Chapter II: Part 2

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.

In view of the fact that most persons are heedless, the housekeeper should protect herself and others against risks. One of the simplest helps to this is the use of washing-soda--a chemical which is absolutely ruinous to clothing when used as a detergent in laundry-work, but is admirable for cutting grease or fat which has accumulated in waste-pipes and for eating away other foreign particles which have gathered there. I hasten to add that it will not disintegrate strands of hair or bone buttons--both of which are often found by plumbers in the joints of choked pipes they have been called in to open!

Another aid to keeping the pipes clean and free is household ammonia. This does not need to be poured clear into the pipes, but when it has been employed in rinsing greasy dishes or in cleansing the sink, or in brightening glass or silver, the hot water to which it has been added is of distinct benefit to the waste-pipes. It may be suggested, by the way, that one of the best methods for using the washing-soda is to lay a good-sized lump of it over the drain-pipe from the sink so that the water which goes down carries particles of the soda with it on their cleansing errand.

Either ammonia or a solution of washing-soda should be used in rinsing out the set-tubs after laundry-work has been done. When one thinks of the human waste from the skin which adheres to the clothing and is washed off from it in these tubs, there is a degree of foulness in the notion of letting the tubs pass with no more cleansing than the rinsing they get from the second or third water through which the clothes are passed.

Other cleansing preparations come which are perhaps less severe in their effect on the hands than the common washing-soda. Many of those on the market are known to be excellent by the proof they have given housekeepers. The names of several of these will at once suggest themselves to any one who keeps up with the times in the line of domestic helps. Whatever the chosen cleaning medium may be, a bottle or box of it should always stand in the bath-room, not only for rinsing out pipes and keeping them clear, but also for preserving the purity of basin and tub and toilet-bowl.

I have often been impressed by the carelessness of housekeepers in this detail, especially in homes where there are several children. Evidently these have never been taught the niceties of rinsing out the tub after bathing, or the basin after washing the hands. Around each vessel runs a high-tide mark of soap or dirt, the mere sight of which is enough to deter the observer from using bowl or bath. The touch of the hand to the inside of either will almost always discover a sediment or accretion of grease or dirt or both. This accumulation is readily removed by a soap-rubbed cloth or by one dipped in ammonia or other detersive. Such care may seem a trifling detail, but it is one which should never be neglected.

In connection with this a word does not come amiss as to the superior attractiveness of nickel bath-room fittings, or of those of the kitchen or butler’s pantry, when they are kept bright and clean, over those which are suffered to lapse into dinginess. When the nickel coating is hopelessly scoured off it is not a serious matter to have the fittings done over and made to look like new.

The whole care of the bath-room deserves more attention than it usually receives. Soiled towels and wet wash-cloths should not be flung down here and there, or stray medicine-bottles and medicine-boxes left in untidy rows on the shelves. The medicine-cabinet should be kept in order; the towels and wash-cloths folded neatly and hung up after using; clean towels in plenty in readiness for the chance guest; the soap-dish should be scoured scrupulously as often as once a day. Of course it takes time to do these little things, but their presence or absence marks the difference between the good and the careless housekeeper.

Washing-soda has another use beyond that of keeping drain-pipes clear. A solution of it is excellent for washing out the ice-box or refrigerator. This process should take place at least once a week. When this is said it is not meant that the ice-box should not be cleared out oftener than that. A new piece of ice should not go into it if there is a possibility of bits of food of any sort having been left in the corners or cracks of the ice-chamber. Daily inspection of the contents of the refrigerator will make sure that all food in it is keeping well and is sweet and fresh.

In most well-made refrigerators of the day the shelves are so built that they can be slipped in and out. By this plan they can be scrubbed clean and the sides of the refrigerator can also be scoured off, as would not be feasible with non-detachable shelves. After it has been made clean a few pieces of charcoal should be laid in the corners. This will keep the place sweet by absorbing the odors from food, and every few days the fragments of charcoal should be thrown out and new ones put in their place.

Even with this care the ice-box will sometimes get a close smell; at such times a small shovel should be made nearly red-hot, a little ground coffee sprinkled upon it, and this put into the refrigerator for a few minutes. It should be understood by every housekeeper that butter, milk, and cream should never be kept near strong-smelling articles of food. They absorb the odors and taste of the items they have been with.

