reasons that

housekeeping does not receive its proper recognition as a business and

a profession is that it does not bear the stamp of either in the form

of accurate accounts and statistics. Perhaps these are lacking because

so many women are driven to tears or fury by accounts. It is odd

that they are, too, for they keep golf and tennis scores, and devote

themselves to whist, and are madly fascinated with jig-saw puzzles, and

all these things are a good deal like accounts.

A favourite excuse for not keeping accounts is this: "I have just

so much, and I can't spend what I haven't, so what's the use?" This

ignores two things. The first is, that spending a little more than

one's income, and thus gradually running up a debt, is an extremely

easy thing to do. The second is, that people who do not plan their

expenditures, deprive themselves of the chance to choose what their

expenditures shall be made for. If you plan to have strawberries and

cream on the first Monday in February, and bread and tea on the next

Saturday, and you like that, then there is nothing more to say--except

to hope for improvement in the next generation. If, however, in the

exuberance of appetite or hospitality you have strawberries and cream

on the first Monday in February, and are awfully surprised to find you

can only afford bread and tea on Saturday--then you need to realize

that you have deprived yourself of the freedom of choice, whether right

or wrong, and that you had better keep a few accounts. The moment a

family have one penny more than they need to buy the food which will

keep them alive, there comes to be an element of choice in the spending

of that penny. When the penny grows to an amount not easily calculated

mentally, that freedom of choice is only obtainable by accepting the

bondage of some sort of accounts. It is like the bondage of the truth,

it makes us free.

There are many methods and variations of methods of keeping accounts.

Mr. Morrison's woman with thirty shillings a week undoubtedly kept her

accounts in her head, but she kept them. Many women keep accounts with

a collection of small boxes or envelopes, each marked with the name

of the commodity for which the money within is to be used. They find

it easier to calculate with the actual money than with figures. It is

well enough if they cannot do better, but it is primitive. I suppose

that some six or seven thousand years ago, it was the latest thing in

account keeping. No woman wants to be as far behind the style as that.

Accounts kept in figures have several obvious advantages. The symbol

of five thousand dollars--$5,000--takes less room than that amount in

money, and is no temptation to a thief. Another advantage is, that

these symbols of money do not have to be paid out, but remain in a

book, and furnish a record of just what has been bought and what money

remains. They also make it clear to the owner of the money whether

she has had what she most needed or not. That is one of the reasons

accounts are so disagreeable; they often say, "You made a fool of

yourself that time."

[Illustration: Photograph by Helen W. Cooke

The Account Book]

There are two sides in accounts, which are usually represented by

opposite pages in a book. The right-hand page is the _Credit_ side; the

left hand page is the _Debit_ side. On the right hand, or Credit, page

are written the sums of money we have or acquire. Credit is related

to the word creed. The reason for this relationship is, that a credit

page represents how much we may be believed in financially; and to what

amount people believed in us who paid us for work; and to what amount

people believed in us who gave us gifts in money. On the left-hand, or

Debit, page are written the sums of money we have paid out. The word

debit is related to due and duty and _devoir_. Therefore, on this page

go the amounts which have been _due_ to others for the things which we

have had, and which it has been our _duty_ to pay because we have had

these things. If we are honourable people, we will do our _devoir_ in

this matter.

At the end of a day, or a week, or a month, as seems best, the account

is balanced. This word _balanced_ is a metaphor. By its means the

credit and the debit pages are changed into the pans of a pair of

scales, and the account is balanced when they hang even. That is, when

the items on the debit page add up to the same amount that the items

on the credit page add up to, the account balances. But suppose the

pages do not add up to the same amount--they rarely do, and they rarely

should--What then? Then the metaphor of the balance suggests what to

do. If one scalepan is lighter than the other, put a weight into it. If

the debit side is lighter, that is, if it is less than the credit side,

add on the amount which will make it even with the credit side, and

write beside that amount, "Balance." In that case, there is a little

money yet unspent, and when the next two pages of the accounts are

begun this money yet unspent is put down at the head of the credit page

like this:

Balance on hand $2.39

If, on the contrary, the credit side is less than the debit side,

add the balance there. This means that something has been bought

which has not been paid for, and the meaning of another word related

to debit becomes intrusive--_debt_. Debt is sometimes a temporary

necessity--like oxygen pumped into lungs which can no longer pump for

themselves; sometimes it is a calamity, sometimes it is a disgrace; and

it is always dangerous.

Two pages of an account such as a girl might keep of her personal

expenses, when balanced at the end of a week, look like this:--

+--------+------------++---------++--------+---------------++---------+

| 1909 | _Cash_ || _Dr._ || 1909 | _Cash_ || _Cr._ |

+--------+------------++----+----++--------+---------------++----+----+

| July 1 | Veil || | 50 || July 1 | Bal. on hand || | 25 |

| " " | Soda || | 20 || " " | Allowance || 10 | 00 |

| " 3 | Gloves || 2 | 00 || " 3 | Birthday || 5 | 00 |

| " 4 | Church || | 25 || | || | |

| " 5 | Carfare || | 10 || | || | |

| " " | Shampoo || | 75 || | || | |

| " 6 | Postage || | 20 || | || | |

| " " | Carfare || | 10 || | || | |

| " 7 | Balance || 11 | 15 || | || | |

| | ++----+----++--------+---------------++----+----+

| | || 15 | 25 || | || 15 | 25 |

+--------+------------++----+----++--------+---------------++----+----+

The person to whom this account belongs has a balance on hand of

$11.15 to put at the head of the next credit page. She is evidently an

exemplary person for she has spent just about a fourth of her money in

a fourth of the month.

One would think that simple household accounts might be kept like this

personal cash-account. They could, except that it is desirable, almost

necessary, that household accounts should be divided into departments.

The departments will be those which have been decided upon in the plan

of expenditure, such as food, clothes, fuel, savings, etc. There are

several ways in which accounts can be kept in departments. Two or three

of the simplest are suggested here. The rule for selecting a method is,

use the one which confuses you least.

One method is, to begin in different parts of an account-book,

accounts for each department like the simple cash-account above. It is

convenient to have an indexed book, or else to paste slips on the pages

where each account begins, which will stick out beyond the leaves and

indicate by a word or an initial what department will be found there.

The book should be one made for accounts, for then it will be ruled

correctly. In each place where a department begins, write the name of

the department at the head of opposite pages. On the credit page put

down the amount allotted to this department for a week or month. This

amount is copied from the plan of expenditure, which should be written

down in the beginning or end of the book. On the debit page write the

names of the items for which the money is spent and the dates. It is

safer to balance house-accounts once a week. This prevents the use

of more than the week's allowance, or if it has been necessary to

use more, this serves as a warning to spend less than the allowance

the next week. Below is a brief, two-weeks' account for the Clothes

Department.

