From the Top Down

When I began giving my bedroom a weekly cleaning last February, my round of chores was pretty bare bones. I've been fleshing it out ever since and have finally come up against the last of the bunch - the one I was avoiding. This chore was recommended by The Manual on a weekly basis. For me, it's going to be a monthly chore:

Brush ceilings and walls when necessary.

I've been puzzling over this one for awhile now. Standing in the brooms-and-mops aisle of every store I've been into - gazing at all the tools and trying to decide which would do the job. Luckily, The Manual devoted a chapter to "Walls, Ceilings and Woodwork" - so back to the book I went. Time to study...

It is extremely important that walls be dusted regularly and often if more difficult cleaning tasks are to be avoided. Walls that are neglected in this respect soon acquire a film of greasy dust that attracts and holds still more dust and which inevitably becomes embedded and difficult to remove.

The only exception to this rule occurs in the case of papered walls. In soft coal regions or industrial sections dusting papered walls is not advised, because soot will be grimed into the paper no matter what method of dusting is used. An annual cleaning with a dough-type cleaner is recommended.

In other regions where dust and cobwebs are the only problem, papered walls may be dusted with the suction attachment of the vacuum cleaner.

There are three tools for dusting walls:

1. A soft wall brush of hair, nylon, lamb's wool, yarn or sponge rubber, with a long handle.
2. A fiber or corn broom covered with an "apron" of soft clean cloth, such as cotton flannel.
3. The dusting attachment of the vacuum cleaner. If you have this attachment use it, by all means, because it eliminates any scattering of dust.

Work from the top down, giving special attention to high mouldings. There is one exception to this rule: if cobwebs are present, whether they are spider webs or dust cobwebs, remove them with an upward lifting stroke to avoid streaking the walls. Cobwebs of any sort are sticky, and if they are pulled down against the wall they will leave a trail of dirt that is hard to remove.

The hose on my little bag-less vacuum works just fine when I'm using attachments to clean something near or along the floor, but I certainly can't stretch it high enough to reach the upper parts of my walls. There were some lovely extension dusting tools in the stores - complete with pictures of happy people dusting their ceiling fans on the packaging - but I hate bringing home another one of those tools with plastic handles. And that's practically all you can find these days. I didn't mind purchasing a new mop or broom back when they all had wooden handles. You know that's going to break down someday at a dump somewhere and return to the earth. But all those plastic handles... Eek! They'll be here long after the human race has run its course. Alien scientists will spend their summers doing digs on the third planet from the sun and have to presume that Swiffer was the name of some ancient god - and that ancient peoples were performing some sort of religious ritual in waving these brightly colored sticks about.

I've kind of settled on option #2, laying a flannel dusting cloth over the top of my broom and using that to dust the walls. It's not terribly efficient, though, as I keep having to readjust the cloth. (And how to dust "from the top down" when you get down to about the height of your waist? I find myself having to dust from side to side at that point.) What kinds of tools and methods do y'all use when dusting your walls? Should I be using a larger piece of flannel - something big enough that I can literally tie it up around the top of my broom? Maybe that's what the authors of The Manual meant in calling that an "apron." I see this chore popping up on the list for my bathroom as well as my living room, so I want to get it right.

Any ideas for brushing the ceiling? My ceiling has a pebbly kind of finish, so my improvised tool doesn't work at all on this part of the job... And is the tool in the foreground of the photo below the one this Illinois housewife was using in 1941 to dust the ceiling and walls of her living room?



Well, it's time to fly. One more push in cleaning the bathroom and I can have all my drudgiest chores out of the way in time for the Sabbath. (My Saturday hasn't been all work! I spent the afternoon having a lovely picnic in the mountains with my sister and nieces.) Here's my newly revised weekly housekeeping routine for the bathroom:

Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air.

Pick up and replace small articles belonging in bathroom.

Gather up to take out soiled linen (to hamper, if dry), and articles belonging in other rooms. Collect trash in waste basket. Roll up bath mat or rug.

Wipe mirror.

Wipe tile behind washbowl and tub.

Clean bathtub and metal fixtures (be sure to wipe shower fixtures and clean soap holder).

Clean toilet bowl with brush. Wipe outside of bowl and closet with cloth used for that purpose only.

Clean washbowl (be sure to wipe base as well as top; also clean soap holder).

Straighten towels and wash cloths. Put out fresh linen.

Sweep floor. Gather up dust in pan.

Floor should be washed.

Replace bath mat or rug. Close windows in cold or damp weather.

New Routines

Did you ever notice that as soon as people find out you're regularly walking, they come out of the woodwork to try and make you their walking buddy?

First, a co-worker asks me if she can match me up with a friend of hers who needs a walking buddy. Then another person I know through work tries to get me to commit to a walking relationship. I hope I don't come off as impolite, but I'd really rather walk by myself. Let's face it. Sometimes walking with another person can speed you up --- sometimes it can slow you down. The people I pass when I'm walking are almost always in pairs. And the last thing I want to do is to have to rush to the park to sit around and wait for somebody who might be late showing up - and then might show up toting a kid or two. Complete with strollers. I've got business to take care of!

I gathered up all my courage Monday evening and went into the rec center to purchase a membership and take my first indoor walk on the walking track. The rec center may be located just a few steps away from the park where I've been walking on the weekends --- but it's a whole new world in there! It's louder for starts. The walking track is built around a basketball court with racquetball courts nearby. There's lots of testosterone in the air as most of the people using the basketball court are young men in the 15-25 age range. I've only been there twice, but I'd say there's a more competitive feeling indoors than there is with the folks using the outdoor track. (It's actually the first time I've wanted to check my rear view in the mirror to see whether those new exercise pants are flattering or not!) The track is pretty small, so I can easily do 30 laps in a 60-minute walk. Thank goodness for that iPod. I'd perish without it! I'll still have a chance to walk outdoors one day a week. The rec center is closed on Sundays.

