strictly cash habit is probably the most economical method to follow.
The old saying of “pay as you go, and if you can’t pay don’t go!” is
put into practical effect. Foolish as it may be, the fact remains
that we all feel a certain reluctance to part with actual cash which
lays a detaining grasp upon us when we might be tempted to “plunge”
if the charge were not to be presented until the end of the week or
month. The housekeeper thinks more than once before she buys the more
expensive cut of meat, the higher-priced fruits or vegetables than her
purse shows she ought to purchase. And there is undoubtedly a comfort
beyond words in the knowledge that no vexing bills are coming in after
the food has been consumed and forgotten. When feasible, there are
countless advantages in paying cash for everything which is brought
into the house and leaving to credit only such items as cannot well be
met except periodically--such as fuel, light, wages, and in some cases
milk and ice.
On the other hand, the charge system has something to its account. It
is much more convenient, in the first place. When one is in a hurry
to finish her marketing and get on to something else the nuisance of
having to wait for change is vexatious. Sometimes the article desired
is not in stock and must be ordered. One hesitates to pay for it before
it is certain that it can be obtained. Again, the telephone marketing
or commanding of groceries, disadvantageous as it is, must sometimes be
followed because of illness or inclement weather, and then the habit
of paying cash is a bother. Moreover, there is little doubt that the
charge customer usually receives a meed of consideration often refused
the cash payer. It is also a genuine inconvenience to pay cash for milk
and for ice and for certain other commodities, such as butter and eggs
supplied by special dealers.
I have not touched upon the possibility that ready money may be
lacking, as is sometimes the case with the man on a salary and still
more with the one who does piecework and is not paid on a fixed day.
Often the need for paying “real money” amounts to a hardship, not
because the purchaser is not solvent, but because his remuneration is
slow in arriving. At such periods the charge account partakes of the
nature of a sheet-anchor. And yet there are strong arguments against it.
Perhaps it is useless to lay stress on the disadvantages of the charge
account, and yet I would feel I was in error if I did not speak a word
of warning against the fatal facility attending on credit arrangements.
It is altogether too easy to have an article charged, forgetting that a
day of reckoning can only be postponed at the best. The housekeeper who
for good and sufficient reasons decides to pay by check periodically
should lay down for herself certain fixed rules.
One of the chief of these is to have short accounts. A grocer’s or a
butcher’s bill should be presented weekly and paid punctually. When
the bill comes in it should be gone over carefully and the items on it
checked up, to be sure, in the first place, that every article charged
has been delivered; in the second place, that the charge set against
it is that which was stated when the purchase was made. It is a common
occurrence to find an increase of from one to five cents on several
entries on a bill. The error may be due to the bookkeeper’s mistake
or to the dealer’s dishonesty. In either event the blunder should be
called to the merchant’s attention and corrected. He will respect the
housekeeper none the less because he learns she is on the alert for
possible discrepancies.
Another principle to be followed is that the marketer should not be
led into making foolish or extravagant purchases because they are to
be charged. In the majority of cases it is a mistake for the small
housekeeper to buy in quantity, since the cash saved by the transaction
is offset by the waste of the material, either by spoiling or because
of extravagant use. Yet when the purchase can be charged it is easy to
yield to the temptation toward what seems at the first glance like an
economy.
Again, the possession of the charge account should not be permitted to
lead the housekeeper into the habit of vicarious marketing--either by
telephone or by messenger or by ordering through an employee of the
concern she patronizes. Other mistakes may also be made, but these are
probably the most frequent and those into which the woman who is not on
her guard against pitfalls in the domestic path is likely to slip.
I have said that it is not feasible to state here a fixed sum to
which the housekeeper must limit her outlay for food. Her best plan
for arriving at an approximate estimate is by a process of averages.
A single day or even a single week cannot furnish a standard any more
than can a single meal. The wisest method is by the aid of strict
system to keep track of her expenditures and then study how the economy
of one time offsets the liberality of another.