Milk is usually kept in open dishes or pans for those who wish to get the full good of the cream which rises to the surface, and nothing else except other milk products or perhaps fresh eggs should be permitted near it.

When highly flavored foods of any sort must be kept in a refrigerator they should either be closely covered--which is not always possible or desirable--or put in a chamber by themselves. Butter should not be suffered to remain in the wooden boxes or plates on which it is often sent home; lettuce and greens should either be washed before they are put away or wrapped in clean paper. Lettuce is best rinsed and then done up in a clean cloth before it is laid near the ice.

When canned goods of any sort are opened they should at once be turned from the tin. They will keep indefinitely in the can while this is sealed, but as soon as the air gets at the contents a chemical change is wrought by the contact of the fluid and the tin and the food soon becomes affected and a positive menace to health. The housekeeper should always have in her stock a number of small bowls or dishes into which to turn the fruit, vegetables, etc., which have been sent home to her in a can.

A wire meat-safe is an important item to have in the pantry, when there is room for such a convenience. Lacking this space, the dweller in flats achieves a compromise by a box built outside of her kitchen window, covered on top with oilcloth or other water-proof material, that the contents may be kept dry. According to the exposure of the window to the sun, the sides of the box may either be of wire netting or solid wood. In length the box matches the width of the window and is usually high enough to allow of two shelves. In this improvised outdoor pantry can be kept in cool weather many articles which would otherwise crowd the refrigerator unduly and would perhaps wither or spoil in the warm kitchen or pantry.

Every convenience she can lay her hands on the housekeeper is within her rights in securing. When it is worth while it pays for itself in sparing her busy hands and feet, in easing the tire of her overworked back. On her floor she should have linoleum, as it is easier to keep clean than the bare boards, more sanitary and more convenient than rugs.

The study of how to arrange her kitchen so as to save herself steps is one of the first things the new housekeeper should undertake. The table should stand near the sink and not too far from the stove; the utensils most frequently in service should be hung on a row of hooks close at hand or be ranged on a couple of shelves above the table. Here, too, should be such articles of seasoning, etc., as are in constant demand--the salt-box, the pepper-cruet, the vinegar-bottle, the flour-dredger, and the like. The bread-box and bread-board should be near the table on which the loaf is to be sliced; the bread-knife should be close by.

One of the greatest conveniences for a kitchen is that piece of furniture called a kitchen cabinet, which unites the functions of a dresser, a receptacle for provisions, a table or shelf at which to make bread and roll pastry, and various other qualities that must be known to be appreciated fully. These cabinets come in different sizes, styles, and finish, and are easily made by the clever home carpenter.

The fireless cooker must not pass unnoticed, whether this be of the home-made hay-box kind or of the more elaborate variety containing plates to heat for cooking the contents of the vessels of the cooker. Whichever make is selected, the cooker itself is one of the most potent aids the housekeeper can have as a saver of time, of fuel, of labor, and of fatigue. By its assistance the meal virtually cooks itself, once it has been started in the right way. Food prepared in the fireless cooker preserves its flavor as it cannot do if cooked in the oven or on top of the stove, and there is far less waste of the material of each article than if it were suffered to go off in steam and aroma.

The most popular fuel of the day is undoubtedly gas, since the cost of electric equipment puts it beyond the reach of most housekeepers of moderate means. Yet there are many parts of the country where all cookery must be done by coal or even by wood, and where the only solace of the worker is that she has the comfort of the heat in winter and the benefits of slow cooking at all times.

For housekeepers who must buy their coal it is well to know that the most advantageous mixture for the average-sized range is a mixture of egg-coal and nut-coal, in the proportion of equal parts of the red ash and the white ash. The latter burns more slowly than the former, while this gives a stronger fire and makes fewer cinders.

A fresh fire need not be made more than once a week if the housekeeper is careful to rake out the ashes at bedtime, put on fresh coal, open the draughts for ten or fifteen minutes or until the new coal is fairly kindled, then close the draughts and leave the upper door of the stove open. In the morning the draughts have only to be opened after the upper door has been closed and a little fresh coal put on as soon as the fire has begun to be red. Not until this has begun to burn well should a further small supply of coal be added. This mode is much more economical of fuel and work than making a fresh fire every day.

