If you haven't noticed me grumbling about cleaning my kitchen lately, it's because I haven't been. (Grumbling, that is!) When I decided a few weeks ago to split up the big jobs into alternate weeks, it made all the difference in the world. Cleaning the kitchen still means a good solid two hours of work once a week, but the work just seems a lot more manageable than it did before.
And there isn't anything I really enjoy about this particular chore. When the job is done, though, my kitchen looks so nice. I catch myself doing a double take or two just to see how lovely it looks with a shiny sink, clean countertops, and a stovetop that positively gleams! If I can find something interesting on the radio, it always makes the work go faster, and I take a few breaks to drink some water and to put on some hand lotion. The good stuff. If I going to baby my hands at some point during the week, this is definitely the time to do so. Working with all that soap and water can be super drying to the skin.
Speaking of cleansers, soap and water aren't the only things at work in my kitchen these days. I use baking soda when cleaning the interior of the refrigerator/freezer and Comet to scour the sink. Cellulose sponges and dishtowels are my tools of choice, with an occasional Brillo Pad on a stubborn drip pan and - once in a great while - a paper towel. It's funny. On the rare occasions that I'd do any kind of cleaning in my kitchen in the past, I would never have set foot in there without a roll of paper towels and a canister of disinfectant wipes. I guess I was just afraid of having to put any kind of elbow grease to work. I thought chemicals could do the work for me. These days, I can go a month before having to change the roll of paper towels in my kitchen. And that's one of the small rolls! Paper towels get used now only for spot cleaning.
As I get accustomed to the mechanics of cleaning the kitchen, I catch myself finding little ways to make the work go faster. Here's my latest discovery: If I remove the drip pans before scrubbing the stovetop down (Is that what those metal trays under the burners are called?), then pop the lid and clean out underneath the stovetop, then wash the drip pans in the sink --- the stovetop and the area underneath it will be practically air-dried by the time I'm ready to reassemble the whole affair. That means my dishtowel will get less wet on that particular job and I can use it longer before having to replace it with another. I love finding little techniques like this to streamline the work!
Sadly, I don't think there's a soul among the women I talk with on a regular basis who could understand my excitement over something like this. Shoes? They could understand. A decorating idea for a dinner party? They'd get it. We just don't talk about housework in this day and age. It's that hidden thing that must be done, but isn't very fashionable to discuss. How are girls supposed to learn how to maintain a home if it's no longer cool even to mention the process? If our mothers hardly have enough time to keep house themselves - never mind teaching their daughters how to do it - and it isn't fashionable to discuss it with your girlfriends, how are we supposed to learn or better our craft? Housework's become the great unmentionable among women, and yet it's getting done is indispensible.
One of the other things that gives this little housekeeper a thrill these days are the ads for Parkay Margarine and Kraft Dinner that have been preserved along with episodes of The Great Gildersleeve from 1941 and 1942. The ads reference a rhythm to housework that must have been completely familiar to listeners of the era... Kraft Dinner - which we now call plain ol' macaroni and cheese - was billed as a fabulous option for dinner on Monday nights. A night when Mother must have been worn to the bone by the wash... As the announcer describes all the perks of using a product like Parkay Margarine, he mentions the baking that would have been done in a Christian household on Saturdays. (The program was aired lived on Sunday evenings):
I wonder how many of you housewives baked a cake or some cookies yesterday for your Sunday dinner today. A lot of you did, I’m sure, because there’s nothing like that real home-baked flavor. Well, here’s a hint for the next time you bake. For luscious, extra flavor in cookies, cakes, and pastries, use delicious Parkay margarine for the shortening...
My own 1945 menu for dinner this evening features a wartime meatless dish:
Peanut Roast
Pennsylvania Cabbage Salad with Sour Cream Dressing
The dessert, Apricot Whip, is made with raw egg whites, so - rather than play around with salmonella - I may substitute a Dried Apricot Cake. Is there any Parkay in the house?
And there isn't anything I really enjoy about this particular chore. When the job is done, though, my kitchen looks so nice. I catch myself doing a double take or two just to see how lovely it looks with a shiny sink, clean countertops, and a stovetop that positively gleams! If I can find something interesting on the radio, it always makes the work go faster, and I take a few breaks to drink some water and to put on some hand lotion. The good stuff. If I going to baby my hands at some point during the week, this is definitely the time to do so. Working with all that soap and water can be super drying to the skin.
