America's Housekeeping Book (1945) recommends that after cleaning up breakfast, the housewife straighten up the living room, give each of the bedrooms its daily cleaning, then head to the bathroom. The family had finished washing up and it was time for Mother to put the bathroom back to rights for the day.
There is a kind of rationale emerging behind the "skeleton housekeeping schedule" promoted by the authors of The Manual. They seem to feel that while a quick tidying of the first floor is useful in case of unexpected callers, the housewife ought to repair to the second floor as soon as possible and put those rooms in order. It was only then that she was advised to return to the first floor and give some attention to the living room, dining room, and - lastly - the kitchen. Did the bedrooms and bathroom get such early attention in case Dad or one of the children came home sick? (A comfy, clean bed and bath are awful nice when you feel like garbage!) Or were second-floor rooms hit early so that they'd be taken care of before the house really warmed up in hot weather?
Whatever the reason, here are the first few orders of business for daily care of the bathroom:
Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air.
I don't have any windows in my bathroom. This has never actually been an asset until now. (One less thing to clean!) My only tool for air circulation in the bathroom is a ventilating fan set on the ceiling. Fresh air has got to come in especially handy in the bathroom and kitchen for all the water that's used in cleaning.
Pick up and replace small articles belonging in bathroom.
Our modern bathroom sink cabinetry lends itself to holding all kinds of the odds and ends we reach for most often. Here's a list of the items I picked up off the countertop that surrounds my own bathroom sink two days ago: blow dryer, roll of toilet paper, nail polish, cold cream, toothbrush, toothpaste, three elastics, nail clippers. A far cry from the washbowls of days gone by! If you tried to balance something on the edge of the sink in those days, you'd probably have lost it down the drain. I'm making a conscious effort this week to put things away where they belong. To get used to retrieving and returning even the items I use everyday. It makes a world of difference just to see all that counter space cleared off...
Medicine cabinets have never provided much in the way of storage space - they were even smaller then! - and the sinks of the 1940s had none of the storage space underneath 'em as do our modern bathrooms. While folks in the '40s may have had to have been more careful about stowing things in the vanity or linen closet, there were still a few items that were truly indispensable at the washbowl. This was the era when a wire soap dish was often affixed to the wall above the sink, when toothbrushes and a glass found a home in their own wall-mounted holder, when a tube of Dixie cups was screwed right into the side of the nearest wooden surface, and the most up-to-date sinks could be purchased with chrome-finished towel bars on either side of the basin. If the size of a vintage medicine cabinet ever has you scratching your head and wondering how on earth a family got by, just picture it surrounded by little holders for this or that.
