The Library of Work and Play: HousekeepingGilman, Elizabeth Hale
General
The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping
Gilman, Elizabeth Hale
Home economics
_The Preparation._--For the work of dish washing, first get yourself
ready. Put on an apron, preferably one with a bib. If your sleeves
are long, either turn them back or cover them with half-sleeves which
button tightly round the wrist.
Next put away all food.
Then prepare the dishes. Gather the glass together. Empty the tumblers
which have contained water, but fill with water those which have
contained milk. Collect the cups and saucers, emptying the cups and
rinsing out dregs or tea leaves. Scrape the plates thoroughly with a
spoon, not with a knife, and pile each kind together. If there is much
gravy or sauce upon them, rub them off quickly with a discarded crust
or a celery stalk. Put the silver into a bowl or pitcher and pour
water upon it. Platters should be scraped like the plates. Fill cream
pitchers, gravy boats and vegetable dishes with water.
All this preparation is not old-maidishness and a waste of time. It
saves time, and dishes, and disgust.
_The Process._--When the dishes have been made ready for washing, pour
a generous supply of hot water into the dishpan. Put into it a little
borax, or a larger supply if the water is hard. Lay in two or three
glasses. They should be put in edge first, wet inside and out at the
same moment, and not laid close enough to touch each other. Take them
out one at a time and immediately wipe them dry and bright. They become
streaked if allowed to drain. Replace those taken out with others to be
washed. Set the wiped glasses in a space prepared for them on a shelf
or table, or if there is little room in the pantry put them on a tray
which can be carried at once to the cupboard. After the glasses, wash
and wipe any other glass which is not greasy, but leave anything which
is until after soap has been put into the water.
Neither the glass nor any of the dishes should be touched with one's
bare hand after it is lifted from the water, but should be held always
with the cloth, wiped and polished with the cloth and set down at last
with a hand still covered.
When the glass is finished, put soap into the water with the aid of a
soap shaker or any other contrivance which prevents the soap from lying
in the water or from being stuck on a fork. Make good suds, but not
strong suds, for this injures colour and gilding.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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