VII

THE HOME WITHOUT A SERVANT

The housekeeper who undertakes to run her establishment without a servant is beset by certain disadvantages. When she has had a bad night, is suffering from indisposition of any kind, or wishes to undertake some piece of work, such as dressmaking, for which she desires to have her time free, it is inconvenient to feel that without her personal effort no part of the business of the house will be done, that all responsibility as well as all performance falls upon her.

On the other hand, great are the comforts of the woman who has no one but herself to do her work. These should be considered, since an enormously large proportion of American housekeepers employ no regular servant and many others call in assistance only for such toil as washing and ironing and heavy cleaning.

The woman who does not keep a maid can run her kitchen to suit herself and have things done as she prefers. She need not be constantly worried because the cook neglects to line the garbage-pail with a newspaper or to put on the cover, persistently leaves the refrigerator open in hot weather and will not save left-overs. The mistress knows that the dishes are washed by an approved method, since she does it herself, and this position also enables her to have the utensils and general plenishing of the kitchen and pantry in the order she likes.

The same freedom obtains in other parts of the house. There is no uncertainty as to whether towels and napkins are used in the prescribed routine; no doubt if the beds are properly aired and made, the corners of the rooms swept and the top shelves dusted, sanitary precautions observed as to drains and similar niceties of care followed. The woman who does her own work can be sure of an attention to details which she could not compel from a hireling except at the cost of close watchfulness and more or less nagging.

More than this, the economies to be compassed in a house where no maid is kept far exceed the mere outlay for food which is required to supply an extra person. No one but the mistress of the home will watch for small leaks, and, having bought judiciously, will take pains that the saving thus practised is not lost by careless use of materials. She will plan her meals so as to utilize remnants, will see that the trifle which seems of no importance is put aside to combine with another apparently negligible quantity, will guard worn-out household linens for other services than the rag-bag, will watch for the first breaks in table-cloth or napkins and stop them with a wise stitch or two. Through it all she will possess the delightful sense of having her home to herself, of knowing there is not a nook or a corner of it where she does not reign supreme, and that her theories are put into practice from the top of the house to the bottom.

Such delightful sensations as these are of course out of the question for the woman who undertakes housekeeping without a good working knowledge of how to conduct it. The theories to which reference has been made may be the best of their kind, but unless they are backed by the ability to do the things they describe there is likely to be trouble. Still, the woman who has more book instruction in the line of housekeeping than actual experience can learn by doing and in time reach a point where her independence is a joy to her. The best aid she can have in this endeavor is system, the habit of doing each task at a certain hour and in a certain way, and she need not consider the time wasted she bestows on planning out her routine so as to make it at once easy and efficient.

In a city apartment or a small house fitted with the latest improvements the way is much simplified. If one can have a fire by striking a match and turning on the gas-stove, is supplied with hot water by a means outside her own kitchen, has milk, ice, meat, and other provisions brought to the door of her pantry, and no responsibility as to getting rid of ashes or garbage, she may feel that her lines have fallen in pleasant places.

Naturally, a woman who lives in these conditions must direct her work in a very different way from that incumbent upon the dweller in a village or on a farm, who must build and keep in her own fires for cooking and heating, warm every drop of hot water that is used--often perhaps having to draw or pump it first--fill the lamps by which the house is lighted, and do all the many other duties which are performed for the dweller in a city flat and taken by her for granted. Yet as much efficiency, as delightful a life, exist in these conditions as can be found in a home where the work is reduced to a minimum. The housekeeper who must put up with inconveniences will generally find that they are offset by benefits which go far to counterbalance the drawbacks.

If the city housekeeper with all modern improvements at her command requires system in her work, it is even more necessary for the one who must do without such aids. At the same time she must secure every help she can. When she can get one of the gasolene-stoves which, if properly managed, are hardly second to a gas-range in excellence, or, if lacking one of these, she can secure a good oil-stove with an oven; if she can provide herself with an oil hot-water-back or heater which will warm the water for cooking and bathing; if she purchases all such aids as fireless cookers, steamers, hand vacuum-cleaners, and other up-to-date appliances, she will simplify her labor and at the same time preserve the youth and strength that would be devoured by the adherence to the methods of her grandmother in a day when twentieth-century living is taken for granted on even the remote rural free-delivery route.

