The Library of Work and Play: HousekeepingGilman, Elizabeth Hale
General
The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping
Gilman, Elizabeth Hale
Home economics
In the evening, bedrooms should be prepared for the night. Waste water
should be carried away, pitchers filled, washstands tidied and beds
opened. Shams and spread are removed from each bed and neatly folded.
Leaving the sheet folded over the other bedclothes as it is already,
turn them all back until they make a straight wide fold across the bed
a little above the middle. Then straighten the coverings at the sides
and tuck them under the mattress again, making everything very neat
and straight. Put the pillows on the bed as the person who occupies it
likes to have them. This can sometimes be discovered by noticing in the
morning how the pillows are placed, unless the person is so exemplary
as to open his own bed for airing. If you are preparing the bed for
a stranger put the bolster and pillows back on the bed and allow the
guest to arrange them later.
The night clothes and wrapper belonging to the occupant of the room
should be laid across the foot of the bed or over a chair, and bedroom
slippers put beside them on the floor.
This part of the upstairs work adds exceedingly to the comfort of
a family, but I think it is one of the things to be left undone in
households where the work is heavy and the workers few.
_Bathroom._--The bathroom, like other rooms, needs some daily care and
some periodical care.
Daily the stationary basin must be cared for as previously described.
The tub and its fixtures must be washed, and wiped entirely dry. For
this it is good to have a stiff brush with a handle and a soft cloth.
Both these conveniences should always be kept hanging on a hook near
the tub. It is only common decency after one has used a bathtub to
rinse and wipe it for the sake of the next person. If a brush and neat
cloth are kept near the tub, the good-intentioned will find it easier
to cleanse the tub, and the lazy will have less excuse for not doing it.
The wood and metal parts of the closet should be wiped, first with a
damp cloth, then with a dry one. The china parts should be scrubbed
thoroughly with soap and one of the long-handled brushes made for this
purpose. When the scrubbing is finished, flush the closet and rinse it
with the brush, then flush again. Leave the cover open. The bathroom
should be thoroughly aired and as much sun as possible let in while
the upstairs work is being done.
Once a week, or twice a week, the bathroom will need a more thorough
cleaning. Wipe the ceiling and walls with water if the finish permits.
If not, with a dry cloth or mop. Wash all the fixtures, the woodwork
and the floor with soap and water, and carefully dry them. Do not
forget the outsides of the tub and basin. If the fixtures are nickel,
they should be polished when they really need it, not oftener, with
some patent nickel polish or with whiting. The woodwork of the closet
should be rubbed with oil, especially if the finish begins to be worn.
This prevents the wood from absorbing impurities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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