+-------+------------+---------++-------+-------------------+---------+

| 1909 | _Clothes_ | _Dr._ || 1909 | _Clothes_ | _Cr._ |

+-------+------------+---------++-------+-------------------+----+----+

| May 1 | Hat | 8 | 00 || May 1 | Month's allowance | 25 | 00 |

| " 3 | Buttons | | 20 || | | | |

| " 5 | Shoes | 5 | 00 || | | | |

| " 7 | Balance | 11 | 80 || | | | |

| | +----+----++ | +----+----+

| | | 25 | 00 || | | 25 | 00 |

+-------+------------+---------++-------+-------------------+---------+

| May 8 | Thread | | 30 || May 8 | Bal. on hand | 11 | 80 |

| " 12 | Silk | 2 | 00 || | | | |

| " " | Socks | 3 | 00 || | | | |

| " 14 | Balance | 6 | 50 || | | | |

| | +----+----++ | +----+----+

| | | 11 | 80 || | | 11 | 80 |

+-------+------------+---------++-------+-------------------+---------+

If it should happen that one department has to help another department,

put the amount down on the credit page as: From X--Department--$10.00;

just as the birthday present is put down in the personal account.

Here is another method, which is easy to understand, but tends to

become clumsy if the details are many. For this, one should have a book

with an unusually large page, and wider than it is high. Rule it like

this form below. It saves confusion if the vertical rulings are done

in red ink.

Key[*]

Gr. =Groceries

Cl. =Clothes

Car.=Carfare

Ch. =Church

+--------++------++------++------++------++------++------++-------+

| 1909 ||_Fuel_||_Gr._ ||_Meat_||_Cl._ ||_Car._||_Ch._ ||_Wages_|

+========++==+===++==+===++==+===++==+===++==+===++==+===++==+====+

| Aug. 1 || | || | || | || | || |20 || |35 || | |

| " 2 || 6|00 || 1|00 || |98 || | || |10 || | || | |

| " 3 || | || |60 || 1|10 || 3|00 || |20 || | || | |

| " 4 || | || |72 || | || | || |10 || | || | |

| " 5 || |30 || | || |60 || |15 || |10 || | || | |

| " 6 || | || |20 || | || 1|00 || |10 || 1|00 || | |

| " 7 || | || 1|68 || 1|90 || | || |25 || | || 5|00 |

+--------++--+---++--+---++--+---++--+---++--+---++--+---++--+----+

| Week's || | || | || | || | || | || | || | |

| Total || 6|30 || 4|20 || 4|58 || 4|15 || 1|05 || 1|35 || 5|00 |

+--------++--+---++--+---++--+---++--+---++--+---++--+---++--+----+

[* Transcriber's Note: Key added by transcriber to make table less

wide.]

At the end of the week, the amount at the foot of each of these columns

should be compared with the weekly amount for that department allowed

in the plan of expenditure. If the week's total is more than the

allowance, the amount it has exceeded should be put down in red ink at

the head of the column for the next week. This will serve as a reminder

that when that column is added up, it should be possible to add in the

red number without exceeding the week's allowance for that department.

This method has the disadvantage that it does not record the items for

which the money was spent. It is practicable, however, especially for

a housekeeper who only manages the part of the income devoted to the

food supply. Often, in this case, items can be obtained, if desired,

from the little books of the butcher or the grocer in which purchases

are charged for a week or a month.

This method does not show the credit side of the accounts. The previous

method has a credit side, but it is theoretical. That is, the amounts

on the credit pages were taken from the plan, they are not a record of

actual checks or amounts of money in which the income was received.

This defect in these methods must be remedied.

It can be done by devoting a page of the account book to the dates on

which, and the amounts in which, the actual credits come in. They will

be salary, wages, interest on investments, gifts, etc.; or the sum of

money from the business which supports the family, which at stated

times is deposited in a bank or given into the hands of the housekeeper

for the living expenses. It is necessary to see that these things

come in regularly; if they do the housekeeping plan may safely remain

unchanged. If they decrease, a way must quickly be found to lessen the

expenses; if they increase, one must decide slowly what is the wisest

thing to do with the surplus.

If this way of recording actual credits does not seem convenient, a

general account can be kept to supplement the detailed accounts. It

will be well to have a small account book especially for this purpose.

Two of its pages will look like the example below. The items on the

debit page are gathered from detailed accounts such as have been

described. Completed for a month, it should be balanced as any account

is balanced.

+-------+-----------------+---------++--------+-----------------+----------+

| | | || | | |

| 1909 | _General Acc._ | _Dr._ || 1909 | _General Acc._ | _Cr._ |

+-------+-----------------+---------++--------+-----------------+----------+

|Jan. 1 | Savings for Jan.| 5 | 00 || Jan. 1 | Salary | 125 | 00 |

|" 3 | Rent " " | 35 | 00 || " 15 | Interest on | 15 | 00 |

|" 31 | Clothes " " | 20 | 00 || | (investment) | | |

|" " | Food " " | 38 | 00 || " 25 | Extra work | 10 | 00 |

|" " | Fuel " " | 8 | 00 || | | | |

+-------+-----------------+----+----++--------+-----------------+-----+----+

Many people keep no accounts except in their checkbooks. That is,

they write down carefully therein the date and source of every check

deposited; and on the stub of each check drawn they write the purpose

for which the money is to be used. This method is much better than no

account keeping, but it is hardly detailed enough for a house account

in which there are many items too small to be paid by check. After

every three or four checks there is apt to be one marked "Incidentals,"

or "General Expenses." Into these indefinite checks often go the

trip the family meant to take, the table linen they meant to buy,

the savings they meant to put away, and at the end of a year it is

impossible to say what they had instead.

Unless purchases are always paid for in cash, charge-accounts will

have to have a place in the house account book. Some people have

passbooks kept by the baker and the butcher and the grocer, and pay

these accounts weekly. Others have charge-accounts with all their

tradespeople and pay their bills monthly. If one has a charge-account

with a firm, purchases made from them should invariably be charged.

Paying for one purchase, and charging the next makes a tangle which

neither the purchaser nor the shopkeeper can hope to prevent.

When purchases are charged, it is well to open a little account with

the firm in the house account book. Write the name of the firm at the

head of two opposite pages. On the debit side write the purchases,

their dates and prices. On the credit side, write the dates and amounts

of any payments made to the firm, because on those amounts is based

the firm's belief in their customer. Such accounts may often take the

place of the separate accounts kept for the departments of expenditure.

The butcher's account will be the meat department; the coal and wood

dealer's account will be the fuel department; etc.

When purchases are charged it is easier to buy more than one can pay

for, than it is when they are paid for in cash. This is the cause of

the objection which some people have to "charging."

It is very needful to have a fixed time every day for attending to the

housekeeping accounts. The best time is immediately after the orders

for the day have been given; or immediately after the housekeeper

returns from market. It is well to have a little scratch-pad hung up

in the kitchen, and another on a desk in the living room, and another

upstairs, on which expenditures made at irregular times can be jotted

down. The used slips can be torn off each day, and the items put down

in the book at the regular time for the accounts.

Accounts balanced once a week are a little trouble once a week; those

kept by the month are a large trouble once a month. Accounts balanced

weekly are less apt to have mistakes in them; and they are a more

frequent warning against living beyond one's means.

