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Page 12
Keep hot water constantly in your kettles or water-pots, by always
remembering to fill with cold when you take out hot. Put away every
article carefully in its place.
If tables are stained, and require any scrubbing, remember that to wash or
scrub wood you must follow the grain, as rubbing across it rubs the dirt
in instead of taking it off.
The same rule applies to floors. A clean, coarse cloth, hot suds, and a
good scrubbing-brush, will simplify the operation. Wash off the table;
then dip the brush in the suds, and scour with the grain of the wood.
Finally wash off all soapy water, and wipe dry. To save strength, the
table on which dishes are washed may be covered with kitchen oilcloth,
which will merely require washing and wiping; with an occasional scrubbing
for the table below.
The table must be cleaned as soon as the dishes are washed, because if
dishes stand upon tables the fragments of food have time to harden, and
the washing is made doubly hard.
Leaving the kitchen in order, the bedrooms will come next. Turn the
mattresses daily, and make the bed smoothly and carefully. Put the under
sheet with the wrong side next the bed, and the upper one with the marked
end always at the top, to avoid the part where the feet lie, from being
reversed and so reaching the face. The sheets should be large enough to
tuck in thoroughly, three yards long by two and a half wide being none too
large for a double bed. Pillows should be beaten and then smoothed with
the hand, and the aim be to have an even, unwrinkled surface. As to the
use of shams, whether sheet or pillow, it is a matter of taste; but in all
cases, covered or uncovered, let the bed-linen be daintily clean.
Empty all slops, and with hot water wash out all the bowls, pitchers, &c.,
using separate cloths for these purposes, and never toilet towels. Dust
the room, arrange every thing in place, and, if in summer, close the
blinds, and darken till evening, that it may be as cool as possible.
Sweeping days for bedrooms need come but once a week, but all rooms used
by many people require daily sweeping; halls, passages, and dining and
sitting rooms coming under this head. Careful dusting daily will often do
away with the need of frequent sweeping, which wears out carpets
unnecessarily. A carpet-sweeper is a real economy, both in time and
strength; but, if not obtainable, a light broom carefully handled, not
with a long stroke which sends clouds of dust over every thing, but with a
short quick one, which only experience can give, is next best. For a
thorough sweeping, remove as many articles from the room as possible,
dusting each one thoroughly, and cover the larger ones which must remain
with old sheets or large squares of common unbleached cotton cloth, kept
for this purpose. If the furniture is rep or woolen of any description,
dust about each button, that no moth may find lodgment, and then cover
closely. A feather duster, long or short, as usually applied, is the enemy
of cleanliness. Its only legitimate use is for the tops of pictures or
books and ornaments; and such dusting should be done _before_ the room is
swept, as well as afterward, the first one removing the heaviest coating,
which would otherwise be distributed over the room. For piano, and
furniture of delicate woods generally, old silk handkerchiefs make the
best dusters. For all ordinary purposes, squares of old cambric, hemmed,
and washed when necessary, will be found best. Insist upon their being
kept for this purpose, and forbid the use of toilet towels, always a
temptation to the average servant. Remember that in dusting, the process
should be a _wiping_; not a flirting of the cloth, which simply sends the
dust up into the air to settle down again about where it was before.
If moldings and wash-boards or wainscotings are wiped off with a damp
cloth, one fruitful source of dust will be avoided. For all intricate work
like the legs of pianos, carved backs of furniture, &c., a pair of small
bellows will be found most efficient. Brooms, dust-pan, and brushes long
and short, whisk-broom, feather and other dusters, should have one fixed
place, and be returned to it after every using. If oil-cloth is on halls
or passages, it should be washed weekly with warm milk and water, a quart
of skim-milk to a pail of water being sufficient. Never use soap or
scrubbing-brush, as they destroy both color and texture.
All brass or silver-plated work about fire-place, doorknobs, or bath-room
faucets, should be cleaned once a week and before sweeping. For silver,
rub first with powdered whiting moistened with a little alcohol or hot
water. Let it dry on, and then polish with a dry chamois-skin. If there is
any intricate work, use a small toothbrush. Whiting, silver-soap, cloths,
chamois, and brushes should all be kept in a box together. In another may
be the rotten-stone necessary for cleaning brass, a small bottle of oil,
and some woolen cloths. Old merino or flannel under-wear makes excellent
rubbing-cloths. Mix the rotten-stone with enough oil to make a paste; rub
on with one cloth, and polish with another. Thick gloves can be worn, and
all staining of the hands avoided.
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