Sanitation Engineering

Sanitation engineering isn't something I've given much thought to when it comes to my home. I've just realized, though, that the authors of my housekeeping manual have taken it for granted that I have a waste basket in every room of the house. And I don't. I have a garbage can in the kitchen and another, smaller one in the bathroom. It'd certainly save on the odd piece of trash I need to pick up in the morning if I could have thrown it away from the get-go without taking more than a step or two. I think they're onto something here.

There's certainly an interesting flow of garbage - or refuse, to put it delicately - through the 1940s home. The last step in my early morning routine in the bedroom is to "collect trash in waste basket." As I've added a tidy up in the dining area and the living room to my schedule, the manual instructs me again to "collect trash in waste basket." After breakfast, each room in the house is supposed to get a daily cleaning, and the housewife is repeatedly reminded to "take out... waste basket" and then to "replace" it. The only point in the routine when the terminology becomes any different is in the kitchen, when the waste basket is instead called a "garbage can."

Waste baskets were more decorative items meant primarily for paper refuse. They didn't need to be lined or covered. Some were quite literally baskets, though painted metal waste baskets seem to have been popular. Garbage cans, on the other hand, were lined with paper and the '40s housewife was expected to wash and disinfect them once a week and let them dry in the sun. Paper bags from the grocery store were great for liners, but "moisture-proof liners" designed to fit these cans were also becoming available on the market. Garbage cans had lids - sometimes operated by a pedal at the base of the can.

It sounds as if the authors of the manual are advising the housewife to take the waste basket from each room into the kitchen to empty them into the garbage can. From there, the garbage can will be emptied - into a larger can elsewhere? - once a day, ideally, just before preparing lunch. Once it leaves the kitchen... well, that must be a husband's territory, because we hear no more about it.