To illustrate: when the holiday season is at hand expenses are bound to
increase. The cost of the Thanksgiving or the Christmas turkey and pies
cannot be appreciably reduced. But it is possible to make a science of
economical purchasing and catering--this, too, without stinting the
family or feeding them poorly--so that the burden of high-priced food
may not hopelessly swamp the income.
A like principle may be followed on other occasions. If company must
be entertained, if a family feast must be observed, prudent marketing
and skilful cookery may delude the household into an ignorance of the
fact that money is being saved to carry the housekeeper over the time
of increased bills. Constant thought and consideration are required for
this, but to the lover of housekeeping the occupation after a while
becomes almost like a game in which she pits her wits against the cost
of living and glories when she comes out ahead.
Here is an enterprise in which the habit of going to market for oneself
and the custom of keeping strict account of disbursements both help
the worker. She can pick up at a bargain a cut of meat, a selection
of fish, a choice of vegetables or of fruit, or an occasion in canned
goods which will at once bring down her average and permit her to lay
aside a little toward the next heavy pull upon her purse. This is
especially likely to be the case in the period of preserving, pickling,
and similar pursuits, when often a happy “find” in fruit will help to
lighten the unavoidable weight of conserving of any sort.
The wise student of housekeeping need not let her family recognize the
alternation of a feast and a fast at the table. When they eat a larded
lamb’s liver, they will not suspect an economy; when they rejoice in
filleted sole they will have no idea that the cheapness of flounders is
responsible for their treat, any more than they guess that a delectable
trifle which redeems a rather simple dinner is made from the remains
of stale cake, the left-overs of a couple of jars of jam, and a simple
custard.
Some of the so-called economies do not economize. A bread-pudding which
requires eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and raisins to the value of fifteen
or twenty cents to use up three cents’ worth of stale bread can by no
stretch of the imagination be regarded as a saving. Better make toast
of the bread, save it for stuffing, or dry it and keep it for crumbs
to serve in frying. But there are genuine economies galore, and the
woman who makes a science of them will lay up for herself a series of
agreeable sensations when she balances her housekeeping accounts at the
end of the month.
V
THE HOUSE IN ORDER
Putting the house in order is one thing.
Keeping it in order is quite another.
Once upon a time there was a theory that every house, no matter how
well kept, how frequently swept and scrubbed, must be torn up by
the roots twice a year, for the spring and fall cleaning. At those
dreadful periods mere men fled from before the devastating broom and
scrubbing-brush wielded by the woman of the family. Even when they
stole home in the evening to the slim meal which was all the worn-out
housekeeper could provide, the halls and stairs were likely to be
blocked by pails of suds, by furniture or rolls of carpet _en route_.
To the aged survivors of that epoch the phrase “housecleaning-time” is
still enough to provoke a shudder. I have heard the assertion made that
it lasted at least six weeks, although all seem to be agreed that the
spring visitation was more severe than that of the autumn.
Even in this day and generation there are found certain authorities to
declare that a house cannot be kept so clean that it does not once in
so often require a thorough going-over. In a way there is an element
of truth in their claim. In every home there are nooks and corners not
in constant use, and therefore not regularly cleaned; store-closets,
trunk-rooms, cupboards or drawers reserved for extra bedding, clothing,
furnishings, into whose closed confines dust mysteriously seeps,
wherein moth and other vermin make their breeding-places.
At least once a year--and better, twice in a twelvemonth--these
“glory-holes” should be emptied, the contents looked over, beaten or
dusted, the floors, walls, shelves, etc., wiped off carefully. This is
the time to give away or throw away treasured possessions no longer of
use to their owners and which may be of service elsewhere; to rearrange
such articles as escape banishment; to put aside for the next season
the summer or winter clothing, hangings, and the like which are not
needed at the moment. So long as dirt and dust continue to exist and
to work themselves into the most jealously guarded precincts, so long
must the housekeeper bestow at least a semi-annual inspection on her
reserves and their quarters.
