The Library of Work and Play: HousekeepingGilman, Elizabeth Hale
General
The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping
Gilman, Elizabeth Hale
Home economics
Put up all the full-length strips first, beginning beside a door or a
window frame where you will have a straight edge for a guide. Put the
trimmed edge of the first strip next the woodwork, lap the trimmed
edge of the next strip over the margin of the first, and so on. If the
distance between the last strip put up and the corner of the room is
not sufficient for the width of the strip, either leave that space and
put the next strip on the next wall with the trimmed edge close in the
corner, or else cut the strip lengthwise and put it up with the cut
edges meeting in the corner. When all the full-length strips are up,
cover spaces which are too short or too narrow for a whole strip with
pieces cut for the purpose from the strips left.
A border is put up last and must be done by two or three people, or
else cut into lengths short enough for one to handle.
Good paste is made as follows:--Into an enamelled or new tin saucepan
put four quarts of water and bring it to the boiling point. Mix a cup
of flour with cold water as if for thickening gravy; beat it smooth.
Pour it into the boiling water, stirring all the time until the mixture
is thick as cream and has boiled a little. Remove from the stove, and
if there is any likelihood that the paste will be kept over night, put
into it a piece of alum as big as a walnut. This keeps it from becoming
sour.
_Packing._--Renovations accomplished by amateur effort are more apt to
be associated with house cleaning of the first class, than with that of
the second. Packing, on the contrary, though it has a small necessary
part in the cleaning of a house continuously occupied, is a chief and
important performance in closing a house. In fact, this latter process
is little more than packing up a whole house.
The suggestions concerning packing which follow are intended to be of
use in closing a house but they amply cover the packing away which is
done spring and fall in a house which remains open.
Woollen articles and furs should be packed in receptacles which close
tightly and should have some substance unpleasant to moths packed with
them. It is a wise precaution to line packing boxes or trunks with
brown paper which has been wet with turpentine, or with newspaper, for
both are disliked by moths.
All articles should be thoroughly brushed and shaken before they
are packed. Many people disapprove of hanging them out in the sun
beforehand, as they think this gives the moths a splendid chance to lay
eggs in comfortable, sun-warmed fur and wool.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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