The metal about the door-knobs, tongs, etc., may be cleaned by electro-silicon, and the grates may be varnished with the black varnish kept for the purpose by dealers in grates, stoves, etc. Every chair and article of furniture should be carefully cleaned before being brought back into the room, and linen covers should be put on the chairs. If you are going to put down matting, do so before bringing back the first article of furniture. Some housekeepers, however, allow their matting to remain during the winter under their carpets. Spots on matting may be removed by being scoured with a cloth, dipped first in hot water and then in salt. This, however, will cause wet spots to appear on it in damp weather. After the spots are removed, scrub the matting with dry corn-meal and a coarse cloth. Sweep it over several times, till all the meal is removed. For persons who do not use matting in summer, a recipe is given later for beautifully coloring the floor with boiled linseed oil and burnt sienna. Where different woods are used alternately in the floor, this oil answers better than revarnishing the floor every spring. As soon as the carpets are taken up, have them nicely shaken, swept, and brushed on both sides. Every spot should be carefully washed and wiped dry. The carpets should then be rolled up smoothly, with tobacco sprinkled between the folds, sewed up in coarse linen cloths, and put away till autumn. A cedar closet is an excellent place to keep carpets as well as other woollens. If you have no cedar closet, however, a cedar chest will serve to protect your woollen clothes against moths, and it is better to preserve them in this way than to sprinkle them with tobacco, which imparts an unpleasant scent to them. WHITEWASH FOR OUTDOOR USE. Take good quick-lime in lumps. Slack it with hot water, and while slacking add to what will make a pailful one pound tallow or other grease, free from dirt. It may be rancid, smoked, or otherwise unfit for kitchen use. When the violent slacking is over, stir thoroughly. All the water should be added before the slacking ceases, and the mixing together should be thorough. Do not dilute with cold water. If well made, it will be very smooth and but little affected by rain.--_Mrs. E._ INDOOR WHITEWASHING. We have recently seen recommended in a journal a fine and brilliant whitewash preparation of chalk, called "Paris White," and said to be admirable for whitewashing walls. It sells in paint stores at three cents per pound, retail. For every sixteen pounds Paris White, get half a pound white transparent glue. Cover the glue with cold water at night, and in the morning heat it, without scorching, till dissolved. Stir in the Paris White with hot water to give it a milky consistency. Then add and mix well the glue. Apply with a common lime whitewash brush. A single coating will do, except on very dingy walls. Almost as brilliant as "Zinc White."--_Mrs. S. T._ TO OIL FLOORS.