In addition to this she should study the art of sparing herself in other ways, even of shirking when it is wise. By this advice there is no implication that she should be careless of work that should be done or perform it in the wrong way. But often duties can be postponed with no harm to anything except the housekeeper’s supersensitive conscientiousness, just as there are times when it is even wiser to leave the room unswept or undusted than to wear oneself down to absolute fatigue and the fretfulness or irritability such weariness connotes.

One of the first rules for the home-worker to lay down for herself is that no positive moral superiority is displayed by standing at one’s occupations. There is no reason except a custom better broken than preserved why a woman should not have a high stool or chair on which to sit while washing and drying dishes, while preparing vegetables, beating eggs, creaming butter or flour, and performing other such tasks, as well as while ironing small pieces. The stool or chair should also be accompanied by a hassock or footstool on which to rest the feet. The fact that some of the old type of housekeepers will call the practice lazy does not in the least affect the common sense of the suggestion and the habit.

Another means for rendering kitchen work agreeable is to have the right sort of utensils with which to accomplish it. I have spoken of some of the conveniences already. Certain of them are high-priced, but many of the aids to easy and pleasant cookery are inexpensive. To have plenty of bowls and spoons, the right kind of measuring-cups, pans, and pudding-dishes, is as essential in its way as the purchase of a bread or cake mixer or a washing-machine. Too often housekeepers put up with the poor outfits they have and let a mistaken economy prevent their securing the right kind of tools. Nothing worth having is gained by washing dishes in a rusty and battered pan, drying them on ragged towels, any more than by serving your puddings in a chipped bake-dish or measuring ingredients in a leaky cup. This is not real economy; it is either slovenliness or sloth. When a woman does her own work she can surely trust herself to take care of the articles she uses, and she should not stint herself in buying those she needs.

Also she should dress for the part of maid-of-all-work when she is filling that rôle. Tightly fitting waists and long skirts should never be worn, and wash frocks are the best, since the material not only does not harbor odors of cooking as does a woolen fabric, but the garment can be washed when it is soiled.

A shirtwaist and short skirt or a one-piece frock is the best uniform, and always there should be a large and comprehensive apron with a high bib and shoulder-straps. In addition to this it is well to have a couple of aprons supplied with sleeves, which can be slipped on over an afternoon frock when getting dinner ready or when washing up afterward. All the aprons should be long enough to come down well to the hem of the gown and should be of some pretty goods, such as gingham or percale, or one of the crinkly fabrics which do not need to be ironed after washing. There is no reason why a woman who does her own work should not look attractive while she is at the process. Above all, she should abjure curl-papers, kid curlers, and similar atrocities both while at her duties and when presiding at the breakfast-table for a family which should surely take away with them an agreeable mental picture of the mistress of the house. If these adjuncts are actually necessary to render the wearer presentable later in the day, she should at least conceal them under a pretty boudoir cap. Such a cap is advisable not only on account of the appearance, but as a protection to the hair from smoke and steam.

After the morning meal is over the housekeeper may either put her dishes to soak in hot water, leave her beds to air, and go out to do her marketing, or she may decide to postpone the purchasing until later in the day and despatch her household duties before she leaves the house. Often it seems wiser to go to market late in the morning, or even in the afternoon, and thus have the best part of the forenoon unbroken for domestic occupations. The systematic housekeeper can usually plan her meals so that this plan can be followed without inconvenience.

In the well-kept flat there is not very much to do when there are only two in the family. With so few in the house articles do not get out of place to any marked extent, and when the windows have been opened in the chambers and living-room while breakfast was going on there is little to hinder the housekeeper from devoting only a short time to pushing furniture back into place, running a carpet-sweeper over the floor, and doing necessary dusting. A bed or two must be made, the bath-room put in order, the dishes washed, and the dining-room and kitchen set to rights; but in the apartment where the woman does her own work there will be no accumulation of other persons’ dirt to be removed.

When a whole house is occupied there is more to be done. Halls and stairs must be brushed, perhaps front steps swept, stoves looked after in winter, and flies beaten out and rooms shaded in summer. Other duties will present themselves if there is more than a single floor to be kept in order--a floor on which are found kitchen, pantry, and dining-room as well as chambers and bath-room.

