The brushing the carpet, and removing and rubbing the furniture, are
not in general required to be done more than once a week; but as every
day cleaning the grate, making the bed, wiping everything on the
washhand-stand, and dusting everything in the room, are necessary, most
of this work will have to be done in the early part of the forenoon, for
probably before one chamber even is finished, the housemaid will be rung
for to take away the breakfast-things. The urn is the first thing to be
removed, then the plates, put one above another, the cups and saucers,
knives, forks, and every other article collected together with the least
possible noise, should be carried away on a large tray, taking care not
to put more on at one time than it can safely hold, for it is painful
to see the way in which some servants load the breakfast-tray so as to
clear the table of everything at once, decidedly indicating that they
would rather risk the whole being broken, than have the trouble of
returning to the room a second time. On removing the cloth, any crumbs
which may have fallen on the carpet, should be swept into the dust-pan
with a small brush, kept in a corner of the room for that purpose; the
carpet should never on any account be touched with the hearth-brush; a
most slovenly practice, and all from a miserable saving of trouble, for
if no second brush be kept in the room for this purpose, the time which
it will take the housemaid to fetch her own carpet-brush, will be short
compared to that which she must bestow on brushing the carpet again and
again with tea-leaves, to get rid of the dust and soil which it has
contracted during a week of improper management. It is not cleaning a
room once a week, and giving to it little time and trouble, that will
give it a clean, fresh appearance; it is attention in doing a little
daily, and in doing that little in a proper manner. A carpet had better
not be brushed at all, than touched with a dirty brush, and the chintz
covers are less injured even by the dust lying upon them, than by having
it rubbed off with a soiled duster, which may have been used the moment
before in rubbing the furniture, or in wiping the fire-irons. The crumbs
having been swept away, fresh coal should be put on the fire, and the
hearth-brush used in sweeping in the hearth before the maid leaves the
room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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