To a young housekeeper wishing to look into the matter of account

keeping, I would recommend an interesting little book by Professor

Charles Waldo Haskins, called "How to Keep Household Accounts." It is

agreeable as well as useful. I wish, also, to say, in this connection,

that the methods of keeping household accounts suggested in this book

are neither professional nor authoritative; they are merely simple ways

in which accounts may be correctly kept.

Not long ago, I made bold to ask an interesting and successful business

man if he kept detailed accounts. He took out of an inside pocket a

worn, narrow-paged diary. In it, under each date, was recorded every

cent he spent--even to cigars and organ grinders. He showed it as if he

did not quite like to, and yet as if he were determined to stand up for

it--somewhat as a man acknowledges an unpopular conviction. He said,

"It seems awfully close--no, I mean it seems awfully careful, but I

want to _know_."

You may guess what it was he wanted to know.

THE SCHEDULE

IN MAKING and using a housework schedule the housekeeper has a narrow

path to tread, between chaos on the one hand and slavery on the other.

If the idea of a housework schedule appeals to her, it would be wise

for her to make as slight a schedule and be as little bound by it, as

possible. If, on the contrary, she feels sympathy with the woman who

thought it would be more interesting to do the washing on a different

day each week, she should by all means have a rather detailed schedule

and faithfully keep to it.

A work schedule saves the time and strain which, without it, would be

expended each day in deciding what was to be done; it prevents those

who do the work or help with it from waiting round to be told what to

do; and it keeps one day from being too hard and the next too easy.

But we must not have a schedule which makes the accomplishment of a

certain amount of housework in a given time seem a more important duty

than the little pleasant acts which make the comfort and pleasure of a

home. If the man of the house wants his wife or daughter to walk to the

car with him after breakfast, she should be able to go without feeling

anxious or preoccupied. The coming of an unexpected guest should not be

thought a torment and a calamity because it disorders a schedule. When

a small head is thrust under one's elbow and a small voice says, "'Want

to be loved now," confusion to anything which inclines us to say, "Run

away, you bother me."

A household run on a strict schedule becomes an institution, not a

home; on the other hand, a household in which the work is done at any

time or no time is neither clean, restful nor knit together with the

bonds of mutual service and mutual compliance.

Housework is some of it daily, and some of it periodical. Bedmaking is

daily; sweeping is periodical. There is also work which may be done

by the workers in the house, or by others coming from without. In one

family the laundry work, bread making, window cleaning, floor polishing

and the like will be done by those in the house; in another, these

things will be done out of the house, or by people who come in to do

them.

(_a_) DAILY WORK

The following is a list of daily work in an average house. Besides

these things some piece of periodical work is done each day.

Fire made or made up.

Shades rolled up; windows opened a few minutes; suggestions

of yesterday removed.

(In summer, veranda arranged.)

Breakfast prepared, served and cleared away.

Pantry and kitchen put in order.

Menu made and orders given.

Downstairs rooms put in order.

Bedrooms put in order.

Bathroom put in order.

Accounts.

Preparations for second and third meals.

Second meal served and cleared away.

Rest.

Third meal prepared, served and cleared away.

Outside affairs usually decide the time at which these activities are

performed. Meal hours in most cases depend on the work hours of some of

the family, and on the meal hours depend the times when other things

are done. Who shall do the work depends on the number of workers, the

occupations which they have beside housework, and the periodical work

of the day.

If there is one woman in the house, she must go through this list of

things, doing each slightly or elaborately, as she is able and as they

require. On the days when there is washing or sweeping or baking to

do she will have to abbreviate other things. Upstairs and down she

will merely put things in their places and remove visible dust; she

will leave the table set until after luncheon, on washdays until after

dinner; she will have planned the meals for this day the day before,

and she will hurry all the work a little.

In a house where there is a mistress and a maid, the mistress will pick

out from the daily work the things she wishes to do. She will perhaps

set the table, put the house in order, plan the meals, go to market and

make her accounts before luncheon. On washing and ironing days, if no

extra person comes in to help, she will add to this the chamber-work

and perhaps the washing of the breakfast dishes. Probably on those

mornings she will not go to market.

When there are two maids in the house, the second will do the work

suggested in the former case for the mistress on a washday, with the

exception of the menu and the accounts, and with the addition of

waiting on the table, washing the dishes, and some preparations for

the meals which are not actual cooking.

When there is a third maid the upstairs part of the house will be

her domain, and she will probably do some personal services for the

mistress. In a large family she will help to wait on the table, and to

wash the dinner dishes. After breakfast she will be busy with upstairs

work and some sweeping, and after luncheon she will rest and dress and

then answer the doorbell and the telephone during the time that the

waitress is resting and dressing.

A fourth maid is usually a laundress, a fifth would do the rougher and

simpler part of the kitchen work, and a sixth--but there, a housekeeper

with five or six maids will not need suggestions from this book.

In households where there are several servants, their meals are added

to the list of daily work. These come before those served to the family

with sometimes the exception of dinner. When this exception is made,

"tea" keeps the time between luncheon and dinner from being too long.

It has always seemed to me that separate meals should be arranged for

as soon as a family decide to keep a servant whose regular duty it is

to wait on the table. A particularly tangible shadow lies upon a meal

which is served by some one who after a long morning's work may be

faint and hungry for the food she brings to you.

(_b_) PERIODICAL WORK

The following is a list of periodical work for an average house.

Washing.

Ironing.

Sorting and mending linen and clothes.

Sweeping and dusting.

Bread baking.

Thorough cleaning of the kitchen.

Cleaning garbage can, and surroundings.

Cleaning refrigerator and food receptacles.

Arrangements for days out.

Preparations for Saturday and Sunday.

* * * * *

Polishing furniture and floors.

Cleaning silver.

Cleaning of linen closet and others.

Care of cellar.

When can these things be done, and who is to do them?

We will consider the laundry work first. This should be the periodical

work for two days of the week; if it runs over it crowds other things,

and indicates that the wash is larger than we may have it with the

present number and quality of workers. On the days devoted to laundry

work, the daily work should be as brief and the meals as simple as

possible. Of course, when there is a woman in the house, or who comes

into the house especially to do washing and ironing, the usual schedule

can be adhered to.

The day on which the washing is done is a matter of choice. It is

traditional to wash on Monday, but some people say that Tuesday is

better. If a woman comes in to do the washing it must be done when she

can come. The advocates of washing on Monday say that as it is the

longest and heaviest weekly job, it is best got out of the way as early

in the week as possible; that the work of the week seems to wait round

until the laundry work is finished; they say, too, that it is easier to

wash on Monday because other people are washing.

The advocates of Tuesday say that as more of the family are at home

on Sunday and as the regular clearing up is not done, the house needs

especial attention on Monday; also, that they do not like putting

clothes to soak the last thing Sunday night.

If circumstances leave one free to choose the day, it is as well to try

each long enough to get used to it, and then to decide on the one which

proves easiest for every one concerned.