She fails signally to understand her business, however, if she
permits an accumulation of dirt with the comforting conviction that
it will all be removed in the spring and fall clearance. More and
more we understand the importance of purity to health, and with this
comprehension we have grown to perceive that the best method of
retaining high cleanliness is by never allowing the dirt to get the
better of us. A little brushing and sweeping and cleaning here and
there as it is needed, a more attentive treatment once a week, will
keep the house clean without making the labor a burden.
The system which should be the housekeeper’s most valued ally in the
effort after efficiency comes into play here. By the time she is fairly
settled in her new home she should have evolved a routine which, so
far from being an irksome groove, will be rather a track on which the
domestic wheels revolve without undue friction and the consequent wear
and tear.
Take into consideration first the round of the day as it has to do with
keeping the house in order. When the maid or the housekeeper herself
comes down in the morning to start the breakfast, either by making a
fire with wood or coal, or by lighting the oil or gas flame, or turning
the key that sets the electric current to work, she should open the
windows to let in fresh air and the light which reveals the dusty or
the untidy corners.
While the kettle is boiling or the cereal simmering she may have to
set the table, or if this has been done the night before and a light
cloth thrown over it to protect from the dust, the dust-pan and broom
may be called into service or the carpet-sweeper run over the places
which demand attention. The fortunate woman who has a vacuum-cleaner,
either one of the hand variety or the larger style which connects with
the electric current supplying the house, has work simplified and time
saved, as well as strength conserved.
In those homes where an early and rather hasty breakfast is obligatory
for the sake of the commuter or the business man who must get to his
office promptly, or the children who must be off to school, it is
better to have done what superficial tidying was possible the night
before and to let the sweeping and dusting go until after the morning
meal is despatched and the workers on their way. If a system is
followed which obliges the readers of books and newspapers to put them
in their place before going to bed, which insists that toys, tools,
and clothing shall not be left lying about for some one besides the
scatterers to put away the next morning, there need be no confusion
encompassing the breakfast-table. A few moments should have been
snatched for dusting the more conspicuous portions of the dining-room
furniture, and distress of digestion should never be induced by the
presence of dirt or disorder in the surroundings.
When the housekeeper has the home to herself, has disposed of the
details of dish-washing, bed-making, etc., has planned for her
meals and made out the list for her marketing, she should turn her
attention to the removal of the “matter out of place,” as dirt has been
gracefully termed. The living-room will probably require her first
efforts after she has reduced the dining-room to the proper condition
of shining tidiness.
I have referred to the vacuum-cleaner. I wish I could put one into the
hands of every housekeeper! Several kinds are on the market and I carry
no brief for any special make, but I know there is more than one good
variety. The woman of slender means can use one of the hand-machines,
which, while perhaps more tiresome to work than the cleaner run by
electricity, will yet make much less call upon the strength than the
ordinary broom and do the work much more effectively. Not the least of
the advantages of the vacuum-cleaner is a merit it possesses in common
with the ordinary carpet-sweeper--that it does not scatter dust as well
as gather it up.
More than this, the vacuum-cleaner enables the worker to remove the
dust from draperies without taking them down, to clean walls by a less
arduous means than going over them with a cloth-wrapped brush or broom.
Decidedly, one of the best investments a housekeeper can make is a
good vacuum-cleaner; and she will find that it soon pays for itself in
the amount of time and toil it saves. The work it takes a woman hours
to accomplish is done by the vacuum-cleaner in a fraction of the time
she would bestow on cleansing by the old methods, and more than one
housekeeper has found that she saved the wages of an extra helper by
the purchase of a vacuum-cleaner that she could handle herself.
When such a cleaner is out of the question, a substitute for minor
work in this line is a carpet-sweeper. True, it cannot go into corners
and its accomplishment must be supplemented by a dust-pan and broom,
but even so, it saves much stooping and struggle to the housekeeper. A
trustworthy variety should be selected; it should be emptied regularly
and kept in perfect working order. With this there should be provided
what is known as a dustless mop--there are several makes of these--to
use on the bare floors after the rugs have been treated by the sweeper.
