But though you may have the best steel and the best sharpening, if you house your knives badly you will have lost all the good from these things that there is. It is not good for knives to be huddled together. They get as cutting as humans would in the same position. If they live in a small place together without their own places they, as people, wear on each other. They knick each other’s blades and spoil each other’s usefulness. Knives should be hung or laid in grooves. A box is now made for the proper housing of them. You can, too, hang each knife on a spring which you can get at a hardware shop. If you reserve a tenement house law for the knives of your household you will have real health and help from them. The same story holds for forks. It would be a good thing to have a _verboten_ sign in your kitchen, reading: “It is forbidden to open cans, uncork bottles, unlock oven doors, pry open ice chests, take a nail out of a box with the forks in this kitchen.” In the case of wooden handles, do not let them remain soaking in hot water for ages. Wash and clean them at once. FLOOR COVERINGS Floor coverings such as mattings and carpets are to-day best taken care of by the vacuum cleaner. Hot water cloths with a suspicion of ammonia laid on top of matting are supposed to be a good thing for its longevity after it is vacuumed. Carpets are now coming back into being after years of retrogressive hate. Now on account of the vacuum cleaner they can be used in all their warmth and beauty and kept sanitary for ordinary uses by the vacuum cleaner. Talking of this: The only thing that this instrument of redemption needs is oiling, but not too often; an occasional dusting off; and the emptying of the dust over something that doesn’t give it back. Stoves of themselves don’t get very dirty. It is the foods that are the transgressors. It is wisest to clean all stoves when cold. Use kerosene or stove black. In the case of the gas stove, when the gas vents become clogged by drippings of food it is well at least once a week to take them out and emerse in soda and water. Wipe off grease and grit before cleaning surface of stove and always remove dirt at once. If grease is removed after every using of the stove, it will be very easily maintained in cleanliness and it will never run away with you. The trays under the burners in gas stoves should be cleaned often and well. Burners of oil stoves, too, can be immersed in soda and water. About one quart of water and one-quarter pound of soda make a good cleaning solution. SOME MISCELLANIES Don’t let any solid foods get into the sink. Always have a good sink strainer. Soda and water is a good cleaner. Flush sink with hot water and clean it at least three times a day. Grease is a forbidden quantity in a sink and should any get in, the hot water flushing will disintegrate it. Warm water and soap, fine powders such as whiting, etc., will keep porcelain sinks in good order.