In the household with one maid, the mistress should help on the

days the laundry is done with the daily work and in some cases with

the laundry itself. In the two-maid household, the cook washes, the

waitress assists, and the mistress frequently does some of the daily

work. In the three-maid household it is possible for each to do her

usual part of the daily work and give some assistance with the laundry.

The sorting and mending of the clean clothes is the work of the

mistress or of an upstairs maid. The sorting should be done when the

wash is finished. The mending, if heavy, often has to wait for odd

times.

The next heaviest periodical work to the washing is the weekly

cleaning. In a household with two maids or less, the cleaning should

not be the periodical work on more than two days, one for upstairs, one

for down. The living room and the dining room will probably have to be

thoroughly cleaned each week, but the other rooms can usually be done

in alternate weeks with the help of the daily setting in order and the

careful use of a sweeper two or three times in the interval. It is more

immaculate and more agreeable to have all the rooms thoroughly cleaned

each week, but in a fairly large house with two women to do the work

this ideal may become a grievous burden.

In houses in which there is an ample number of servants, the cleaning

of the downstairs rooms, daily and periodical, is often done before

breakfast. It is the ideal way of accomplishing this disturbing and

uncomfortable job, but it cannot be so done unless there are enough

workers in the house to divide the work into distinct departments.

Baking, cleaning the refrigerator and food receptacles, cleaning the

kitchen and looking after the garbage can is the work of the cook. If

there is another maid in the house, the cook has the four days of the

week not used for the laundry work when she may do these things. If

she is the maid-of-all-work, she will have the two days left from the

laundry and sweeping in which to do them and many others.

Bread baking is usually done twice or three times a week. Cake baking,

nowadays, is an irregular performance. As making bread is not a day's

work, it can be combined with other pieces of work, preferably with

those which are done in the kitchen. It combines nicely with cleaning

the refrigerator and food receptacles because one of these is for bread

and should be perfectly fresh for the new batch. A careful housewife

sometimes makes the cleaning of the refrigerator her own work, but even

so, she will appoint a time for doing it. A good refrigerator need

be cleaned only once or twice a week, a poor one may have to be done

oftener.

A garbage can should be cleaned as often as it is emptied, and should

with its surroundings be watched all the time, lest the cover is left

off or any scraps or splashes are left outside to draw flies and make

disagreeable odours.

A kitchen in which much work is done needs a thorough weekly cleaning.

People are apt to do this on Saturday, but there will be many

households in which it will be unwise to do so. If the master of the

house has a half holiday on Saturday, and the mistress of the house

does the housework, the work of Saturday morning must be only the daily

work and such preparations as will leave Saturday afternoon and Sunday

as free from work as possible. Some extra cooking, marketing and menu

making, some adornment of the house and laying out of fresh table linen

will be desirable and necessary; but kitchen cleaning, the changing of

bed linen, or the making up of weekly accounts, should be appointed for

some other day in the week.

If the housewife has servants to help her, she can have more work done

on Saturday, but even then, she will guard against having things done

which make the house seem unrestful, or which occupy her.

Arrangements for "days out" are merely adjustments by which one

person's work is done by others. If there is one maid, the mistress

takes her place; if two, one does the necessary work of both, the

mistress helping a little. For the day a maid goes out no periodical

work belonging to her department must be appointed. "Sundays out," like

the days, are merely an adjustment of duties to allow for fewer workers.

Some of the periodical work is much more occasional than that already

mentioned. This must be fitted in, sometimes by leaving more frequent

work undone for one day, but usually by appointing it for a day when

there happens to be a little less to do than usual. The silver, for

instance, usually need not be done more than once a fortnight or once a

month, and can be fitted into a morning when there is no sweeping, or

into a rainy Monday. Other infrequent work can be managed in the same

way.

In simple households a detailed written schedule is not necessary

perhaps nor desirable, unless it be for periodical work and the "days

out." For these a schedule like the one herewith might be made. This

one is for two maids and includes some infrequent work.

+--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+---------+--------+

| | _Mond._| _Tues._| _Wed._ |_Thurs._| _Fri._ | _Sat._ | _Sun._ |

|--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+---------+--------|

|--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+---------+--------|

|--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+---------+--------|

| | a | a |mend wash | with | a | clean | with |

+--------+--------+--------+----------+--------+----------+---------+--------+

[*Transcriber's Note: Days of the week were abbreviated by the

transcriber to make the table more narrow.]

(_c_) SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES

One or two general remarks about schedules are necessary before the

subject can be closed.

As far as possible heavy, dirty work should be done in the morning, the

workers are more able to do it then, and besides, the cook does not

wish to do such things when getting the dinner, nor the waitress when

she should be dressed for the afternoon, nor the mistress at the social

time of the day.

In making a work schedule, a savings fund is as necessary as in making

a plan of expenditure. If every one in the house is doing as much as is

possible, there is no allowance for accident, or illness, or unexpected

demands. A little strength which is not nerves should be left in you

and in your handmaidens at the end of the day. Housework extends over

an exceedingly long day. At present, the only way to remedy this seems

to be to arrange that each worker get a little rest some time in the

day. I have put this as a necessary item in the table of daily work.

If no savings fund of strength is possible, more workers are needed, or

better workers; or, if this is impossible, the style of living should

be modified until it is appropriate to the force of workers.

The schedule is not the important thing, but the work; and there are

things more important even than the work. For instance, a reasonable

degree of liberty for the whole household.

The family, unless they take part in the work, should not be conscious

of the work schedule. It is a framework to be carefully draped; a new

kind of family skeleton to be kept in the closet as carefully as the

old kind. It is necessary because it makes easy, natural regularity

possible, and without it, as we have said, there is neither character,

nor peace, nor mutual service in a home.

The housework must be done--well and regularly done--and to accomplish

this, days must be alike, and weeks must be alike, and months and

years alike. But they must be as the leaves on a tree are--alike to

the casual glance, yet really somewhat different because capable of

infinite adaptability.

POSSESSIONS

THE time and strength necessary for housework, and the comfort and

happiness resulting from the work depend much upon something which

housekeepers have to a great extent the power to control. I mean the

quantity and kind of things they have in their houses.

Much time and money and weary labour would be saved, much comfort and

loveliness would be gained if we could persuade ourselves to follow

William Morris's rule:

"Have nothing in your rooms which you do not think to be beautiful and

know to be useful."

Were this rule suddenly put in practice, what a bundling out of

rubbish would ensue. A Bonfire of Vanities would rise in no time,

built of little tables and pedestals, cushions and bows, curtains,

vases, pictures that no future generations would call us vandals for

destroying, fringes and ruffles, souvenirs of travel, broken and

mended objects from the top shelves of closets, bronze and china

statuettes, and that whole miserable race of blotters which do not

blot, book-racks which faint under the weight of books, pen-wipers

which would be insulted if they were inked, collapsible waste-baskets

always in a state of collapse, holders that hold nothing, cases that

fit nothing, impervious pin cushions!

May the smoke of them ascend!

One would think that this rule of use and beauty were austere enough,

yet many people, before they acquire even a useful or a beautiful

object, must consider whether there is room for it in their home,

whether the members of the household have time and strength to take

care of it, and whether it is appropriate to their possessions and to

their way of living.