As for snacks, I'm doing remarkably better at the only-fruits-or-vegetables thing than I thought I would. Of course, it helps that nectarines are in season here. I picked up some beautiful, small nectarines last weekend at one of the natural foods stores. They've got a great selection of produce and I was in quest of some parsnips for my vintage dinner - but the nectarines caught my eye. Have you seen how big the fruits are in some of the supermarkets these days? They must be breeding super-sized fruits for super-sized customers. And bigger isn't always better. I'm a nectarine nut, so imagine my excitement when I saw these massive nectarines at the supermarket last summer. Ack! They were mealy and bland and never got to that lovely soft stage where the fruit just melts in your mouth. Anyway, I've been having one nectarine every day at about 3:00 in the afternoon. That's it for snacks. This weekend will probably be more challenging than my weekdays have been, but I'm feeling ready to face the enemy.

Here's the menu for my vintage dinner last Sunday:

Parsley Buttered Potatoes
Pan-fried Parsnips
Molded Salad of Cranberry Sauce (canned), Celery and Apples
Butterscotch Pudding with Nuts

I haven't had Parsnips in years. In fact, I remember being slightly traumatized the last time I ate them. It's been a long time, though, so I figured I ought to give them another shot. They have a spicy, celery-type scent as you're working with them, but once cooked they were pretty bland. Didn't taste like much of anything. What I've heard since then is that Parsnips are tastiest in the fall when they're fresh from the soil. Alas, my first attempt at a non-gelatin Molded Salad was a dismal failure. I tried just heating up a can of the jellied cranberry sauce, adding the celery and apples, and putting the concoction in the fridge to chill - but it never quite set. I'm going to track down some of the agar a couple of my readers mentioned and try that next time.

It's Thursday evening, which means that it's time to clean my bedroom. The first order of business will be the daily chores recommended by America's Housekeeping Book (1945). This will be my new weekly routine for the bedroom:

Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air.

Remove all bed covers; stretch over end of bed, or over chairs, off the floor. Remove soiled bed linen; place near door to be taken out. Place mattress pad over chair near window to air.

Bring in cleaning equipment: carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner (according to need), dust mop, dust cloth, damp cloth. Bring in fresh bed linens.

Turn mattress top to bottom one week, and end to end the next week. Make bed.

Dust high objects if necessary (mantels, high shelves, window frames and sills, tops of bookcases, etc.).

Dust radiators covers if necessary.

Brush upholstery if necessary. Straighten covers. Plump up pillows.

Dust furniture and low objects if necessary.

Dust exposed wood flooring with dust mop if necessary. Use carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner on rugs or carpets.

Polish or wash accessories and return to place with other objects removed during cleaning.

Final touches: Straighten draperies, shades, curtains, etc. Take out cleaning equipment and waste basket. Bring back clean ash trays, accessories, flowers and waste basket. Close windows if desired.

I'm kicking off my new monthly chores (recommended in 1945 as weekly chores) by making my bedroom the featured room this week. So here are the extra chores I'll also be doing in there tonight. Brushing walls is a whole new thing for me this week. More on that in another post...

Collect lamp bases, bric-a-brac and dressing table fittings that need polishing or washing, and dresser scarves to be laundered.

Brush walls when necessary. Dust high mouldings, door frames, window shades and Venetian blinds when necessary. Brush draperies (or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner). Dust mirrors, pictures, lighting fixtures, lamps, woodwork; wash any of these articles if necessary.

Dust radiators (covers and coils) or registers; clean thoroughly when necessary. Brush baseboard or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner. Dust book shelves and books as necessary. Wash windows when necessary.

Remove cushions from upholstered furniture. Use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner on furniture (getting into all crevices) and cushions. Replace cushions.

Rub wood surfaces of furniture to polish; apply wax or polish when necessary. Polish metal hardware if necessary. Wash glass table tops.

Use vacuum cleaner for cleaning of rugs and carpets.

The evening is short and I've got a bed to strip. Time to shed my dress and get to work!

Attachments

So I'm putting the finishing touches on my lips in the bathroom this morning, when suddenly - out of nowhere - comes this terrific explosion and sound of shattering glass. From the kitchen.

I jumped, then cringed inwardly, ticking off the things I'd last done in my kitchen. Had I left the glass I'd just washed on top of a burner that hadn't been turned off --- as happened in The Casserole Dish Disaster of 2007? Had some of the leftovers in my fridge imploded? I reluctantly tiptoed out towards the kitchen and what should I see but my ceiling fan with a bare bulb and the glass globe in fragments. Everywhere.

Scratch what I said a few weeks ago about cleaning those lighting fixtures. Maybe that's not such a good idea after all!

It's Thursday evening. The glass has been cleaned up - at least all the glass that's visible to the human eye (I'm sure my feet will find some more) --- and it's time to get cracking on my weekly cleaning of the bedroom. I think I'd also like to start using some of the tools on my vacuum cleaner to really get into the edges of the room where the carpeting meets the wall. As nice as it is just to vacuum those wide, open spaces, it's the edges of my bedroom that seem to accumulate the most dust and little bits of paper and things. The Manual has lots of advice to offer on operating and caring for vacuum cleaners. Here are some of the gems:

Operate the cleaner slowly in a straight line, lengthwise of the rug.

Go over each section twice to remove embedded dirt and grit.

Familiarize yourself with the attachments and their uses. Once you discover how easy it is to attach them and how many tasks they make easy, there will be no danger of their becoming a poor investment through lack of use.

Pick up pins, hairpins, tacks and any small sharp objects before using the vacuum cleaner.

Empty the dust bag after each use (suction action is lessened by dirt in the bag. Shake the dirt into a deep waste basket lines with a paper bag, to avoid scattering dust.

Damp Dusting

Since I began giving my bedroom a thorough weekly cleaning, I've been gradually adding more and more of the "if necessary" and "when necessary" tasks to my list of chores. What started out as a barebones type of routine has become quite fleshed out, and these days I'm down to the last few of these optional items. One of the missing pieces to the puzzle was the housekeeping required for my only piece of wooden furniture in the bedroom - a white painted wooden nightstand. The manual recommends that housewives "apply wax or polish when necessary," but should painted furniture be waxed or polished? I didn't think so. I've been dusting it every week --- are there any extra steps I can take to keep it in good condition? It took some hunting, but I finally found a brief passage on the care of painted furniture.