Speaking of cleansers, soap and water aren't the only things at work in my kitchen these days. I use baking soda when cleaning the interior of the refrigerator/freezer and Comet to scour the sink. Cellulose sponges and dishtowels are my tools of choice, with an occasional Brillo Pad on a stubborn drip pan and - once in a great while - a paper towel. It's funny. On the rare occasions that I'd do any kind of cleaning in my kitchen in the past, I would never have set foot in there without a roll of paper towels and a canister of disinfectant wipes. I guess I was just afraid of having to put any kind of elbow grease to work. I thought chemicals could do the work for me. These days, I can go a month before having to change the roll of paper towels in my kitchen. And that's one of the small rolls! Paper towels get used now only for spot cleaning.
As I get accustomed to the mechanics of cleaning the kitchen, I catch myself finding little ways to make the work go faster. Here's my latest discovery: If I remove the drip pans before scrubbing the stovetop down (Is that what those metal trays under the burners are called?), then pop the lid and clean out underneath the stovetop, then wash the drip pans in the sink --- the stovetop and the area underneath it will be practically air-dried by the time I'm ready to reassemble the whole affair. That means my dishtowel will get less wet on that particular job and I can use it longer before having to replace it with another. I love finding little techniques like this to streamline the work!
Sadly, I don't think there's a soul among the women I talk with on a regular basis who could understand my excitement over something like this. Shoes? They could understand. A decorating idea for a dinner party? They'd get it. We just don't talk about housework in this day and age. It's that hidden thing that must be done, but isn't very fashionable to discuss. How are girls supposed to learn how to maintain a home if it's no longer cool even to mention the process? If our mothers hardly have enough time to keep house themselves - never mind teaching their daughters how to do it - and it isn't fashionable to discuss it with your girlfriends, how are we supposed to learn or better our craft? Housework's become the great unmentionable among women, and yet it's getting done is indispensible.
One of the other things that gives this little housekeeper a thrill these days are the ads for Parkay Margarine and Kraft Dinner that have been preserved along with episodes of The Great Gildersleeve from 1941 and 1942. The ads reference a rhythm to housework that must have been completely familiar to listeners of the era... Kraft Dinner - which we now call plain ol' macaroni and cheese - was billed as a fabulous option for dinner on Monday nights. A night when Mother must have been worn to the bone by the wash... As the announcer describes all the perks of using a product like Parkay Margarine, he mentions the baking that would have been done in a Christian household on Saturdays. (The program was aired lived on Sunday evenings):
I wonder how many of you housewives baked a cake or some cookies yesterday for your Sunday dinner today. A lot of you did, I’m sure, because there’s nothing like that real home-baked flavor. Well, here’s a hint for the next time you bake. For luscious, extra flavor in cookies, cakes, and pastries, use delicious Parkay margarine for the shortening...
My own 1945 menu for dinner this evening features a wartime meatless dish:
Peanut Roast
Pennsylvania Cabbage Salad with Sour Cream Dressing
The dessert, Apricot Whip, is made with raw egg whites, so - rather than play around with salmonella - I may substitute a Dried Apricot Cake. Is there any Parkay in the house?
13 comments:
I just realized this when you wrote it. Housework is the new unmentionable topic. Nobody talks about it. I wonder why?
I truely believe that women today do not talk about it as they do not know how to really do it. If some new gadgit is not helping you or doing it for you how would they know how? It also has been made to be a low class thought to mention out loud that you are actually proud to be a house wife or house cleaner and loving it. shame on our world as women. womens lib really did not do us justis in many areas. Why do women or society think we must not like having the choice to love our homes if we wish? When ever I would mention I was at home the only responce was, "oh". as if it was something to have pitty for me about. It has been one of the most challenging jobs I have held.
congradulations on the comment someone noticed you lost weight! Do not think of the pounds remember? you will lose inches first. weight really shows only after two or three months. Keep it up I am trying right along side you.
Love that picture! I hate cleaning but LOVE when it's clean!
You're absolutely right about housework! Society has loosened about talking about a lot of topics that used to be taboo, but now things having to do with domestic life are taboo - whether it is housecleaning or sewing. I think a lot of people are too busy, and housework is the last thing they are interested in. I'm only 30, and I wish that my mother would have taught me cooking and cleaning. As a new homeowner, I am having to teach it to myself (and my husband is the guinea pig). It would be nice if society went back to having pride in the home, but in this disposable tech obsessed culture, I don't see it happening any time soon.