The amount of space we have about us seriously effects our health

of body and mind. The more furniture there is in a room, the less

air space there is. The sense of oppression one feels in a room

crowded with furniture is not imagination, there is literally much

less air to breathe. It is also not merely an idea that a house full

of ornaments and pictures is not restful to live in. One knows what

matchless weariness results from hours spent in a museum; it is caused

by continually readjusting one's eyes, and thoughts, and emotions to

an endless succession of things. A room crowded with ornaments and

pictures is a miniature museum. With familiarity one may cease to see

the individual objects the room contains, but this is indifference, not

peace.

Those who have not done housework with their own brains and bodies

cannot realize how many thousands of times every object in a house has

to be touched and moved merely for the sake of cleanliness and order.

It seems a small matter whether there are six pictures in a room or

eight, whether flower vases are kept in the china closet or on the tops

of book shelves and tables, whether there are five little fal-lals

on a mantelshelf or twenty-five; but I hardly think it is a small

matter whether a woman spend a half-hour with her children, or out of

doors, or reading a book, or spends it in dusting tormenting trifles.

These considerations are equally important when the work is done by

maids; there are always enough useful things to do in a house to fill

reasonable work hours.

One must ask, then, even when a useful or beautiful object is in

question, Have I room for it? and, Is it worth the time and strength

needed to care for it? And then one more question: Is this thing I

desire suitable? That is, will it make the rest of the furniture which

cannot now be renewed look shabby? Shall I feel that it is too good for

the sun to shine upon, or the family to use? Will it set up a standard

which I cannot keep up to without feverish effort?

In order to select or to weed out possessions in a reasonable way,

attachments have to be kept in check; one must keep in mind that the

family are more worthy of regard than the family chairs, and one must

have such respect for oneself as a spiritual and intellectual creature

that one will not fall in love with a silver-service or a set of

ancient plates. I can think of few things more humiliating than the

fact that families can be divided by old furniture; that sisters can

be estranged by silver sugar-tongs; that lives can be spoiled, hearts

broken and fortunes spent in the service of possessions which should

exist only for the temporary comfort and happiness of their owners.

All this does not mean that our homes should be bare as hospitals, and

ugly as barracks, and that, if the furniture is shabby, we ought not

to have the one beautiful picture, or the good piano, or the hoard of

books, which may be the treasure of the family. Nor does it mean that

we ought not to love our household goods.

We want our homes as complete in comforts and appliances as we can

reasonably afford. We want them lovely to look at. And we shall be

all the better if we have an affection for every stick they contain.

Scrooge hugged his own bed-curtains, because the sight of them assured

him that he was at home. For the same reason we love the things we

live with, and the place where we live. We like to come back after an

absence and find the same things in the same places, and get an extra

welcome from every one of them.

This is incidentally an argument against frequently changing the

arrangement of the furniture, as some housewives think it economical

and diverting to do. Such changes destroy that settled, established

look which is homelike, and very comfortable to live with. Do you know

about the man who was not afraid of burglars when he got up at night,

but was awfully afraid of bureaus and rocking-chairs which his wife

found a new place for every week?

We naturally become attached to things which we like, and which we have

taken thought to get, and which we have looked after year after year.

Heirlooms are the result of such care and affection and companionship

continuing year after year, generation after generation until the

objects on which this care has been expended seem to become a part of

ourselves and our lives, until they seem to have absorbed some of the

personality and affection of those who no longer dwell with them, nor

with us.

But when possessions begin to seem something more than tables and

tea-cups and silver spoons, have a care--they're not.

CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE

EVERY house contains a great variety of objects and substances. If

these are to be kept clean and in good condition, one must know what

they are and what to do for them.

_The Ceiling._--In the first place each room has a ceiling. Ceilings

are usually plain and light coloured, because they are not easy to look

at and because they are reflectors. They are not ornamented on account

of our necks; they are not made dark coloured on account of the light

bills.

Ceilings for the most part need little care. When the room is cleaned,

they should be wiped, either with a long-handled mop with a wool

head--dry--or with a broom in a bag. The former is harder to get but

is better, because the combined length of the ordinary broom and the

ordinary woman is not usually enough to reach the ceiling effectually

and without strain. Besides, many brooms are too heavy to use above

one's head. Such wiping nicely done is all the regular care a ceiling

needs, whether it is whitewashed or frescoed.

_The Walls._--Walls are panelled, or painted, or calcimined, or covered

with fabric or paper. Wood, paint and calcimine are considered cleaner

than other coverings, but all can be kept up to an ordinary standard of

cleanliness.

Panelling should be carefully wiped with the wool-headed mop used for

the ceiling, or with a cloth where it is within reach. If the wood is

dark and polished, it may now and again be rubbed with a little good

furniture polish; if it is light or unpolished it is better to content

oneself with wiping off the dust.

Fabric-covered walls should be cleaned once or twice a year with a

vacuum cleaner. If this is not possible, they may be as often brushed.

This must not be done violently, but carefully, and preferably with a

hair broom--a white hair broom such as one uses for clothes, if the

wall covering is especially handsome or delicate in colour.

Painted walls may be wiped with a dry or dampened mop, or they may be

washed with soap and water, or even with disinfectant, should this

happen to be desirable.

Calcimined walls may be wiped only with a soft mop, or very gently

with a broom in a bag. Mop or broom bag must often be shaken out of

the window, otherwise the walls will be smirched or clouded. Very

little in the way of restoration or cleaning should be attempted with

calcimine, for it almost invariably makes a bad matter worse. Spots

such as are made by hands or heads can sometimes be removed by rubbing

them with a piece of dry bread, or with some corn meal. It is safe to

experiment with any _dry_ remedy; but a wet remedy will always fail.

Even calcimine itself, put over a spot or a scar, will leave a mark.

Papered walls may be wiped with a dry mop, or a broom in a bag. They

are not as easily smirched as calcimine, but one must frequently shake

out of doors, or else change any brush or cloth used for wiping walls.

If you need a reason for wiping walls and ceilings, look at the mop or

the cover of the broom with which you have done the work. Dirt is the

enemy of health and loveliness.

_Woodwork._--When woodwork is cleaned, all cracks, ornaments and

irregularities should first be gone over with a small, soft brush. A

flat brush such as is used for varnishing is good.

If the woodwork is not polished, it should next be carefully--that

is, every inch of it--wiped and rubbed with a soft, dry cloth, or if

the room is exceedingly dusty, with a cloth very slightly dampened.

Any sort of oil, or polish, or even water is apt to darken or spot

unpolished wood. In the case of baseboards and window ledges, however,

a little dressing of some kind should occasionally be rubbed into them,

for they have to be defended from dampness in the one case, and hard

usage in the second. A little of the polish used for floors will do

very well for this purpose.

If woodwork is polished, the dust should be wiped off after the

cracks have been cleaned with the little brush. It should then be

rubbed briskly with a flannel or soft cotton cloth dampened with good

furniture polish. Kerosene, which is usually at hand, is inexpensive

and excellent for this and other purposes of the kind. But use this or

polish sparingly.

