Spreading Out

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.

Displacement

39 ounces down, 25 to go!

You know, one of the side benefits to drinking all this water on a daily basis is that I'm going to be drinking less of the other things I'd normally drink to quench my thirst. Like Vitamin Water. I love this stuff, and - truth be told - it's not nearly as bad for me as some of the other things I used to drink. Like Pepsi or Gatorade or Coffee Coolattas. Vitamin Water contains 125 calories to a 20-ounce bottle, and I'd guess I was drinking about 1 1/2 bottles per day before I started on the water. I haven't sworn off Vitamin Water, but I do have a quota when it comes to the real stuff and that competitive edge in me feels driven to make that quota every day. So it's water first - and by the time I make my quota it's bedtime and I'm not thirsty any longer. That's 185-190 calories a day I'm turning away. Hey, that's gonna add up --- more than 1,300 calories a week, more than 5,200 calories per month. YIKES!!! I'd better stop. I'm freaking myself out!

The weather is really heating up here in the American Southwest and, with it, my routine is adapting a bit. I can only keep the windows open from about 11 p.m. 'til 7:00 a.m. Which puts a crimp on all the fresh air I'm used to putting to work for me when it comes to housework. I can't open the windows to air out my mattress when I'm changing the bed linens on Thursday evenings. I just hung my quilt and blanket and pillows outside to air on the landing, but it's still in the high 80s, so I know they won't feel quite as fresh and crisp afterwards as they used to... On the plus side, if I put a freshly washed garbage can or wet bucket out there on a sizzling Saturday afternoon, it's dry in a flash!

Now I understand how housewives in four-season climates must have felt when after being cooped up indoors all winter they threw open the windows and dragged everything outdoors for a breath of fresh air. Beating the dust out of carpets, cleaning out fireplaces, letting the sun shine in on even the darkest corners of the house. Things just work a little backwards here. Think how happy I'll be come December!

The biggest change with these temperatures is that I've taken part of my weekday walk indoors. There's a basketball stadium about a ten-minute walk from where I work and the building is open during the day to walkers. You can walk laps around the stadium on one of the upper tiers and savor that lovely air conditioning. What it means is that I'm spending about 20 minutes in the broiling hot sun in order to get to and from the stadium - where I only have time to spend about 10 minutes! - but even taking 10 minutes off the time I have to spend in the noonday sun is worth it. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to make this work. Maybe a month. But what matters is getting it done now. I'll let next month worry about itself for a change.

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!

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.

Hospital Corners

I've decided to go ahead and make my bed every morning, but I'll wait to do it until after I've eaten breakfast and cleared away the breakfast things. That'll give my sheets as much time to air as possible. For years, I've been living like an unkempt teenager - only making my bed when I change my sheets or when company's expected. (My grandmothers would be shocked!) It's high time for a change.

Here's a quick tutorial on bedmaking, courtesy of my 1947 housekeeping manual:

How to Make a Bed

1. Spread mattress pad smooth.
2. Spread bottom sheet right side up, even and straight, with center crease exactly in center of bed and wide hem at top.
3. Tuck sheet in at head and foot of bed.
4. Make "hospital" or mitered corners on all four corners. Be sure sheet is smooth.
5. Spread top sheet right side down, even and straight, with wide hem at top.
6. Tuck sheet in at foot. Make mitered corners at foot only.
7. Spread blankets on, one at a time. Tuck in at foot, mitering corners. Tuck in at sides and turn top sheet down over blankets.
8. If desired, spread third sheet or blanket cover over blankets, mitering corners and tucking in sides.
9. Plump up pillows and place at head of bed.
10. Adjust bedspread. If the spread is not fitted it will hang better if mitered corners are made at the foot.

Need a refresher on hospital corners? Not to fear...

To make "hospital" or mitered corners:

1. Pick up edge of sheet about 15 inches from foot of bed. Lift up into diagonal fold; lay fold on mattress.
2. Tuck the part of the sheet that is left hanging, under the mattress.
3. Drop the fold, pull smooth; tuck under mattress.

Better get my ruler handy!

It's All in the Timing

So I'm beginning to feel a little strange about leaving my bed unmade all day.