Whether it be an apartment or a whole house, the same order of work should be followed. The morning should be the time applied to turning off any heavy or disagreeable work which has to be done. Cleaning, sweeping, dusting, making ready of vegetables for dinner, preparing the pudding or other dessert which is to be cooked later in the day, should always be planned for the early hours of the day. This is the time when the energies are at their best and freshest, and it is also the period when interruptions are least likely. In the afternoon one cannot be secure against callers or other demands upon leisure--to say nothing of the comfort one feels in knowing that the unpleasing portions of the day’s toil are done and over with!

The young housekeeper who becomes absorbed in her new occupation sometimes slips into the fault of yielding herself to it too unreservedly. When a woman really loves the work of cooking and planning, of keeping her house in exquisite order and contriving to make supply and demand meet one another, she is in danger of becoming given over to it. Her husband is not likely to be able to understand her attitude, and although he may enjoy a well-kept home, he will probably feel he desires something more in his wife than a domestic devotee.

Against the danger of drifting into this position the young housekeeper should be on the alert. No one else is as much interested as is she in the business of running her particular home, and the sooner she appreciates this the better for her and the more agreeable for every one else. At first she will possibly wish to talk of little else, but after the very earliest novelty has worn off she should wake up to the perception that there are other things in the world besides her home. She should see that she must keep herself in good mental condition as well as keep her house; that the time is not wasted that she spends in reading, in wise recreation, especially in permitting herself a little rest each afternoon which will help preserve her freshness and vigor and put her into condition to make life pleasant for her husband when he comes home at night.

For this is as important a point as any other in housekeeping. Even a man who loves his home wearies of finding a worn-out wife at dinner every evening, and of being confined for subjects of conversation to the round of the happenings connected with the butcher, the baker, and the grocer. He likes a lively, fresh wife awaiting him; he enjoys being entertained after the hard toil of the day; he is pleased when she is glad to go with him for a little outing or a mild dissipation. To be in readiness for this is an object the housekeeper should have in view through the work of the day, and she should resolutely cut out any additional labor which will interfere with her making the dwelling a home as well as a mere place to live in.

As a practical illustration of this let me commend the habit of letting the dinner-dishes wait to be washed until the next morning when there is something on hand with which this work would clash. While it is undoubtedly agreeable to go to bed with the pleasant sensation that there are no “hangovers” in the way of undischarged duties, it is often wiser to postpone a task than to perform it at the cost of hurry and flurry. The dishes may be put in a pan with hot water and a little washing-powder, and left until after breakfast the next day, when they may be washed without haste or nervousness.

VIII

IN THE LAUNDRY

Whether or not a housekeeper expects to do her own washing and ironing, she should know in every detail how it is to be done. The occasion may not arise for her to put her hands into the wash-tub or to wield a flat-iron, but she should understand the operations and know how to correct intelligently the errors of her laundress.

There has been a good deal said of the burden of laundry-work, and yet I have known many women who preferred undertaking it themselves to trusting it to the charge of an ignorant or untrained washerwoman. This is sometimes the only variety that can be secured in the country or in small places, but the laundry, which is the resource so often of dwellers in the city, is frequently far more injurious to clothing than the treatment of the poorest laundress. In such circumstances or when economy seems necessary the housekeeper who has the ability to do up the clothing of her family and the bed and table linen possesses a power which means not only comfort, but saving of wear and tear as well as of money.

In the effort to provide the A-B-C of laundry-work a beginning must be made with directions for sorting and preparing the clothes for washing.

The first step is to separate towels and bed-linen from starched white garments and place them in different piles, with flannels and stockings in a third gathering. This should be done on the evening preceding wash-day, as the labor is much lessened by putting the clothes into soak overnight. The method--or lack of method--of the careless laundress is to throw those garments to be submitted to this preliminary treatment into a tub of warm water to which has been added some washing-powder or detersive and leave them thus all night.

Instead of this the clothing should be looked over carefully, dipping the worst-soiled portions into warm water and rubbing the spots well with laundry soap. Each garment should then be rolled up with the soaped side inward, and all the rolls thus made packed down into a tub of lukewarm water to which has been added a small quantity of borax, household ammonia, or other equally good and harmless detersive.