Painted woodwork should ordinarily be dusted with a little brush and

then wiped just as if it were hard wood. Once in a while, it should

be wiped with slightly warm suds made with mild soap. It should not

be soaped nor made very wet, and should be wiped dry as soon as it is

washed. Spots which will not yield to this cleaning can be removed with

alcohol or kerosene.

_Floors._--Some people will tell you that uncarpeted floors are a great

deal of trouble, and some will say that they are very little. Perhaps

part of the trouble which they seem to give is due to the fact that

people keep their floors cleaner than their carpets. Dust _shows_, as

we say, on a bare floor; it lies under furniture and blows about in

fluffs. If the floor is carpeted, that very same dust, also the dust of

other days when no sweeping is done, sinks into the carpet and assists

in making colds and throat disorders and a stuffy smell. If we really

minded dust, we would mind it just as much buried in the carpet as

rolling round in fluffs. But we don't mind dust, we mind being thought

dusty. If we have the same standard of cleanliness for the carpet as

for the floor, the floor is the easier to care for.

Uncarpeted floors are usually finished with oil, shellac, stain, wax or

some other smooth, preservative substance. Floors thus finished require

three kinds of care; refinishing, polishing and dusting.

_Dusting._--Dusting should be done, if possible, every day. It does not

require much time or strength. With a good mop or a broom in a bag,

floors can be as quickly and lightly dusted as polished desks or tables.

_Polishing._--The frequency with which floors require polishing

depends on the finish, the amount of wear, and the standard of

appearance required. Some people polish them once a week, some once a

fortnight, some once a month; others have their floors refinished twice

a year and do nothing to them in the intervals except dust them.

Waxed floors are polished differently from those finished with oil or

shellac.

To polish a waxed floor, first remove all dust with a hair broom, a

wool mop, or a broom in a bag. Then rub carefully and energetically

every inch of the floor with a heavy polisher until the polish is

restored. The best polishers are costly, but others, less expensive,

are made of strips of felt or chamois. They can also be home-made from

a block of heavy wood with a hole bored diagonally in the top large

enough to hold an old broom handle or a mop-stick. The bottom of the

block must have several thicknesses of heavy material tacked over it.

Old flannel, old bath towels, and old carpet are good for this purpose.

Floors not finished with wax are polished with oil or some patent

polish. Many patent mixtures for this purpose are exceedingly good.

Besides these, two parts linseed oil to one part kerosene is a good

polish; also one-half turpentine to one-half crude oil. Kerosene

used by itself both cleans and polishes floors, but its odour is an

objection to its use.

As in the cases of the waxed floor, all dust must be removed before the

polishing begins. When this is accomplished, rub the floor with a soft

thick cloth dampened with polish. There should always be much rubbing

and little oil. A quart of floor polish should last months. If by

mistake too much oil is applied, rub the floor again with a dry cloth.

When finished, it should feel smooth to the hand, not oily.

If oily cloths are kept from one time to another, they should not be

shut up closely in a box or closet for they are liable to spontaneous

combustion.

_Refinishing._--Floors are refinished by receiving a new coat of

finish. Before this is put on, the floors should be thoroughly cleaned.

This cleaning is well done with sandpaper and turpentine. Every board

must be rubbed in the direction of the grain until it is entirely

smooth and clean. After this the floor should be wiped with a dry

cloth, and the finish applied and polished.

When it is necessary or desirable to wash a hardwood floor, it should

be done just before refinishing and with tepid water, soap that would

not hurt hands nor lace and a cloth well wrung out before it is

applied to the floor. Water is injurious to polished floors of any

kind, and to waxed floors especially.

If a floor receives hard wear in one or two places, or if something

hurtful is spilled upon it, it may be necessary to refinish these

places when the remainder of the floor does not need it. In such cases

a few square feet can be done just as a whole floor is done. The final

polishing will keep the place from looking like a patch.

_Rugs and Carpets._--Carpets tacked down close to the walls are not

as clean as loose floor covering, and they are the chief cause of the

fearful misery called house cleaning. Every other act necessary to

the cleanliness of a house can be done without turning it upside down

and driving the family to the club or the tavern except--taking up

carpets. Rugs can be gathered up and taken to the lawn or the roof to

be cleaned. The walls and floor of a room can be wiped within an hour.

Windows can be washed and furniture and brasses polished with people

sitting undisturbed in the room where it is being done.

Before the possibility of unobtrusive cleaning had dawned on me, I

was once making a visit in a large city house. My surprise was almost

painful when I saw a man cleaning the windows in the drawing room only

an hour before an afternoon reception. It did not mean that they had

been forgotten, or that the house was carelessly run--far from it--it

was merely the day for window cleaning and the man whose business

it was to do it went from room to room and cleaned them, making no

disturbance and leaving no trace.

I make my protest against carpets for the reason that it is impossible

to clean them in an unobtrusive way, and because they are the inspiring

evil genius of cleaning done with _emphasis_--done, not for the sake of

health and happiness, but for the sake of appearing to be a particular

housekeeper.

Nonetheless, if we have carpets they must be cared for. Before the

sweeping is begun, something should be scattered over the carpet to

keep the dust down. Some of the things used for this purpose are damp

tea leaves, sawdust, bran, corn meal, and shreds of newspaper. There

are also patent substances for the purpose. One must be careful that

these things mentioned are _damp_, not wet. Tea leaves should be wrung

out hard before they are scattered, and never used on any delicately

coloured carpet. Newspaper also is not safe for very delicate colours.

Any of these substances may be used in sweeping a tiled or painted

floor; and any for an unpainted wooden floor except tea leaves.

When preparing to sweep, make the room as light as possible. Sweep the

cracks along the walls and the edges of the carpet first, then sweep

as much of the room as possible in the same direction, that direction

being with the nap of the carpet, not against it. Sweep with short,

light strokes--it is sweeping, not digging. When the dust is gathered

into as small a pile as possible, take it up in a dustpan.

After sweeping it is good to wipe the carpet with a cloth wrung out

of warm, soapy water in which is a little ammonia. Turpentine is even

better than ammonia for carpets, but not for hands. Do not wet the

carpet, wipe it lightly and quickly, rinsing the cloth often, but

wringing it out hard.

One can to some extent combine this wiping process with sweeping by

dipping one's broom now and then in water in which there is a little

salt, ammonia or turpentine. Shake the broom lightly before applying it

to the carpet, or the first stroke will leave a wet spot. Salt, ammonia

and turpentine brighten the colours of a carpet, and the latter two are

objectionable to moths. It is better not to dampen carpets in any way

on rainy or humid days.

Rugs, when they cannot be carried out of the room, may be swept

according to the directions for carpets and then rolled up, or folded

round some piece of furniture difficult to move, until the floor has

been cared for. The pleasantest and best way to clean rugs, however, is

to take them out of doors and beat them on the grass or on a clothes

line. Beat them with a furniture beater, or light cane, or stick, first

on one side then on the other, then lay flat and brush the surface with

a broom. Beating is better than shaking, both for the rug and for the

shaker. When they are shaken, however, it is advisable to hold them by

the side instead of the end; they are then less likely to tear or ravel.