Wood or metal furniture that is finished with good quality washable paint is easy to care for. Of course it must be dusted regularly with a clean, soft untreated duster, and occasionally it will benefit by damp dusting with a soft cloth wrung almost dry of clear lukewarm water.

Excessive soil may be removed with mild scouring powder... or with a good commercial paint cleaner.

I'm not sure how durable the coat of paint on this piece is, but it is flaking off a bit on the drawer knobs. So I'm thinking it's probably not the sturdiest of paint jobs! I think I'll make that "damp dusting" a seasonal job rather than trying to do it on even a monthly basis... Here's another of the chores recommended on an as needed basis for bedroom furnishings:

Polish metal hardware if necessary.

While I tie on an apron and scurry off to work, I'll leave you with some pictures of American bedrooms of the era.





This last is a 1944 photograph of a bedroom in an Indianapolis home lovingly cared for by the mother of a gunner's mate in the Navy, gone to war. How carefully she must have worked as she moved about this one room - dusting, polishing, plumping the pillows...

Lighting Up

Have you cleaned your lighting fixtures lately?

One of the tasks at hand every week when I clean my bedroom - every other week when cleaning my kitchen - is dusting the lighting fixtures and washing them when necessary. In the bedroom, this is limited to just the single incandescent lighting fixture on my wall. I have two lighting fixtures in the kitchen --- a rectangular flourescent fixture near the sink and an incandescent globe in the ceiling fan. None of the fixtures is very hard to clean (though I could definitely use a sturdy step stool), but I haven't checked my manual yet to review the instructions on this task. Let's take a look...

A coating of dust on light bulbs and globes reduces the amount of light to a considerable degree. It is economical therefore, to keep bulbs and globes clean so that you get the amount of light you are paying for.

Before the fixtures themselves are cleaned, turn off the current and remove shades, bulbs, etc. Then use the dusting tool of the vacuum cleaner or a duster to clean the fixture.

Wipe the bulbs with a damp cloth, being careful not to get the metal section wet. Dry thoroughly. If the bulbs are extremely dirty, hold each one by the metal end and dip the glass in warm soapsuds. Rinse in clear water in the same fashion. Dry carefully with a clean soft cloth. Always be certain that the bulbs are perfectly dry before replacing them.

If the bulbs still look very dark after they have been cleaned, they should be replaced with new ones.

Did the authors of the manual intend that this advice should apply to cleaning flourescent bulbs as well? I leafed through the chapter on lighting in the home and the word "flourescent" is never referenced. They do mention "recessed tubular lighting" being especially handy above the kitchen sink. Flourescents were just becoming available to American consumers, but the manual seems to ignore them - only advising its readers on how to deal with bulbs with a single metal end.

If I could add one bit of advice to the manual, it would be this: be sure the light bulb is thoroughly cooled before you even attempt to remove it from the fixture! I haven't yet cleaned any of my light bulbs, but I touched one by accident while dusting the fixture. Ouch. The light fixture in my bedroom gets dusted with a rag and washed with soap and water once a week. The bulb in this case is not enclosed, so it could probably use a washing itself once a month. I've been dusting the globe in my kitchen ceiling fan, but keep forgetting about the flourescent fixture. The bulbs inside both these fixtures should be virtually free of dust as they're both enclosed. One of these weeks, I would like to clean the blades of the ceiling fan when I'm dusting the globe. They're very dirty. I'm not sure how often that'll have to be done, but I'm sure the maintenance won't be too tough after I clean them the first time.

A New Kind of Perfect

I got a call last night from an old friend and we had a great chat. Caught up, had some laughs. It was nice. I'd just started in on my bedroom when he called - stripped the bed, taken the covers outside on the landing to air, turned the mattress - but, by the time we said goodnight, it was late and I was yawning. I made up the bed with clean sheets, finished my evening chores, and called it a day. So I was happy to get back to work this evening and finish the job. This will actually give me a chance tomorrow to see if I can clean all my of kitchen - or even just a little bit more of it than normal - in the one morning. I'd better set my alarm, though. That Saturday morning beauty sleep is not a busy housewife's best friend.

Neither is perfectionism.

It seems like it should be, right? You'd think that somebody who was a perfectionist would keep a spick and span house. But it's always been an obstacle for me. On the rare occasions that I cleaned house over the years, I would be frustrated not to have the time and energy to get every nook and cranny shining. What I'm discovering these days is that even though I can't possibly get a room perfectly clean on any given day, if I keep after it regularly, I get to every nook and cranny once in awhile. And the room begins to look a little cleaner as a whole with every month that passes. It's a different kind of perfection. One I haven't been acquainted with before...

Well, it's late and there are a few dishes in the sink that need cleaning before I go to bed. I've got lots to do tomorrow morning!

"A shining, crystal-clear window"

Every time I clean my bedroom, I've been adding one new task to my list of chores. Instead of jumping in feet first and failing miserably, I thought I'd start with the basics and work my way slowly to a picture perfect bedroom. And it's been working. I haven't even really noticed that tiny increase in work from week to week. This was a pretty intimidating mission at first, so I guess this might be a good way to approach each of the missions that intimidates me.

Last Thursday, my brand new task for the week was washing the bedroom windows. America's Housekeeping Book (1945) dedicates an entire chapter to "Windows and Window Fittings." And why shouldn't they? Windows were one way that even a stranger walking by on the street could form an impression of your skill at housekeeping. Take a look inside:

A shining, crystal-clear window is a real source of pride. How long it will stay clear and sparkling is a moot question. The answer depends on the weather, the amount of dust and soot in the air, the number of times sticky little fingers are pressed against it, and so on...

No matter what method and materials you choose, one word of caution is necessary. Don't ever sit on the window sill to wash the outside of the window panes, and do not allow a household employee to sit there either. With most windows it is possible to raise and lower the panes to get at the outside window without relinquishing a firm footing. If this isn't true of your windows, or if you live in an apartment building, then you must call in a professional window cleaner to wash the outside.

Schnikey! Should I be checking the Yellow Pages for a window cleaning service? I don't think my landlord has any plans to clean the outsides of these windows. They're pretty streaked. The manual immediately mentions the "liquid cleaners" that you could buy for windows, but here are a few alternatives. A word of caution: some of these are not for the faint of heart.