As a matter of course everything of this sort, as well as the use of
a broom which raises dust, should be concluded before the housekeeper
attacks the furniture with the brush for the upholstered pieces, a
flannelette or cheese-cloth duster for the hardwood, or one of the
so-called oiled dusters. Of these, too, a good choice is offered at
house-furnishing establishments. While the cleaning goes on the windows
should be open, but not in such a way as to blow the dust, and the
doors into the other part of the house should be kept closed. The old
method, still practised by untrained maids or by housekeepers whose
zeal is in excess of their knowledge, of cleaning two or three rooms at
once and driving the dust from one room to another should be entirely
out of date in these sanitary days.
The same sort of surface-cleaning should be followed throughout the
house, in halls and chambers, as well as in the down-stairs rooms. Even
in the tidiest household dust is likely to gather from day to day, and
if neglected twenty-four hours its presence is unpleasantly conspicuous.
This superficial care answers excellently for part of the time, but it
is not sufficient without a more thorough attack at least once a week.
The housekeeper need not follow the modes of her mother and grandmother
and have the whole house swept from top to bottom on one day of the
week, unless she finds, after study of ways and means, that this
simplifies living for her. A better plan is to have one room or two
done a day, so that the labor is lightened by being spread out through
the week.
The same method should be followed in each room that is to be cleaned.
The smaller ornaments should be wiped and laid away, either in the
bureau drawer or on some large piece of furniture which cannot be
moved but may have its surface and the objects put on it covered with
a sweeping-sheet. Lighter articles, such as chairs and small tables,
should be dusted and then carried from the room. The postponement of
the dusting until they are brought back after the room has been swept
means a fresh scattering of the dust about the clean chamber.
Sweeping-sheets, made of cotton cloth bound with red, that they may not
be confused with the regulation bed-linen, should be at hand to lay
over such large pieces as cannot be removed. The sweeping should be
done from the sides of the room toward the center, recollecting always
to have at least one window opened and all doors closed. When the dust
is all in one compact heap it should be taken up in the dust-pan,
transferred at once to a newspaper, this rolled up tight and put aside
to be carried down to the furnace or the ash-can. After the dust has
settled the walls can be gone over with a cloth or with a broom about
which has been wrapped a duster, or a hair brush with a long handle,
such as comes for this purpose.
The above method can be followed in a room with a carpeted floor or
with a large rug fastened down. When small loose rugs are used they may
be swept first, then rolled up and carried from the room, after which
the bare floor is dusted or wiped off with oil or rubbed with one of
the good waxing preparations which the popularity of the hardwood floor
has brought into the market. In a house supplied with a vacuum-cleaner
the floor and the rugs can both be cleansed without the labor of
carrying out the latter, and the upholstered furniture will not need
the offices of the small brush in removing the dust from folds and
tufts.
Water should not be used on a hardwood floor. It may be wiped off with
a cloth dipped in crude oil and turpentine mingled in equal parts, and
the mixture must be well rubbed in. In default of this, kerosene may
be employed, observing moderation in the quantity of the oil applied.
Too much of any kind of dressing makes an unpleasant odor which lingers
persistently.
It may be said, by the way, that when oilcloth is washed the cloth
should be wrung out nearly dry. If the water gets under the oilcloth
this will rot.
When windows are to be washed the dust and dirt from the frames should
be removed before the glass is touched. If not, the panes will be
streaked. Warm water should be used, and no soap; this would make the
glass cloudy. A little borax or ammonia may be added to the water, and
in cold weather alcohol should be mixed with the water to prevent this
from freezing on the cloth.
In scouring paint the soap or other preparation should be applied on a
flannel or the paint will be scratched. Hardwood finishings, such as
door-posts, window-frames, and the like, should have the same sort of
oiling as is used for the floors.