Matting should be swept with especial care for cracks and edges, and

crosswise of the breadths as far as possible. It should be wiped

occasionally with salt and water, which cleans it and keeps it from

becoming brittle. Many people prefer to use a hair broom for sweeping

matting.

_Shades and Curtains._--All the cleaning that shades need can be given

them by drawing them down to their full length and dusting them first

on one side then on the other with a short-handled mop, or a duster

if you can reach the roller with it. The side next the window is the

more dusty as it is the outside of the roll. When the shades have

been dusted they should be rolled to the top of the window until the

cleaning of the room is finished.

If they do not roll up tightly and at once, take the shade from the

socket, roll it up evenly, then hold the flat piece of metal which

projects from one end of the roller between your thumb and fingers and

turn the roller round and round with the other hand until it is very

hard to turn. See that the little ratchet has fitted into the notch

for it in the piece you are holding, to prevent it from flying back

when you let go. Then the shade is ready to be replaced in the sockets.

Shades which fly up unexpectedly are wound up too tight.

Curtains should be shaken and brushed, with a whisk if they are of

heavy material, with a softer brush if they are delicate. They should

then be put in bags made for the purpose, or folded over the rod and

covered with a dusting sheet until the room is clean.

_Furniture._--Upholstered furniture should if possible be put out on

a veranda where it can be aired and brushed. If this is not possible

it should be beaten or brushed when we are preparing the room for

cleaning. All creases and tufting should be carefully explored with

a whisk and the furniture afterward covered with a cloth until the

other cleaning is finished. Furniture upholstered in leather should

be wiped, not brushed, and occasionally rubbed with vinegar, and sweet

oil--proportions, one tablespoonful vinegar to three of oil. In time

this slightly darkens the colour of the leather, but it keeps it from

cracking.

On regular cleaning days polished furniture should have its carvings

and cracks brushed out with the paint brush used for the woodwork of

the room, and should then be rubbed with a very soft cloth. About once

a month--oftener if the wear is hard, less often if it is easy--it

should be rubbed with a good polish. The old furniture in France has

usually been rubbed for generations with sweet oil and vinegar, in the

proportions given above for leather furniture; probably few things are

better. Two of the polishes suggested for floors, are equally good for

furniture:

½ turpentine to ½ crude oil.

1 part kerosene to 2 parts linseed oil.

Also, equal parts turpentine, linseed oil and vinegar.

I believe that the best care an amateur can give to a very highly

polished piece of furniture like a piano, is to wash it, when it

becomes clouded, with luke-warm soapsuds. The soap should be mild,

good soap. Wash a bit of the furniture at a time and dry it carefully,

using very soft cloths; when it has all been dried, polish it with

chamois and as much energy as you can conscientiously spare.

If painted furniture looks dingy, rub it with a little kerosene.

Kerosene will usually remove spots from painted furniture--finger-marks

from white enamelled beds, for instance.

_Windows._--The woodwork of windows should be brushed and wiped free

from dust before the washing of the glass begins. It is better not to

use soap for washing windows or glass of any kind; it sometimes clouds

it, sometimes gives it a blue tinge. Put ammonia or borax in the water

used, or else rub the glass with whiting, or a scouring soap which is

not gritty. If one of these, or whiting, is used, it should be allowed

to dry and should then be rubbed off with a dry cloth or a newspaper

until the glass shines. Newspaper is as good as anything you can get

for polishing windows. There is nothing especial to say about cleaning

windows with water except wash the panes clean and dry them dry, one at

a time, beginning with those nearest the top of the sash. Do not try to

wash all the windows in a house with a pint of water and a wristband,

but the opposite extreme is as bad--worse for your dwelling. Any

method of cleaning windows by dashing quantities of water on the panes,

breaks the putty, loosens the glass, spoils the paint on the woodwork

and soaks the wood itself with water.

Mirrors should not be wet. Fly-specks and finger-marks can be removed

with a damp cloth or alcohol, and the mirror polished with whiting and

chamois.

Pictures, also, should not be wet. The frames and backs may be brushed

and wiped, and the glass cleaned with a damp cloth or with a little

alcohol.

_Brass._--Brasses, such as andirons, lamps, jardinières, candlesticks,

sconces and the like must be divided into two classes for cleaning.

Those things which are lacquered must only be washed and then polished

with flannel or chamois. Any sort of cleaning other than this will

soon remove the lacquer entirely. Unlacquered brass may be polished as

energetically and severely as any substance in the house.

Wood ashes are a good brass polish, especially pine ashes.

The bath-brick with which people clean knives will also clean brass.

An old coloured woman, who lived with me once, polished the andirons

with salt and vinegar.

These things are not as quick or as easy to use as many patent brass

cleaners which one can buy nowadays. It is just as well, however, to

know what one could do if separated from modern conveniences.

_Tiles._--Glazed tiles may be wiped with a cloth wrung out of warm

soapsuds, but water should not be put directly upon them. It tends to

soften the cement in which they are laid. Unglazed tiles are restored

to colour and cleanliness by a rubbing with linseed oil.

_Lamps._--Lamps used every night need care every day. They should be

kept full of oil for two reasons. One is, that if we then happen to use

them for an unusually long time they will not burn out; the other, is,

that if a lamp is full of oil no space is left for vapours rising from

the oil, which otherwise may become compressed in the bowl and ignite

when a match is applied to the wick. If there is a little screw-topped

opening in the lamp where it can be filled without unscrewing the

burner, use that opening for filling it. The burner should not be

unscrewed unless it must be. Great care should be taken not to fill

lamps too full; the level of the oil should be just below the lower

side of the little opening, otherwise the oil will ooze out on the lamp

and catch dust and give off a disagreeable odour.

It is better to _rub_ off the hard burned crust of a wick than to cut

it off. This leaves the wick more even and wastes it less. When it

has been rubbed smooth and soft, see that it turns up and down easily

and, if a round wick, that it is even. A flat wick should be slightly

rounded, the middle being the highest point, like this diacritic ˘,

not this ̑ one. To be perfectly sure, light the lamp for a moment,

put on the chimney, and if the flame is not the right shape alter the

wick. When this is finished, wipe the burner inside and out, above and

below, as carefully as possible. An old water-colour brush is good for

cleaning intricate burners.

The time when a lamp needs a new wick is a good time to boil the

burner. Remove the old wick and put the burner into some receptacle not

used for food, with water and washing-soda: one teaspoonful soda to one

quart water. Then boil it well. This is a good thing to do whenever a

lamp smells or gives a poor light. If a new wick and a boiled burner

do not help the matter, either the oil is poor or a new burner is

necessary.

If a new lampwick is a little too wide for a burner, draw out two or

three strands at one side. A wick should fill the opening for it,

however, quite closely, especially if it has not yet been wet.

One should have a special place for cleaning lamps, and for keeping

the oil and everything else used in their care. Nothing used for lamp

cleaning or for applying kerosene should be used for any other purpose.

