Guide to Hotel HousekeepingPalmer, Mary E. (Mary Elizabeth)
General
Guide to Hotel Housekeeping
Palmer, Mary E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Home economics; Hotels
This is not an expensive preparation and will clean papered or burlap
walls very nicely.
Calcimined walls will have to be re-decorated.
A good way to clean hardwood floors in halls where the carpet does not
entirely cover the floor, is to take a can of linseed oil and a small
woolen cloth and dip one end of the cloth in the oil, being careful not
to spill the oil on the carpet, or touch the edge of the carpet while
cleaning; this will remove the dust and dirt, after which the floor may
be polished with ordinary floor-wax put on with a flannel cloth and
polished with a brick, over which has been sewed a piece of Brussels
carpet.
_How to Scrub a Floor._
What is prettier than a hardwood floor after it has been properly
scrubbed? To scrub a floor and get satisfactory results is a science. To
change the water frequently is one secret of success. "Elbow grease" is
another. Mops are impossible, and this is another subject on which the
housekeeper can wax eloquent. What is more disgusting than to see the
baseboards of a room smeared, or the dirt shoved in the corners with an
old dirty mop?
Before commencing to scrub, place every article of furniture on the
table and then sweep. Beginning in the rear of the door so as not to
track over the clean part until it is perfectly dry, scrub with a brush
a small section at a time; first wipe up with a damp rag and then with a
dry one. The New York Knitting Mills, of Albany, N. Y., furnish remnants
of cloth that are indispensable for scrubbing. Enough of these remnants
can be bought for $3 to last six months.
A little ammonia in the water will help to whiten the floors. The modern
skewers from the kitchen are very useful in getting into the corners of
the window sills and into the corners of the stair steps. A weak
solution of oxalic acid and boiling water will remove the very worst
kind of ink-stains from the floor.
Pads for kneeling on are made of burlap, and one is given to each
scrubber. The unnatural position that the scrubber assumes makes the
work laborious; the scrubber may change her position frequently by
getting clean water.
HOW TO GET RID OF VERMIN.
The worst kind of house-pests, if you do not know how to get rid of
them, but not the easiest to exterminate, are bedbugs. They do not
confine themselves to any section of the country, though the
International Encyclopedia gives the belief "that up to Shakespeare's
time they were not known in England," and that "they came originally
from India."
In Kansas, the bedbug is improperly called the chintz-bug, and is
believed to dwell under the bark of the cotton-wood tree. There is no
authentic truth for this belief.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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