The china closet is designed for the accommodation of everything in use
on the dining table, with drawers or cupboards for linen and silver,
and shelves for dishes. The latter should be arranged with an eye to
artistic effect as well as to convenience, platters and decorative
plates standing on edge and kept from slipping by a strip of molding
nailed to the shelf, pretty cups hanging, and those of more common
material and design inverted to keep out the dust. Stand the large and
heavy pieces, vegetable dishes, and piles of plates on the bottom
shelf, and on the next cups and saucers, sauce dishes, small plates,
etc., placing the smaller dishes in front, the taller ones behind. The
third shelf may be devoted to glass alone, with tumblers inverted and
bowls and odd pieces tastefully arranged, or to both glass and silver.
On the fourth shelf place such pieces of glass and silver as are only
occasionally brought into service. Personal taste and convenience
dictate to a great extent the placing of the dishes, but absolute
neatness and spotlessness must hold sway. No other closet is more
prone to disarrangement than the china closet, where the careless
disposal of one dish seems to invite the general disorder which is sure
to follow. For this reason it demands the frequent rearranging which
it should receive. Its walls should harmonize in color with those of
the dining room. Small, fringed napkins or doilies on and overhanging
the shelves help to impart an air of daintiness and make a pretty
setting for the dishes. When the china closet does not connect with
the dining room, but is a "thing apart," its shelves may receive the
same treatment accorded those in the pantry--white paper or oilcloth
covering and valance.
While well-filled linen and china closets appeal to the aesthetic side
of the housewife, clothes closets speak directly to her common-sense,
managerial side. If she had a say-so in the matter, their name would
be Legion, but she must not think over-hardly of the few she has, for
they are invaluable developers of her genius for putting "infinite
riches in a little room"; while the constant tussle in their depths
with moth and dust induces a daily enlargement of her moral biceps--and
her patience. May their shadow never grow less (perish the thought!).
CLOSET TIGHTNESS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account