The Beginning of House keeping—Importance of a proper
Appreciation of Economy at the Commencement—Taking a
House—Choice of Locality—Agreement with the Landlord—Relative
Advantages and Disadvantages of Furnished Lodgings—Economy and
Taste in the Selection of Furniture—Importance of a proper
Selection of Kitchen Utensils.
That sensible and oft-quoted old lady, Mrs. Glasse, in one of her recipes
begins thus:—“First catch your hare.” Acting upon so good an example, we
will first take a house and furnish it, previously to laying down axioms
for its management.
Before any steps are taken, the income or pecuniary means of the parties
about to commence housekeeping, should be well considered. We know that
by young “brides elect,” and rash youths bent on matrimony, such £ s.
d. matters will be deemed dreadfully sublunary; they have a notion that
if once they are married, all will be sure to go right. A young clerk,
rejoicing in an income of £80 or £100 per annum, more or less, every
penny of which he has been in the habit of seeing annually swallowed up
by his own expenses, falls in love with the daughter of a well-to-do
tradesman, a surgeon, or a lawyer in tolerable practice. The young lady
can sing and play, speak French, Italian, and German a little, produce
marvels in the way of crochet and ornamental work, loves poetry and
romance, and can trim herself a smart bonnet, which, however, often
costs more than if she had purchased one ready made. But she has been
at boarding-school, and knows little or nothing of life as it is; her
wants have been provided for, there have been servants to wait upon, and
parents to love and cherish her; and now, to crown all, she has a lover
to adore her, to write “sonnets to her eyebrow,” sing a second to her
duets, and flatter her caprices and pretty whims.
If the father is a shrewd, worldly man, he soon nips this promising bit
of flirtation in the bud; but if he is an easy-going sort of person, or
one with a family of daughters who will, he knows, at his death, be but
poorly provided for, he lets matters take their course. The young man
proposes, feeling certain in his own mind that a wife will be an actual
saving to him—single men are so imposed upon! The heads of the families
meet in grave consultation on the subject of “ways and means,” and not
seeing their way clearly, separate without coming to any resolution.
The young people are importunate; they urge all sorts of hopeful,
inexperienced arguments, and become eloquent under the enthusiasm of
love. He wilfully ignores the fact that he has been accustomed to spend
half his income on clothes and amusements, and that a merely nominal sum
had been paid to his parents for board and lodging, and all the comforts
of a good home, and the rest frittered away he scarcely knows how. She
forgets how much she spends on gloves, ribbons, perfumes, and other
finery, not to mention actual necessaries, and persists in seeing an _el
dorado_ in the income of her lover.
They overcome all obstacles and are married, and with _éclat_, or it
would not be _comme il faut_. As much is spent on the bridal dress and
the hired coaches, and the breakfast, as would keep the newly-married
pair comfortably for a month; then off they go into the country to
spend in travelling, hotel-bills, &c., some £20 or £30, and fulfil all
the requirements of the etiquette of this enlightened age, which often
imperiously demands reckless expenditure when common sense would advise
more than usual economy.
However, we do not consider it our mission to enter on Quixotic quarrels
with the ways of the world. It is, as our young people soon find—
“A very good world to live in,
To lend, to spend, or to give in;
But to beg, or borrow, or get one’s own,
’Tis the very worst world that ever was known.”
In taking a house, the first matters to be considered are, the rent we
can afford to give, and whether we are bound to any particular locality.
Having settled this, we may begin our search accordingly. Where locality
is not specified, always choose one as open and airy as may be, and where
the soil, or at any rate the subsoil, is not clay, where the drainage
is good, and there is an ample supply of water, and no neighbouring
factories giving out noxious gases and poisonous smoke and vapour. Too
close a vicinity to a churchyard is likewise to be avoided. Of course,
the house must be capable of accommodating the family who are to occupy
it, and there should always be a spare room or two which can be used
for bed-rooms, or other purposes in case of emergency. There should be
closets, cellars, &c., and good ventilation front and back. A fee to a
well-qualified surveyor is often well bestowed, for he may detect serious
faults in a house, which, to an ordinary observer, seems well-built and
comfortable.
