The Library of Work and Play: HousekeepingGilman, Elizabeth Hale
General
The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping
Gilman, Elizabeth Hale
Home economics
Housewives make various arrangements by which the family wash may be
done with less expenditure of time and strength on the part of the
household than it usually requires. Some have a woman in to do this
work; some have the clothes washed out of the house and sent home rough
dried for ironing; others send the flat pieces to a laundry and have
the others done at home; others yet send the elaborate pieces out and
do the flat wash in the house. A somewhat different sort of compromise
can be made if the woman of the house realizes that light washing is
pleasant, skilful work. She can considerably lessen bills for washing
and ironing if she will herself do the handkerchiefs, napkins, doilies,
stockings, and other small pieces.
5. EMERGENCIES
A word or two may well be said in regard to a few of the commonest
difficulties that arise in this work.
A rainy or violently windy day is probably the most frequent
emergency. If one has an attic or a cellar, temporary lines can be put
up in either or both; if one has not, there may be room for a line or
two in the kitchen and the clothes horse must help out. If there is no
place where clothes can be hung in the house, either put the washing
off, or get all the white clothes to the stage of the second rinsing,
then put them into the tubs with clean water and leave them till the
storm is over. The coloured things must wait, the woollens also, unless
there are so few that they can be washed and hung up in a bedroom, or
some equally unusual place.
There is not much that can be done when the wash water is muddy. Fill
as many receptacles with it as possible, the night before the washing
day and in the morning pour the water off, disturbing the settlings as
little as possible. Its muddy colour will remain unchanged, but it will
contain less actual mud.
If one makes the mistake of getting clothes too blue, it will save
time eventually to rinse and dry them again. For several washings are
sometimes not sufficient to remove colour which has been ironed in.
In freezing weather, it is a good plan to have a short length of line
on which small pieces can be pinned in the house. Line and clothes may
then be carried out and put up at the same time, and can be brought in
together when the pieces are dry.
Clothes frozen to the lines are easily torn unless they are carefully
removed. Therefore wrap up well before going out to do this work, that
you may not be in a hurry. Also put on heavy gloves or mittens and
crush the frozen corners of the clothes hard in your hand before trying
to detach them from the line.
A scorch will sometimes disappear if it is sponged gently with a wet
cloth. To hang the scorched garment in strong sunshine is also a good
remedy. Dip a serious scorch in soapsuds or borax and water before
hanging it in the sun, if, however, the texture of the material is
injured, the misfortune can only be remedied with a darn or a patch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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