2 tablespoons household ammonia to 2 quarts warm water, or

2 tablespoons vinegar to 2 quarts warm water, or

1 tablespoon borax to 2 quarts warm water, or

1 tablespoon kerosene to 2 quarts warm water, or

1/2 cup denatured alcohol (POISON) to 2 quarts warm water

All these solutions are applied with a clean, soft lintless cloth or a cellulose or natural sponge. Wipe them off with a rubber squeegee, a clean damp chamois or soft dry cloth.

I made a solution of warm water and apple cider vinegar, and it did the job. A nice clean shine, though it didn't coax that delicious squeak from the glass that Windex makes. (How does it make that squeaky sound?) Windex has been around since 1933 and whoever owned it did a heck of a job with the marketing. Ads for Windex are everywhere in women's magazines of the '40s.

Here's one great tip from the manual: "Never work in direct sunlight - the window panes dry too quickly and are apt to look streaked."

Appliance-topia

I've just picked up a new filter for my vacuum cleaner and I'm looking forward to beating back the dust in my bedroom this evening. It's startling to realize how much dust collects in that room over the course of a week. (After all, I hadn't cleaned my bedroom in several months when I added it to my housekeeping routine!) Even in only seven days, this fine accumulation of dust settles on every surface. Including the carpet, I'm sure - though it's not visible. I feel a bit like a soldier patrolling the perimeter of my territory when I'm in there with my dustrag and vacuum cleaner. Once a week, I don my uniform (a flowered apron will do nicely, thank you), arm myself with weapons, and head out into the wilds to keep the enemy at bay...

In other household appliance news, I solved a mystery about my iron that's been nagging at me. Every week, about the time I had only one or two pieces left to iron, it would suddenly start to cool and the water inside would started leaking out. I'd turn the heat down, take the plug out of the electric outlet, plug it back in, try to reheat it - nothing. Tried a new outlet and that seemed to work once in restarting the iron. It's not an old iron. The only thing I could think of was that it might be one of those automatic shut-off irons and I was taking too long to finish the work. So it happened again last night and - just when I started cursing - I poked at this button on the handle which is usually lit up. And it worked! The iron heated right back up... I'm still not sure what happened, but I'm happy I've found a way to coax the iron to get back to work again. I guess I'm a slow ironer!

Have any of you ever come across a recipe for Chili Dressing? My vintage dinner menu for this weekend includes a Chili Dressing for the salad and the cookbook doesn't have a recipe for that particular dressing. They do have a Chili Sauce Mayonnaise dressing and both the Russian and Thousand Island dressing recipes contain chili sauce, but nothing specifically called Chili Dressing. I may substitute one of these other recipes, but I thought I'd see if any of my dear readers have any ideas. Here's the full menu:

French Fried Potatoes
Beets
Tossed Greens with Tomato
Chili Dressing
Banana Ice Cream
Molasses Cookies

This is a Friday night menu, so the non-vegetarian dish I'm omitting is a baked fish. If I can find some Banana Ice Cream at the supermarket, I'll make that my store-bought contribution. If I can't find any, I'll skip the Ice Cream and treat myself to some canned Beets. The whole Beets are so hard to clean up after!

Turning a Bedroom into a Guest Room

This week is all about plugging along… After two weeks of illness, I’ve got to push and prod myself every step of the way to get these chores done. That said, I’m starting to feel a bit of the ol’ rhythm when it comes to my morning and evening routines. My ironing got done yesterday - all except for a blouse I forgot about that had been drying in the bathroom - and I did a little marketing this evening. My aunt is in town for a conference, and my sister and I will be making dinner for her tomorrow night. At my sister’s house, thank goodness! I may have made some progress in housekeeping since November, but my home is still far from ready to do any entertaining. At any rate, that means I’ll need to push my weekly bedroom cleaning forward to Friday evening and my new mission to Saturday morning.

It’s been a while now since I cleaned my bedroom, and I’m actually looking forward to putting it back to rights. Since I don’t have all that much in the way of news this evening, I thought I’d share this wonderful description of how the ideal guest room should be furnished from Lily Haxworth Wallace’s New American Etiquette (1941). I think we all deserve to feel as good as we’d try to make a guest feel in our homes. How do your bedrooms measure up to the ideal guest room?

Bedrooms should be liberally equipped with lights. The central bulb should operate from a switch that can easily be reached on entering the room. There should be a bed light, two, if the room has twin beds. A lamp should be above the sofa or chaise longue for reading. The bed and sofa lights should operate on individual switches.

The room should have shutters and shades so that every bit of the early morning sun can be kept out of the room if one likes to sleep late in complete darkness.

The bed or beds should be comfortable and should be well equipped with sheets, blankets (plenty of them), and a quilt. There should be two pillows, one hard and the other soft. There should be a bed light over each bed to satisfy those who like to read themselves to sleep.

Any bells for calling servants should be placed so that they can be sounded without getting out of bed.

There should always be a bedside table on top of which there should be an accurate alarm clock. The table should also hold a small tray with a glass and spoon, a thermos bottle of cold water, and a hot-water bottle or electric pad. A flashlight or candle should be beside the bed for service in the event of a breakdown in the house lighting supply.

The closet should not be the storage space for miscellaneous articles. It should have sufficient shelves and hangers for all the clothes it will hold. There should be hat stands for the women and trouser hangers for the men. Shoe trees should be amply supplied. If riding is a practice, there should be a bootjack.

There should be at least one lounging chair in the room and a sofa with comfortable cushions. They should be so placed that the light from the window is right for reading. A lamp should be near by for night reading.

A dressing table should be so placed that it receives satisfactory light from the window during the day and should have lights properly arranged for use after dark.

In the days of midsummer an electric fan is a welcome addition to the equipment of a hot room.

Mirrors should be in as many places as possible. There should be at least one of full length and the others should be placed so that they are at the proper height and receive good light.

A writing desk should be equipped with note paper, envelopes, ink, pens, pencils, stamps, blotters, and a calendar. Beside it there should be a waste basket.