If the silver which is in daily family service is always washed as
it should be after each meal there is no reason why it should become
dull and dingy and require a weekly scouring. Scalding-hot water is an
essential; the silver should be rinsed off in hot suds, dropped into
the almost boiling clean water, fished out quickly, a piece or two at a
time, and dried immediately. No draining of silver or glass should ever
be allowed, no matter what compromises are permitted in this line with
china and crockery.
Close to the worker’s hand should stand a few helps toward keeping her
silver and glass bright and shining. A bottle of household ammonia
or a box of borax is one of her best aids. Also she should have a
little coarse salt with which to take egg stains from silver, and a
cake or box of good silver polish in case some of the pieces look less
brilliant than they should. A chamois-skin to give a final polish is
also a desideratum. If silver has been laid away and become dull so
that a general scouring is demanded, it is well for the housekeeper
to have one of the patented devices by which silver can be cleansed
by an immersion in a bath of soda and salt contained in an aluminum
pan. Again, there are several good articles of this kind for sale at
reasonable prices.
The daily equipment for dish-washing should consist of two dish-pans
for the housekeeper who does not possess a butler’s-pantry sink with
running water. In one of these pans the silver and china should be
rinsed free of all grease before they are put into the clean hot suds
of the other pan. The glasses should be washed in the clear water
before soap has been added; next come the silver pieces, and these,
like the glasses, should be wiped dry as soon as they are taken out.
The ideal method is to dry the china in the same way, but if it is
perfectly clean when taken from the suds, the pieces ranged in a rack
and boiling water poured over them, they will usually dry evenly and
show no marks or streaks. This method undoubtedly saves much time
and bother. A dish-mop is better for use in washing dishes than a
dish-cloth, since it keeps the hands from the hot water, but should be
scalded after each service and boiled once a day. The towels should be
washed and boiled with equal regularity.
VI
HYGIENE AND PLUMBING
Some of the apparently minor details of housekeeping really possess
more importance than those which seem to bulk larger.
Consider drains, for instance. In this day it is taken for granted that
no one buys or rents a house without being assured that the plumbing
is in perfect order, as well as having been of the best quality in
the beginning. I say that this is taken for granted, and yet I feel I
should modify this statement, recollecting homes in which I have been
a guest where the plumbing is obsolete and neglected to a degree which
would be dangerous with even the most up-to-date fittings. When such
carelessness exists relative to the old-fashioned closed plumbing with
the cheapest and least scientific of traps and stop-cocks, one gains a
rather alarming notion of the hazards to which householders recklessly
subject their families.
Let me state here that the absence of evil odor is no proof that drains
and traps are in excellent order. The deadly sewer-gas is practically
without smell, and persons can be badly poisoned by it with no warning
on the part of their olfactory nerves. There are tests which will
demonstrate the presence of noxious vapors, but these must be made by
sanitary engineers or specialists in this line. Unless the dweller in
any home is positively assured that the drains, plumbing, etc., are in
perfect condition there should be no delay in making such tests and in
proving the good or evil state of the house-fittings.
This is not sufficient, however. The drains must be kept clear, not
only for such a simple hygienic reason as the desire to guard against
disease, but also because a greasy or dirty pipe soon means a choked
pipe, and this in turn brings the inconvenience of a sink which cannot
be used, of a backed-up overflow of waste water, with the possible
accompaniment of injured floor-coverings, walls, and ceilings.
The expert may be required to decide as to the perfection of drains.
The veriest beginner in housekeeping needs little education to know
how to keep them free. In the first place she should see that nothing
is thrown down a waste-pipe but the things it is meant to carry off.
When wads of paper, broken pasteboard boxes, rolls of hair-combings,
and similar refuse are flung into the mouth of even a wide and
generous waste-pipe there is pretty sure to be trouble sooner or
later. When grease and particles of food, tea-leaves, coffee-grounds,
and collections of dust are dumped into a sink, or a corresponding
amount of debris is permitted to try to make its way through the pipe
running from the wash-basin, no one but the person guilty of such gross
carelessness may be to blame, but the whole household is likely to
suffer for the offense.