My 1945 housekeeping manual recommends that the bedcovers be turned down before leaving the room to prepare breakfast, but that the housewife needn't return to the bedrooms to give them their daily cleaning (including making the beds) until after she's cleared away the breakfast things and given both the living room and dining rooms their daily once-over. Every room in the house should have had some attention - and the beds should've been made - by the time the "early forenoon" has come to an end or about 10:00 a.m.

My 1947 housekeeping manual doesn't give me any advice about when to make the beds; it just states that this is one of the daily chores in each bedroom.

When LIFE magazine profiled Jane Amberg of Kankakee, Illinois in the 1941 article "Occupation: Housewife," she told them that she made four beds everyday "after doing breakfast dishes and getting the kids to school."

Here's the dilemma: I have to go to work on weekdays after clearing away the breakfast things. I won't get a chance to give every room in my house a daily cleaning. Those kinds of chores are going to have to be folded over into a once weekly thorough cleaning of each room, but making the bed may just need to be an exception. It's not really true to the spirit of the '40s to come home to rumpled bedcovers. If I make up my bed after clearing away the breakfast things each morning - just before going to work - am I giving my bedding enough time to air properly?

Competing Visions

Since I still had a Grapefruit Half left over from yesterday, today's breakfast was more of the same. Once again, I ended up with citrus juice on my tablecloth. I've decided that I'm either going to have to loosen each of the segments at the kitchen countertop before bringing my grapefruit to the table or take the tablecloth off the table when grapefruits or oranges are on the menu! Maybe I'll have pick up some non-vintage table linens for just these kinds of mornings...

I came across an article in a July 1944 issue of The American Home with one woman's routine in keeping house. "I Run My Career Like a Star" was written by Celia Mattox, a mother of three. Here's the bit on her morning schedule:

Whatever day it is, it begins at 6:30. To wash, I slip into a becoming dressing gown - watch the shade, for a strong color gives a pasty look to a face without any make-up. Then I change into my blue denim outfit to prepare breakfast. [She explains earlier that while at home during the day she likes to wear a "becoming cotton blouse" with a blue denim skirt and "gay apron."] That over, the dishes are stacked, the house is aired, and I snatch a few minutes to do my exercises.

There's one woman who opted for a "dressing gown" while she spent some time in the bathroom washing up, but she was fully dressed before hitting the kitchen. I notice that she mentions stacking the dishes (maybe she doesn't wash her breakfast dishes right away either) and airing her house (fresh air is given lots of emphasis in the 1945 housekeeping manual). It sounds like Mrs. Mattox wouldn't have much to argue about with the authors of the manual - at least when it comes to her early morning routine. Heck, maybe she even owned a copy herself!



The Good Housekeeping Housekeeping Book (1947), edited by Helen W. Kendall, also contains a schedule for housework, though it's not quite as detailed as the one in the 1945 manual. Each member of the household is instructed to "hang up night clothes and put away slippers" before finishing up in their bedrooms in the morning. As soon as breakfast is over, "the dishes should be washed and the kitchen straightened up before you go about other household work."

• Remove dishes from the table, scrape, and rinse under the faucet if they need it. Stack them neatly at one side of the sink.
  
• Put away foods that belong in the refrigerator.
  
• Clear away waste food. Get rid of grounds from coffee or tea pot and empty cooking utensils which have been soaking during the meal.
  
• Clean sink so that it will be ready for dishwashing.
  
• Prepare dishwater and wash, dry, and put away dishes.

Kendall suggests that the living room be tidied up just before going to bed at night. "To start each day with the room neat, take a few minutes before going to bed to pick up newspapers and magazines, empty the ash trays, and take glasses into the kitchen." While the 1945 manual advises every member of the family to do their part in straightening up the living room at bedtime, they seem to have built this step into the post-breakfast routine just in case others hadn't done their part after Mother retired for the evening. Those crazy teenagers and their record players! As a one-woman household, I have more control over this situation, so tidying up the living room at bedtime rather than in the morning is certainly an option.