Daylight Discoveries

Last Saturday was the last time I did any real housekeeping, and I got a lot done - despite the fact that I was beginning to feel icky and my stomach turned over at the thought of eating the dinner I spend so much time preparing. Nevertheless, it was an interesting day and one I've been wanting to share some thoughts about ever since.

My sister was back in town, my babysitting duties were over for the time being, and I had shifted Thursday's cleaning-of-the-bedroom forward to Saturday morning. What a difference there is in housekeeping by day! It's amazing how much grime you can actually see when you're cleaning a room in broad daylight. I have a painted wooden nightstand in my bedroom and was startled to discover these rings of grime around the knobs. Where my fingers actually come in contact with the wood every time I pull a drawer open, I guess. It only took a damp cloth to clean them up, but *gasp* what other horrors must be sharing this apartment with me!

I've been trying to add a little something new to my routine in the bedroom each week. Here are the new steps added last week:

Dust high mouldings, door and window frames, window shades and Venetian blinds when necessary.

Dust high objects if necessary (mantels, high shelves, window sills, tops of bookcases, etc.).

Because I've been such a crummy housekeeper, I'm just going to take it for granted that these chores are always necessary. Better to be safe than sorry. Besides, my spartan living arrangements haven't left me very many of these kinds of things to dust as it is. No high mouldings, no window shades, no mantels, high shelves, or tops of bookcases. I do have some Venetian blinds that just attract dust like magnets. And my window sills were super grimy. Oh, yeah - here's another discovery I couldn't see when housekeeping at night: there were rusty colored stains on the wall beneath my window. Obviously water that had come in through the screen in the window at some point and dripped down the wall. I'd never seen them before cleaning the bedroom last Saturday! Just a wipe of the cloth and they were gone, but what a scary surprise.

One of the nicer surprises when cleaning during the day last weekend was hearing the sounds of cleaning coming from other apartments which look out on my courtyard. While I was unwinding the cord to my own vacuum, I could hear other people vacuuming their apartments. There was a kind of kinship in the fact that we were all spending this Saturday morning indoors making our homes a little happier. We tend to think of '40s housewives as leading isolated lives when they were at home day in and day out, but I'll bet they felt a kind of camaraderie as they watched their neighbors hanging the laundry out to dry or heard somebody in the building running a vacuum cleaner.

I did find a little clarification on the mattress turning question when I was reading the manual's tips on the care of innerspring mattresses:

Turn the mattress top to bottom one week, and end to end the next week.

Now if I could only think of a way to remember which direction I've turned the mattress the week before...

Sun and Air

My sister is home at last, so my niece is in good hands again - and I'm sick. I think I caught whatever virus Kitten was coping with, so I'm glad it held off until I could be sick on my own time. My routine took a hit on Thursday evening (I didn't get home until 1 a.m.) and again on Friday morning (just barely made it to work), but I'm taking it very easy this weekend. Trying to get lots of rest, but moving slowly through my accustomed chores. Did a little bit of Wednesday's marketing last night and this morning have just begun Thursday's weekly cleaning-of-the-bedroom.

Cleaning the bedroom isn't exactly a fast-paced chore. After stripping the beds and hanging the covers out to air, you tote your bric-a-brac out to wherever you're going to dust or polish it and bring your cleaning equipment and fresh linens into the bedroom. Then it's just a matter of waiting for fresh air to do its part of the job. You see, the mattress and pillows need to be aired, too. Now, if you were cleaning several bedrooms, you could probably work the timing out so that you were getting things started in each of your other rooms while you were waiting for the first room to be properly aired. Here are some guidelines from the manual for putting that fresh air to work:

Mattresses

Innerspring:

Sun and air once a week (strip off the bedding and open the windows wide for at least an hour).

Pillows

Air pillows at least once a month by placing them on chairs near an open window.

Bedding

Bedding should be aired at least once a week. Spread it over two chairs near an open window and leave it there for at least an hour. An occasional airing out of doors over a line is good for it. Choose a day when the weather is fair to warm.

My bedroom window is open and the blinds have been pulled so the mattress and pillows are getting as much fresh air as possible. I've hung my quilt and blanket over the railing outside on my landing, and I'll give them a good shake before bringing them inside. Get all the dust out. Apartment Land is not an ideal place for doing these kinds of chores - what I wouldn't give for an outdoor clothesline!!! - and I live in a city with a lot of crime, so I'm always a little worried my bed covers will disappear while they're airing!

Unless my appetite takes a nosedive, I'm going to try the first of my 1945 dinner menus this evening:

Steamed Rice

Buttered Carrots

Celery Cabbage Salad

Steamed Molasses Pudding

This is a weekday (Monday-Saturday) dinner with a few alterations. I'm omitting the meat course. 1940s home economists believed that each dinner should contain both a starchy vegetable or grain (potatoes, rice, etc.) and a bread. That's way too many carbs for me, so I'm going to have one or the other. Since my dessert is a bready-type dish, I'm going to opt for the Steamed Rice over the Enriched Bread this 'time round. The recommended beverages are Milk and Coffee. Do you drink a full glass of milk with your meals? It's been years since I did so, and though I'm not sure this is a good thing (am I really getting enough calcium?), the thought kind of icks me out after all this time. Coffee at breakfast is more than enough for me, so I think I'll just go with a glass of ice water at dinner. This time, anyway.

My hour is up and it's time to get to work making up the bed. Hey, if I'm going to be feeling under the weather all weekend, there's no place for recuperating like a fresh, clean bed!

Housework and Childcare

The last few days have been frazzled ones. My niece (I'll call her Kitten) has been sick with a virus since the day her mother left. Poor thing! My brother-in-law and I took her to the emergency room last night as we were getting really worried about dehydration, but the doctor told us she was in good shape and the virus would just have to run its course. We just have to keep finding creative ways to get her to drink, drink, drink. And with a toddler - even with a low energy level - the last thing they want to do is be in the dreaded bed, so she's still up and about. I've been trying to find lots of quiet things we can do indoors. Just this morning, I'm starting to feel a little peaked, so I'm afraid I've caught the virus myself and won't be of much help in a day or two.

