Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife — John Shaqi
Practical Suggestions for Mother and HousewifeMiller, Marion Mills
Philosophy
Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife
Miller, Marion Mills
Home economics
When there is a prospect that living in apartments will be only a
temporary arrangement, the furniture should be chosen with a view to its
adaptability for a house. Thus folding-beds should be avoided, and other
articles that gain space by complexity, however ingenious. Simplicity is
the quality to be desired. Thus if the exigency of space requires that a
living room by day be converted into a sleeping room, a couch should be
bought for it, instead of a folding bed. It will then serve the purpose
of a sofa as well as a bed. If it is a box couch, further economy will
be gained by its use as a place to store the bedclothes. But the
simplest of all arrangements is a divan bed, formed of springs and
mattress alone, and supported on legs nailed to the corners of the
spring-frame. Over it a cover should be thrown during the day, and the
pillows in use, if there is not room for them elsewhere, should be
slipped into covers harmonious in color with the couch drapery. Such
a reclining and sleeping couch may also be used in bedrooms, although
an iron or brass bedstead gives an appearance of neatness and personal
privacy that is desirable in such chambers.
Where there is lack of closet space and lockers, trunks can be utilized
in a flat for storing things. Steamer trunks that can be placed beneath
the beds and couches are therefore the best kind to buy. They can also
be readily converted into window seats by making pads of cotton batting
to fit the tops, and placing over them covers and pillow cushions
harmonious with the decoration of the room. Long flat "wardrobe trunks"
are sold, which contain at one end rods for hanging clothes, so that,
when stood up on the other end against the wall they serve as wardrobes.
They always look, however, like makeshifts, and so are more useful in
travelling than in the home.
Rugs are more desirable than carpets in a city apartment, since they can
be more readily cleaned, and, in case of moving to another flat or a
house in the suburbs, will be more adaptable to the new situation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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