Kendall recommends that pots and pans be soaked during the meal so they're ready for dishwashing as soon as you are. A great concept, but what if your family's interested in a second serving? This would probably work out fine for me unless I had any leftovers that needed to be dispatched with beforehand. The biggest way in which Kendall's routine differs from my 1945 housekeeping manual is dishwashing. She is adamant that the breakfast dishes must be washed before doing anything else. This is not a bad idea, but the fact that I have a dishwasher which only gets filled up a couple times a week makes it kind of a moot point. I might give some thought to getting the pots and pans washed up and put away right after breakfast. If I straightened up the living room at bedtime, that'd free up some time for dishwashing in the a.m.

What do you think? Have you come across any vintage housekeeping schedules that offer advice for these early morning chores?

Clearing the Air

I'm used to clearing the dishes off my kitchen table after eating breakfast, but the most I usually do after that is to leave them on the kitchen counter, sometimes popping an especially sticky pot in the sink to soak. That's it. This morning, I followed the new addition to my routine - step by step - and left my kitchen a slightly tidier place than usual. First, here's the menu:

Prune Juice (saved from Friday) with Lemon

Cooked Wheat Cereal

Coffee

If the Juice they're talking about is the water I stewed the prunes in, I did indeed have about 1/3 cup of Prune Juice to drink at breakfast this morning. I put it through a strainer, added a twist of Lemon, and it made a nice glass of juice - though much smaller than I'm used to! It's well known that people used to drink a lot less juice at the breakfast table than they do today. And when you have to either squeeze the oranges yourself or buy canned or bottled juices that are only sold in small quantities, it's easy to see why a small glass of juice was considered an ample serving. My modern tastebuds are used to drinking a large glass of juice at breakfast. This morning was the first time I tried to drink the recommended serving, and I felt so thirsty when it was gone! Should I try and stick to the vintage serving size and drink a glass of ice water if I'm still thirsty? This would certainly make my breakfasts more easy on the waistline...

There were only three kinds of hot cereals at my grocery store: oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, and Malt O Meal. The menu called for Cooked Wheat Cereal, so I read some labels. The Cream of Wheat is wheat farina, and Enriched Farina is suggested for breakfast another day. The Malt O Meal is wheat farina + barley, so this seemed like the closest match. Later on, I discovered on the internet that Malt O Meal was indeed being made in the '40s, but it was intended as competition for Cream of Wheat. It definitely tastes a lot like Cream of Wheat, so I think I'll save the rest for the next time Enriched Farina is on the menu. I'm still not sure what brands of cereal will qualify and, looking ahead, I also see Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal and Cracked-wheat Cereal mentioned in the breakfast menus. I guess I'll have to check out some of the other grocery stores here in town and see if any of them has a better selection of hot cereals.

Adaptation:

The menu also recommends a serving of Toast with Jelly. I passed on this course as the Cereal was super filling.

Open dining room windows top and bottom for free circulation of air... Open kitchen windows top and bottom for free circulation of air, or open kitchen ventilator.

Just as each member of the household was expected to open their bedroom windows before breakfast, the manual recommends opening the dining room and kitchen windows immediately after the meal. We have a very small window of time here in the Southwest where open windows in the morning are really an option, and I'm afraid it's already gone. It went from being too hot even to turn off the air conditioner to being quite chilly in the mornings, so even if I had windows in my kitchen, it'd be too cold most days to open them! (I don't have a dining room, just a dining area on one end of my kitchen.)

The authors of America's Housekeeping Book go on and on about how important cross-ventilation in the home is - especially in the kitchen: "Heat and cooking odors should be drawn out, and fresh outside air brought in." If you don't have windows on opposite walls, do you have a transom above a door that's opposite a window? Do you have a Dutch door opposite a window? If all you've got is a single window, they recommend mounting an electric fan on the wall opposite the window. Or you can install an "electric ventilating fan" above the window.

Worst case scenario (Exhibit A: My Kitchen), you should make use of a "ventilating fan or hood over the range" to "draw off steam and cooking odors." Now that I can do. My range has an Air-O-Hood fan which I'd never even used before testing it out yesterday. And it works! So I turned it on this morning while I was carrying out my new post-breakfast chores. I'm not sure if my complete ignorance about kitchen ventilation is a 21st-century thing or just an apartment dweller thing.

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!