The first evening I was there, Kitten was still feeling pretty good. As I tried to wash up the dinner dishes while she was playing in the living room, I couldn't help thinking about housework as it relates to childcare. Mothers of small children really have to be quite creative and flexible in order to get anything done. It seems to be all about corraling them where you can watch them long enough to do a few dishes here, a load of laundry there. Naptime or bedtime seems like it would be a great time to get things done, but Kitten's nursery is on the same floor as the kitchen and living room, so I don't want to make too much noise until she's sound asleep. (It'll sound too much like there's some party she's missing!) Besides, I found myself taking a nap at naptime yesterday.

The manual mentions children frequently. The authors recognized how important it was in designing or redesigning work spaces that mothers be able to keep an eye on their children at all times. "One end of the kitchen, away from dangerous areas near the range, can sometimes be reserved for play space." Here, a "low cupboard" could be set aside for toys or "cooking equipment" with which children might safely play. They encouraged mothers to find housekeeping tasks that children could help with even when it made the job a bit longer:

Small children are always intrigued by the work that is done in the kitchen. Almost invariably they want to "help," and if this urge is understood and valued, the children will find tremendous satisfaction in cooperative work, besides feeling "wanted," which is important to happy family relationships. Then, too, the educational value of guided cooperative work is an important factor in child training.

The laundry room is also a space where mothers had to spend a significant amount of time before the process was better automated. An "enclosed play space" was recommended for this room so that babies and toddlers could amuse themselves under Mother's watchful eye. Older children could play outdoors, but a window should look out on the yard so that Mother could keep an eye on them, too.

A whole chapter is dedicated to furnishing rooms for children - from nurseries for infants to rooms for adolescents. The authors of the manual advise their readers, though, that children should spend most of their time with the family. By the 1940s, the age of nannies and governesses was long gone in the U. S., and mothers were expected to be the primary caregivers for their youngest children. Living rooms should also contain "child centers":

"A table, chairs, and shelves for toys and games can be assembled inexpensively..."

Here, on my own child-less home front, I've been getting along pretty smoothly. I moved Thursday's cleaning-of-the-bedroom to Friday evening. It occurred to me while dusting that it's no coincidence the manual instructs the housewife to dust everything before vacuuming. All that dust that's been building up on surfaces high and low should be lightly settled on the carpet before it's vacuumed. I also realized that my dust rag didn't get near as dirty this week as it did last week. If you're dusting your bedrooms every week, your cleaning materials will be easier to wash themselves.

I didn't plan my morning very wisely yesterday and ran out of time before making my bed. When I got home from the hospital, I was feeling so blue I skipped the evening routine entirely, but I wasn't too blue to notice how much it crapped to be climbing into an unmade bed. It's amazing how quickly I've become accustomed to that little luxury!

Scarf Mania

There's a wind whipping up what looks like it's going to be a lovely rainstorm this evening. I've been folding the laundry I washed this morning and thinking that if I were living 60 years ago I'd probably be rushing out to the line as we speak to bring in my clean, dry clothes before they got rained on!

While I sorted the laundry last night in preparation for today's wash, I realized just how interrelated some of these missions are going to be. Cleaning the bedroom on Thursday evenings means I'm going to have additional laundry to wash on Mondays and - because the manual takes for granted that my sheets will be ironed when they're tucked away in the linen closet - additional ironing on Tuesdays. Yep! I'm going to iron my sheets. That's a definite first here in the Jitterbug household. I suppose that means I should iron my pillowcases, too. Apparently there are two ways you can iron your sheets. One method, termed "especially careful" by the authors of the manual, also applies to tablecloths:

Fold selvedge to selvedge, right side out. Iron first on one side, then on the other. Fold again, lengthwise. Iron again on both sides. Fold to put away.

This second method must be what we'd call "quick and dirty":

Iron 4 thicknesses at once: fold hem to hem, then fold in half, bringing hem side to fold. Iron first on plain side, then on hem side.

Such a decision! Thank goodness I have 24 hours to think this one over...

The manual gives us a charming reminder of 1940s bedroom decor when they recommend that the housewife be sure to remove "dresser scarves" for laundering as she gives each bedroom its weekly cleaning. I'm guessing that a '40s housewife must have had at least twice as many dresser scarves as she had dressers if she didn't want to leave her dressers bare after cleaning the bedrooms. (Wash Day being still several days away.) I used to think that dresser scarves were all about the same shape and size, but it turns out that there are several different types of dresser scarves. According to Lily Haxworth Wallace in The New American Etiquette (1941), every bride should be equipped with the following for each bedroom of her new home:

Two bureau scarfs

Two dresser scarfs

Two vanity scarfs

Two night-stand scarfs

Multiply that by several bedrooms, and that's one hefty addition to the Monday wash! Whether your scarves were doilies or embroidered flatwork, they had to be ironed as well. What's with all the scarves, for goodness' sake? Was the look of a simple wooden surface so abhorrent?

The Rewards of Minimalism

My breakfast menus for the last two days were published in November 1943 by Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. in a booklet titled Meal Planning Guide. It was probably one of those giveaway-type things you send for with a self-addressed stamped envelope and a dime. Thursday's menu was super simple:

Tomato Juice

Ready-prepared Whole Grain Cereal

I tried the Weetabix again that I bought last month when I was looking for a whole-grain cereal I could serve hot. It's much, much better cold! Today's menu:

Applesauce

Corn Meal Griddle Cakes

Syrup

The Griddle Cakes were a little tricky. It was a very leisurely kind of recipe, with lots of stop and go. After boiling water, you poured it over a bowl of Corn Meal and set that to one side to wait for it to "swell." Then you added milk to the mixture and waited for it to cool down. Finally, it was time to add your dry goods, and - just before pouring it onto the griddle - fold a beaten egg into the batter. Corn Meal Griddle Cakes also took a bit longer on the griddle than did your plain ol' everyday Griddle Cakes. Like I said, a leisurely recipe. By the time my first batch was finished, it was almost time to leave for work. I think I must have inhaled my breakfast... I hardly remember what they tasted like! Well, I've got plenty of leftovers, so I'll take my time to enjoy them tomorrow morning.