The agreement with the landlord should be clearly understood, and all
liabilities as to parochial and other taxes, local rates, house repairs,
with charges for fixtures, &c., inquired into, and definitely arranged,
before the agreement is signed.
It sometimes happens that the chief rooms are not papered and painted
until the house is let. In such case the in-coming tenant generally has
the power of choosing the papers, or panellings, and paint. He will, of
course, select such as will best harmonize with the colour which the
furniture and hangings should have.
Having taken our house, it generally wants a thorough cleaning and
airing. The former may sometimes be got out of the landlord; the latter
must always be done by the tenant; and in spring, autumn, and winter,
fires should be kept for three or four days, according to the time the
house has been empty, and to the repairs it has undergone during that
interval; for, of course, nobody takes a house in the state of dirt and
dis-repair in which it is usually left by an out-going tenant, or if
they do so under the notion that the landlord will set it all to rights
after they are in, they will find out their mistake, and repent their
confidence.
We will now suppose the house taken, cleaned _thoroughly_, and well
aired, and will proceed to furnish it. But first we must pause to observe
that young people will do well carefully to consider matters before they
take upon themselves the troubles and responsibilities of housekeepers.
Where their joint savings, or some sum especially bestowed for the
purpose by friends or parents, enable them to make the necessary outlay
for furniture, linen, &c., and yet have something left to put by for
“a wet day,” and the rent and taxes can be afforded by the income of
the husband, it is all well and good. But if money must be borrowed, or
debts incurred, or the income mortgaged,—begin life in the quietest way
rather than with this responsibility, or with these incumbrances. Take
furnished apartments for awhile, until you see your way. Thirty pounds a
year will pay for two rooms on the ground-floor, and fifty for two on the
drawing-room floor, in a respectable locality, and this covers rent, wear
and tear of furniture, and attendance.
We know that it is customary to say that people are victimized, cheated,
ill-used and abused in furnished lodgings; poisoned with dirt, and
devoured by vermin. It may be so in some places, but all we have to say
is, that the first four years of our married life were passed in them,
and now every autumn, for a month or six weeks, we dwell in furnished
lodgings at some watering-place, and that we have found the trials of
housekeeping pretty much the same; whether in lodgings or in a house,
with one’s own servants; the expenses in the former were fewer, so were
the comforts, and the waste and cheating are about the same in both
cases, when strict surveillance is not exercised.
Of course, if people will permit themselves to be cheated, and do not
know how much or how little of each article of food or grocery ought
to be consumed per day or per week, or what its cost is, they will be
cheated by lodging-house keepers, and also their own servants. Neither
is it wise to go into an actual lodging-house, where the proprietors
avowedly live by, or, in other words, on their lodgers. There are always
respectable families to be found who only let one set of apartments,
and with whom it is very possible to get along comfortably. As to
the much-decried attendance in lodgings, we found generally, that by
keeping our boxes and drawers locked, and throwing as little temptation
in the servants’ way as possible, we were seldom robbed; and that, by
consideration for and patience with the household drudge, aided by the
occasional spur of some little gift or gratuity, we got a fair share of
her services.
But to our furnishing business. Here, again, those unsentimental letters
£ s. d. present themselves, and say, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no
farther,”—and that limit is dependent upon the funds in hand, and which
may, without incurring debts or emptying the purse, be expended.
For bed-room furniture, mahogany, maple-wood, and oak are the best and
prettiest; there are also very serviceable, well-polished, stained wood
imitations of all these three; and there are, too, very common and
trumpery imitations, which turn shabby in a few months, and are generally
badly put together, and do no service; two good chairs are worth a dozen
of such rubbish as these latter.
As a general rule, we should advise avoidance of all cheap, showy,
furnishing establishments; likewise, unless you are wealthy, of all
fashionable upholsterers.
Patronize good, old-established houses of business, and do not,
to spare trouble, enter a large emporium, which too often, like
Jack-of-all-trades, does everything, but nothing well; seek for separate
articles at the establishments of various respectable tradespeople.
Never buy second-hand bedsteads, bedding, or hangings, unless you are
well convinced that no more than you bargain for is included in the
purchase.