Newspaper is good for cleaning lamps because when the work is finished

it can be burned. It can be used to protect the table on which the

cleaning is done, wicks can be rubbed and lamps wiped with it, and

nothing cleans chimneys so well. Chimneys polished with newspapers

rarely have to be washed. Washing is not good for them, it clouds them

and makes them break more easily.

The catches which hold the chimney must not press very tightly, for

this breaks the expanding glass; they must, though, be tight enough to

keep the chimney from falling if the lamp is moved.

When a lamp is put in its place ready for lighting, the wick should be

just visible above the socket in which it moves. It should be lighted

while still at this level, then turned higher when the chimney has had

time to heat. When the light is to be put out, turn the wick down until

it disappears into the socket. This keeps the wick from smoking and

thereby smelling. Turning a wick down, however, does not always put

out the flame; be sure that it is out before leaving the lamp for the

night.

_Plants._--It seems not unreasonable to say that plants should not

occupy the most agreeable windows of the living room, nor prevent the

proper airing of the house in winter. This does not happen as often as

it used to, but it does occasionally even now. In very few houses is

there room for more than three or four plants, if it is remembered that

the family have the first right to the light, and air, and window space.

There is also the consideration that few plants can receive better care

than many. House plants ought to be immaculate. They should be in neat

pots standing in saucers or jardinières, and should have all withered

or unsightly leaves removed and the other leaves kept free from dust.

If this is not done, they become that greatest eyesore, a degenerated

ornament.

They should be put in a bathtub or sink when the rooms are cleaned, and

sprayed and sponged and soaked. This helps to offset their unnatural

life in warm, dry rooms. Plants thrive on attention. They love to be

stirred, and watered, and sponged, and petted, and made much of. If we

have only a few, we can treat them in this way, to their pleasure and

our own.

_The Process._--We have spoken of the substances which more usually

require the care of the housekeeper outside the kitchen and pantry,

and of ways in which they can be cared for. It will be well now to

describe the order in which cleaning is done, and to say a word about

the appliances used.

The first thing when cleaning is to be done is to gather the appliances

needed for the work. If possible one should have a broom closet in

which all the objects used in cleaning can be kept, then no time is

wasted in hunting them up. Two rows of hooks, one high and one low, in

some secluded spot will do instead of a closet.

I do not say that one cannot clean a room with merely a broom and a

duster. One can sweep everything with the broom, dust everything with

the duster, and take the dust up on a newspaper. Good appliances,

however, make work more thorough, more easy, and more interesting.

Those which I suggest here are merely such as I know to be useful. As

a woman learns her work and becomes more and more interested in it she

will choose and invent appliances for herself.

[Illustration: Photograph by Helen W. Cooke

The Broom Closet]

The following are the things I like to have to clean with:

A short step-ladder, not heavy.

A wool mop head with two handles, one long, one short.

A hair broom.

A mop handle with two heavy floor cloths.

A broom of medium weight, with a slim handle.

A furniture beater.

A long-handled dust pan.

A flat paint brush.

A whisk.

A piece of chamois skin.

Two cheese-cloth dusters, one damp, one dry.

Two flannel dusters.

Several dusting sheets.

Dusters and dusting sheets can be made of very inexpensive or old

material, and they are things in which it is well not to stint oneself.

Wool-headed mops are usually called, in shops, piano dusters, but

why should pianos have a monopoly of anything so comfortable and

convenient? They are rather expensive but they last a long time, and

can be washed perfectly clean. One can get along with one head and two

handles, if necessary, by dusting the high things first, using the long

handle, then the lower things and the floor, using the short handle.

After this the head must be washed, for the floors will make it too

dirty to use for walls. Wool gathers and holds dust more than any other

substance I know.

Other appliances which are used for wiping walls and floors are string

mops, broom bags, and heavy cloths attached to a mop handle. String

mops scatter lint and it is impossible to wash them entirely clean.

Broom bags are good because they can be washed easily, and because they

make a broom into a combination appliance useful either for sweeping

or wiping. They are said to be better made with a ruffle. Mop handles

with attachments to hold the cloths are easily obtainable and much

better for all purposes than string mops. In choosing one, see that

the attachment is neither heavy nor intricate. Cloths can be easily

attached to a mop stick if a deep groove is cut in the stick two or

three inches from the end. Hold the stick with the grooved end up. Lay

over it two or three heavy cloths--in the way one would put an unfolded

handkerchief over the end of one's finger. Draw them down and tie a

string tightly round them in the groove. Then reverse the handle and

the mop is ready for use. Patent handles are better than this homely

contrivance in all but one respect: in using them one must guard

against striking furniture or baseboards with the metal piece which

holds the cloth.

Here are a few important principles of cleaning.

1. Prepare the place which is to be cleaned.

2. Begin at the top. A house is cleaned from garret to cellar, a room

from ceiling to floor, a staircase from top to bottom.

3. Do not flap round with a cloth or a feather duster. The object of

cleaning is to remove dust, getting as little into the air as possible.

4. All necessary shaking and brushing must be done before the floor is

cleaned; afterward, only _wiping_ should be done.

We will now go over the process of cleaning a room as if we were

prompting ourselves for the actual work.

Remove the plants to the sink.

Remove and carefully dust the ornaments, putting them on a tray which

can be carried into an adjoining room, or put them on a stationary

piece of furniture, which has been dusted to receive them, and cover

with a dusting sheet.

Shut the doors into adjoining rooms.

Open the windows.

Dust the shades and roll to the top of the windows.

Shake, brush and cover the curtains.

Remove the upholstered furniture and rugs if possible.

If not, brush the furniture and cover it, sweep and roll the rugs.

If there is a fireplace in the room remove the ashes and lay the fire.

Wipe the ceiling, walls, woodwork, light fixtures and pictures.

Wipe the floor, not forgetting the baseboards, or sweep the carpet.

Whatever is done to the floor is the climax of the cleaning. After that

we restore the room to order. This is the period when everything should

be done by wiping.

Clean rugs and furniture which have been put outdoors.

Wipe furniture, mirrors, picture-glasses, windows and tiles.

Restore the rugs, furniture and ornaments to their places.

Bits of special cleaning like polishing brasses, washing windows,

caring for lamps, and the like are best done at some other time than

that appointed for cleaning the room. If these jobs are included, they

make the regular cleaning too heavy and too long.

This process has been written out as if the work were to be done by one

person, which frequently is not the case. It is the logical order of

the work, however, whatever the number of workers. The outline of the

process is this:

First all brushing and dusting--everything which gets dust off other

things on to the floor.

Then the cleaning of the floor.

Then wiping away all dust made by the cleaning and restoring order.

One cannot effectually do this or any housework with one's mind on

something else. The processes are intricate and logical and require

thoughtful organization beforehand, and intense attention at the

moment. If we can think about our neighbours, or brood over our

grievances while we are cleaning, we can be quite sure that we have not

done the work as well nor as quickly as we could.

VII

UPSTAIRS WORK

"UPSTAIRS work" is, I believe a colloquialism for making beds, tidying

bedrooms, and caring for washstands and bathrooms.