Cleaning the bedroom last night was surprisingly easy. Yep, you heard it here first --- easy! I followed the steps recommended by the manual to a tee. You can kind of break the routine down into five parts. 1) Emptying the room out - hanging the bed covers outside to air, removing the sheets, bringing all the bric-a-brac out to the kitchen for dusting. 2) Bringing equipment into the room - vacuum cleaner, cleaning basket, clean linens. 3) Doing up the bed. 4) Dusting and vacumming. 5) Bringing the bric-a-brac back into the room and giving things a final straightening.

Not so bad. Of course it helps that I don't have very many things in the way of furnishings to clean. I moved cross-country two years ago and didn't bring anything that I couldn't fit in my car. So my apartment isn't exactly overstuffed these days. The manual attends to all kinds of items I didn't have to dust or brush or polish last night: no lamps, no dresser scarves, no draperies, no woodwork, no radiators, no baseboard, no upholstered furniture, no glass table tops, no shades, no curtains, no ash trays. That certainly made things easier. (And to think how much time I've spent wishing I could afford to have my stuff shipped out here!)

My bedroom doesn't feel all that much cleaner than normal, but the sheets have been changed, the carpet's been vacuumed, and the dust has been shooed back into the corners. And just doing that much every week - week in and week out - will be a big improvement. I think I'm going to add one or two of those "if necessarys" next Thursday, though, and step this up a notch.

Week Eleven: The Mission

I'm venturing into the hardest part of housekeeping for me: cleaning. Straightening up is one thing, laundry - you can't get away without doing that --- but cleaning is a whole new ballgame. It's always been something I do sporadically. When I get a burst of energy, when I've got guests coming over, when I just can't stand it any longer. This week's mission - and the missions for the next several weeks - are going to be super challenging.

Now, the authors of the manual suggest that the '40s housewife give each room in the house a daily cleaning shortly after breakfast. Once a week, she should return to each room and clean it more thoroughly. (The day of the week doesn't matter very much, but they do recommend once in passing that bedrooms and bathrooms be cleaned on Thursdays.) Since I work outside the home full time, I'm not going to be able to clean every room on a daily basis. My plan is to hit each room once a week and fold the daily and weekly chores into one.

This week - the bedroom. (There's only one in my place.) On Thursday evenings. The manual walks its readers, step by step, through daily and weekly cleaning routines for every room. I've blended the bedroom routines together and typed 'em up below. There are also several steps marked "if necessary" and "when necessary." What I've decided just for now is to skip those extra items while I work to make cleaning a habit. This is going to be a battle supreme with my inner slob, and I don't want to make things any harder on myself than necessary! So here it is - a barebones once-a-week housekeeping routine for the bedroom:

1. Remove all bed covers; stretch over end of bed, or over chairs, off the floor. Remove soiled bed linen; place near door to be taken out. Place mattress pad over chair near window to air.

2. Collect lamp bases, bric-a-brac and dressing table fittings that need polishing or washing, and dresser scarves to be laundered.

3. Bring in cleaning equipment: vacuum cleaner and attachments, dust mop, cleaning basket, dust cloth, damp cloth. Bring in fresh bed linens.

4. Turn mattress end for end. Make bed.

5. Brush draperies (or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner). Dust mirrors, pictures, lighting fixtures, lamps, woodwork.

6. Dust radiators (covers and coils) or registers. Brush baseboard or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner.

7. Remove cushions from upholstered furniture. Use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner on furniture (getting into all crevices) and cushions. Replace cushions. Straighten covers. Plump up pillows.

8. Dust furniture. Rub wood surfaces of furniture to polish. Wash glass table tops.

9. Use vacuum cleaner for cleaning of rugs and carpets.

10. Polish or wash accessories and return to place with other objects removed during cleaning.

11. Final touches: Straighten draperies, shades, curtains, etc. Take out cleaning equipment and waste basket. Bring back clean ash trays, accessories, flowers and waste basket. Close windows if desired.

Week's End

Week One is nearing an end and I've successfully completed my mission every morning to date. I'm not suprised at anything here... These tasks only take a few minutes out of my day. But the experiment will get harder. Every week. I'm going to spend the first few weeks building a morning routine, then begin adding chores to my evenings. I threw in the towel last spring right around the time I got to the heavy duty cleaning, so tough times are in store! In the meantime, I'll savor these sweet, simple tasks for the time being and try to build up the endurance I'll need when the going gets tough.

I should mention - by way of explanation - what I'm doing to keep the rest of the house running while beginning this experiment. My modus operandi is to do everything else just as I'd normally do it. The laundry gets done when I've run out of underwear. The dishwasher gets emptied as I need the clean dishes - one meal at a time. It's complete and utter chaos out there! But my bad habits aren't going to change overnight. One step at a time...

The rooms where we sleep should be kept immaculately clean, sweet and fresh at all times.

Here again, a well-trained family can help with the care. If each one carries soiled clothing to the hamper or clothes-chute, hangs up other clothing... before breakfast, the sum total of saved time really amounts to something for the homemaker or servant.

What kinds of clothing do you suppose a '40s housewife was hanging up before leaving her bedroom in the morning? I guess they must have been the clothes she or her husband took off before going to bed last night. Suit jackets or cardigans, perhaps, the kinds of items that didn't require washing every time they were worn. If she changed into a housedress before fixing breakfast, she might have had a robe to hang up.

Maybe she's had a terrible time choosing an outfit to wear today and half her wardrobe is draped over one chair or another!

I've had a morning like that myself every once in awhile.

Clean, Sweet and Fresh

The rooms where we sleep should be kept immaculately clean, sweet and fresh at all times.

Here again, a well-trained family can help with the care. If each one... puts away personal possessions... the sum total of saved time really amounts to something for the homemaker or servant.

See the problem here is that I do more than sleep in my bedroom. As one of only three rooms in my apartment, it gets a ton of use! If I had a whole house to live in, my possessions might end up a little more evenly spread around. What I've been noticing in the last few days is that when the room is neat to begin with and I put one thing down out of place, it's jarring - keeps on jumping out at me, so to speak. I just have to pick it up and dispose of it and send it along to its proper home.