Iron and brass bedsteads, which can now be had of every size, form, and
price, are far preferable, both as regards health, cleanliness, and
lightness, to any others.
Chintz or dimity are better for bed-furniture than damask, moreen, or
any fabric containing wool; they harbour less dust, and are less liable
to hide vermin.
Kidderminster carpets are best adapted for bed-rooms. Never place carpet
under a bed, or you provide a resting-place for all the dust and flock
which daily falls from the mattresses, and establish a nice hot-bed for
fleas. Let the carpet be composed of about three pieces, in order that it
may be frequently taken up and beaten or shaken, and the floor scrubbed
clean.
Those who value health will not have a feather-bed in their house. Good
mattresses of wool, and wool and horsehair, iron bedsteads, and as little
bed-furniture, curtains, &c., as may be, with a light quilt, are the best
preventives against rising languid, inert, and unfit in the morning for
the duties of the day.
Never crowd a bed-room with furniture; have that which is really useful
and requisite, and no more; and in fitting it up, always remember that
illness often comes when we least expect it, and take care that your room
shall possess such articles as will then be needful for comfort and ease.
A dining-room requires little furniture; but that little should be good
and handsome, and of mahogany.
About furnishing drawing-rooms, we can give no directions, so much
depends upon taste. We would only reiterate our warning to beware of
showy, veneered, vamped-up furniture; or, when the room has had a fire in
it some dozen times, you will be startled occasionally by reports, as if
small cannon were discharged, and on rising to investigate such alarming
noises, you will find, perhaps, a crack across one door of the beautiful
rosewood cheffonier, or a gaping chasm in that lovely loo-table, or a
piece of carved work flown off the card-table, showing only deal beneath!
Here, again, a little furniture tastefully arranged, is far better than
a crowd of articles; besides, in one’s course through life, furniture
accumulates gradually, and if it is necessary to sell one thing in order
to make way for another, that is a very unprofitable business.
We now come to the kitchens, where the wants are multifarious, for here
must be accumulated means of feeding, and cleaning, and keeping in order
the whole house. Of course we can give no detailed account of what will
be required, as all depends upon the extent and style of the household;
all we can do, therefore, is to make one or two general remarks on the
durability of different wares.
As few copper cooking utensils as possible should be had, and those few
should be most thoroughly tinned in the inside, and always carefully
cleaned and dried before being put away. For ourselves, we prefer
block tin to anything else for saucepans, pots, and kettles generally.
Iron does not so quickly or plainly tell any tale of dirt or neglect;
cast-iron is very brittle, and cannot be repaired when broken; and copper
is so likely to harbour verdigris. A good double block tin saucepan
should always have the cover, the handle, and the back, kept bright as
silver, and the top, spout, front, and handle of the kettle, should
also be kept bright; for, besides that a polished surface maintains heat
better than an uneven, blackened one, it looks wonderfully better; and if
the smoke is never allowed to gather on these parts, it is easy to keep
the utensils as bright as they were at first.
For stewpans, iron tinned on the inside is most useful.
Candlesticks for common house or kitchen use should be of tin or brass,
and large enough to prevent grease spots. There is no wear in japan.
Wooden bowls for washing glass and china, and block tin or zinc
hand-bowls, will be found most serviceable.
All utensils for the conveyance of water about a house should be of
metal, as water-cans of different sizes, hot water jugs with covers,
shaving-mugs, &c., since thereby much breakage will be saved; and these,
if bought good at first, will, with ordinary care, last a very long time.
The same remark applies to foot-baths. Very pretty toilet sets for the
wash-stand are now also made in zinc, and beautifully painted or japanned.
Sarcophagus, and other extraordinarily shaped coalscuttles, are to be
avoided as most troublesome and awkward affairs, out of which it is next
to impossible to extract coals conveniently.
In the “Housewife’s Reason Why,”[1] the advice which is here given
arbitrarily, is supported by the explanation of principles, or _reasons_,
with which every Housewife should be acquainted, and a knowledge of which
will impart a quickening interest to every duty she is called upon to
perform.
[1] London: Houlston & Wright.