I use white vinegar for alot of my cleaning. I fill my white porcelain sink with boiling hot water, pour in some white vinegar and let it soak for about 20 minutes and when I drain it, it's white and shiny as new.
I also use white vinegar in my bucket when I wash the hardwood floors. After mopping it, I dry it with a towel to eliminate the streaks and it's shiny as new!
You inspired me to buy a magazine recently from a local thrift store. It is an original "On Guard...the American Home" from August 1944. It has recipes for "Braised oxtails" (I don't even know what an oxtail is!), "Lima Beans with Tomatoes", "Vitamin Vegetable Salad" and "Oatmeal Crisps". Also, "meatless mince pie", and "green tomato pie". If you care for any of them, let me know. I'll send them to you.
There's also a fabulous article about caring for bed linens. It's long, so I'll go ahead and post it on my blog.
Isn't it strange that we expect each other to have homes that look like they popped out of a magazine and yet we don't have any interest in discussing how to keep them looking that way? It's as if we as women established some unwritten rule along that way that we are OF COURSE as talented as Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker put together and that we don't have anything more to say on that subject. As if we must keep up this facade that we've all got households running in apple pie order. As if we afraid that if we let down that guard for a minute and admit we're not superwomen that we'll lose our legitimacy as 21st century women...
Who could ever know everything there is to know about his/her job or profession - even after decades?
I guess I'd never have sensed just how taboo housework has become as a subject if I hadn't suddenly wanted to discuss it myself!
DesertChildAZ, I think I'll try that white vinegar trick on my kitchen sink. I wonder if it works the same magic on stainless steel... I have several of those American Home magazines, too! The Lima Beans with Tomatoes sounds a lot like the Lima Bean Casserole I made a few weeks ago. I'd love to find out what the Vitamin Vegetable Salad was made from... I will definitely be keeping an eye on your blog for that article on bed linens!
My friends and I talk about house cleaning all the time, discuss products and methods, because we're interested in it. But a lot of people don't because they don't care about cleaning. Their apartments are dirty, and I don't judge them for it. They just aren't interested; they have other stuff they want to do and you can't do it all. I read that 90% of cleaning is just cosmetic. I don't think our grandmothers' level of cleanliness is remotely necessary unless you have a baby in the house.
When I used to have drip pans (before I got my flat top stove) I used to wrap mine in foil so that when they became really dirty I could just change the foil. Of course I wiped them down in between times but there would come a point where they just needed to be changed.
I bet all the walking you're doing is making differences in your body that aren't necessarily shown on a scale. Also, when people lose weight quickly they're often losing water and muscle. Since you're doing it sensibly you're probably truly losing fat and 3 lbs. of fat is a lot! (o:
Late comment. Great Post. My friends and I discuss housework all the time. Maybe it is our ages. We grew up when having a dirty house was a sin. We were young women when being a stay-at-home was unheard of, but having a dirty house was still a sin. We tryed being the super-housewife and/or super-mom and/or super-employee... Didn't work very well.
Glove Slap and Packrat, you are lucky indeed to have a circle of friends who want to talk about the ins and outs of housework... I hope I didn't come off sounding judgmental. I think most women are really unnecessarily hard on themselves in having such great expectations in terms of cleanliness, but not feeling like they can talk with each other and learn from each other on how to achieve that goal. We talk to no end about career development outside the home! It's another thing entirely if you don't expect or want that kind of order and cleanliness in your home and you're perfectly cool with that. But, hey, I think I deserve a home just as clean as I would try and keep it for a baby! I want to baby myself for a change. :)
Michele, do you mean that you wipe down the foil liner in between replacing it? Thanks for the perspective on the 3 lbs. I guess I really ought to think of it as 3 lbs. of margarine. Gone. That is an achievement. (And now it's 4!)
I know I'm late to this discussion, but I understand exactly what you mean. Nobody around me talks about cleaning their own homes.
It's become so normal to me that I didn't even notice until now that I'm just itching to talk about it. Thank goodness for the blog-o-sphere!
I've been catching up on blogs, and I noticed the thing at the end about raw egg whites. As far as I know, that is how you can do meringues and such, is that salmonella is a concern with the yolk, but not the whites. Hope this helps!
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