Even the most immaculate '40s housewife who only slept in her bedroom would have had to do some straightening up in the morning. There would have been books and magazines, ashtrays or pipes, empty water glasses - the kinds of things people typically leave on their nightstands as they turn out the lamp and settle in for a good night's sleep. If a woman had to spend the next couple of hours making breakfast and getting the family off to school and work, she would have appreciated being able to leave her bedroom in decent shape until she could return to it with her full attention...

Now, my 1945 manual instructs me to do that very thing. Each and every morning after cleaning up after breakfast and cleaning the living room, the '40s housekeeper was supposed to give every one of the bedrooms its daily once over. And then on Thursdays - in the late morning or early afternoon - she was scheduled to give the bedrooms a thorough weekly cleaning. That scenario's obviously a fantasy for this working girl, so I'm going to give the bedroom just a thorough weekly cleaning on Thursday evenings. I'll have to be sure that the daily work assigned for bedrooms is being covered on those Thursday evenings, too.

Chutes and Ladders

Monday morning, Tuesday morning... I've continued ticking off the steps of my new routine before I leave the house each morning. Both days put together didn't take me as long as the chores took me on Day One. Though that shouldn't be a surprise. I cleared away quite a bit of clean laundry and odds and ends that didn't belong in my bedroom that first morning. My bedroom's a comfy place for reading, talking on the phone, watching TV, and surfing the net, so it's easy for this room to become cluttered up quickly.

Here again, a well-trained family can help with the care. If each one carries soiled clothing to the hamper or clothes-chute... the sum total of saved time really amounts to something for the homemaker or servant.

Oh, if only I had a clothes-chute - and a servant at the other end of it! Wouldn't it be marvelous just to slide those dirty clothes right out of view and not even see them again until they were folded up all neatly in a fresh, clean stack... I don't even own a hamper, just two plastic laundry baskets. I keep them stacked up at the back of my closet and store my dirty clothes there until my next trip to the laundry room. Unless I'm being a clothes hog, they do a pretty good job of containing a week's worth of laundry. It'd be nice to own a hamper again and keep the dirty clothes a little more out of sight. From time to time, I've seen a hamper in vintage advertisements. They generally seem smaller than the new ones out there on the market today.

A clothes-chute reminds me of all the other "chutes" into and out of the early 20th-century home. The coal man shoveled coal right into your cellar through a chute. The milk man left his daily delivery in the milk chute built near the back door... Isn't it fitting that the same homes featured a chute leading straight from bathroom to laundry room? The people of that era really had a thing for the idea that you should be able to slide all life's necessities from one location to the next. Like the home was a miniature factory and its chutes, the assembly line.

Here's a description of the kind of clothes-chute you would probably have found in a '40s home:

"In many residences a clothes-chute is provided, which runs from some place in the second story, from the bathroom when practicable, to the laundry. The chute is merely a vertical shaft or well about 16 inches by 2 feet inside, lined with matching ceiling and provided with doors in each story." Frank Eugene Kidder and Thomas Kidder, Building Construction and Superintendence (W. T. Comstock, 1915)

Open Windows

Day One - or should I say Morning One - was a great success! I'm not crowing too loudly as I know that these early morning tasks are just the tip of the iceberg. These are the kinds of chores that the authors of my manual expected from every occupant of the 1945 household. Even the youngest school-aged child would probably have been raised to take care of these duties before sitting down at the breakfast table.

Open windows in bedrooms, top and bottom, on arising, for free circulation of air (except in completely air-conditioned houses). (This should be done by the person occupying the room.)

The weather here is finally cool enough that I can open my bedroom window and let the fresh air indoors. What a blessing after a summer of air-conditioned stuffiness! Even women living in a northern climate have to give up opening bedroom windows during the winter, though, so we all have to endure stuffy air at one end of the year or another...

The authors of America's Housekeeping Book make it clear from Chapter I, "When You Hunt a Home," how important fresh air was to the modern housewife. "Cross-ventilation in every room" was the very first item on the checklist designed for the woman inspecting a home for sale. Women were encouraged to budget time every day in order that their children get "exercise and fresh air." Most women by far still dried their laundry on clothes lines, and they were encouraged to air all their bedding outdoors once a week.

I find it interesting that the manual referenced air-conditioned homes. I've always thought that air conditioning was only found during the '40s in hotels, restaurants, or other public facilities. Digging a little deeper into the manual, I find that the term "air conditioning" was being used to refer not just to cooling, but to systems that circulated, purified, and humidified (or dehumidified) air. In other words, somebody who lived in a "completely air-conditioned house" in 1945 would never have had the luxury of a freshly-aired bedroom!

Week One: The Mission

Has anyone ever asked you what possession you'd most like to have if you were stranded on a desert island?

Well, I'm taking two housekeeping manuals along on this journey, but one of them by far is my favorite: America's Housekeeping Book, compiled by the New York Herald Tribune Home Institute and published in New York by Charles Scribner's Sons. The first edition dates to 1941, but the copy I have is a reprint from 1945. As far as I can tell, they hadn't revised the book in any way. My copy must have been owned by young woman taking a home economics class. Her name, "Ann Dooley," is inscribed inside the flyleaf along with a syllabus in pencil. She also included notes for her report on "Laundering and Ironing" and some prep towards an exam!

The weekly housekeeping routine laid out by the authors is super detailed, with step-by-step instructions on even the most mundane chores. Here is the first bit of advice they offer for every morning of the week:

The rooms where we sleep should be kept immaculately clean, sweet and fresh at all times.

Here again, a well-trained family can help with the care. If each one carries soiled clothing to the hamper or clothes-chute, hangs up other clothing, puts away personal possessions, turns back the bedding and opens the windows before breakfast, the sum total of saved time really amounts to something for the homemaker or servant.

The authors elaborate a few pages later:

Open windows in bedrooms, top and bottom, on arising, for free circulation of air (except in completely air-conditioned houses). (This should be done by the person occupying the room.)

Throw back bed covers, including top sheet, on all beds. (This too should be done by the person occupying the room.)

So, there it is... my mission for Week One.