The Care of Rooms : Part 2

American Woman's Home
by Catharine Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe

(Page 32 of 43)

Open the windows and lay off the bed-covering on two chairs, at the foot of the bed. If it be a feather-bed, after it is well aired, shake the feathers from each corner to the middle; then take up the middle, shake it well and turn the bed over. Then push the feathers in place, making the head higher than the foot and the sides even and as high as the middle part. A mattress, whether used on top of a feather-bed or by itself, should in like manner be well aired and turned. Then put on the bolster and the under sheet, so that the wrong side of the sheet should go next the bed and the marking always come at the head, tucking in all around. Then put on the pillows, evenly, so that the open ends should come to the sides of the bed and spread on the upper sheet so that the wrong side should be next the blankets and the marked end always at the head.

This arrangement of sheets is to prevent the part where the feet lie from being reversed, so as to come to the face; and also to prevent the parts soiled by the body from coming to the bed tick and blankets. Put on the other covering, except the outer one, tucking in all around and then turn over the upper sheet at the head, so as to show a part of the pillows. When the pillow-cases are clean and smooth, they look best outside of the cover, but not otherwise. Then draw the hand along the side of the pillows, to make an even indentation and then smooth and shape the whole outside. A nice housekeeper always notices the manner in which a bed is made; and in some parts of the country, it is rare to see this work properly performed.

The writer would here urge every mistress of a family, who keeps more than one domestic servant, to provide them with single beds, that they might not be obliged to sleep with all the changing domestics, who come and go so often. Where the room is too small for two beds, a narrow truckle-bed kept under another during the day will answer. Domestics should be furnished with washing conveniences in their chambers and be encouraged to keep their persons and rooms neat and in order.

The care of the Kitchen, Cellar and Store-room is necessarily the foundation of all proper housekeeping.

If parents wish their daughters to grow up with good domestic habits, they should have, as one means of securing this result, a neat and cheerful kitchen. A kitchen should always, if possible, be entirely above-ground and well lighted. It should have a large sink, with a drain running under-ground, so that all the premises may be kept sweet and clean. If flowers and shrubs be cultivated around the doors and windows and the yard near them be kept well turfed, it will add very much to their agreeable appearance. The walls should often be cleaned and white-washed, to promote a neat look and pure air. The floor of a kitchen should be painted, or, what is better, covered with an oilcloth.

To procure a kitchen oilcloth as cheaply as possible, buy cheap tow cloth and fit it to the size and shape of the kitchen. Then have it stretched and nailed to the south side of the barn, and, with a brush, cover it with a coat of thin rye paste. When this is dry, put on a coat of yellow paint and let it dry for a fortnight. It is safest to first try the paint and see if it dries well, as some paint never will dry. Then put on a second coat and at the end of another fortnight, a third coat. Then let it hang two months and it will last, uninjured, for many years. The longer the paint is left to dry, the better. If varnished, it will last much longer.

A sink should be scalded out every day and occasionally with hot lye. On nails, over the sink, should be hung three good dish-cloths, hemmed and furnished with loops; one for dishes not greasy, one for greasy dishes and one for washing greasy pots and kettles. These should be put in the wash every week. The lady who insists upon this will not be annoyed by having her dishes washed with dark, musty and greasy rags, as is too frequently the case.

Under the sink should be kept a slop-pail; and, on a shelf by it, a soap-dish and two water-pails. A large boiler of warm soft water should always be kept over the fire, well covered and a hearth-broom and bellows be hung near the fire. A clock is a very important article in the kitchen, in order to secure regularity at meals.

Washing Dishes

No item of domestic labor is so frequently done in a negligent manner, by domestics, as this. A full supply of conveniences will do much toward the remedy of this evil. A swab, made of strips of linen tied to a stick, is useful to wash nice dishes, especially small, deep articles. Two or three towels and three dish-cloths should be used. Two large tin tubs, painted on the outside, should be provided; one for washing and one for rinsing; also, a large old waiter, on which to drain the dishes. A soap-dish, with hard soap and a fork, with which to use it, a slop-pail and two pails for water, should also be furnished. The following rules for washing dishes will aid in promoting the desired care and neatness:

1. Scrape the dishes, putting away any food which may remain on them and which it may be proper to save for future use. Put grease into the grease-pot and whatever else may be on the plates into the slop-pail. Save tea-leaves for sweeping. Set all the dishes, when scraped, in regular piles, the smallest at the top.

2. Put the nicest articles in the wash-dish and wash them in hot suds with the swab or nicest dish-cloth. Wipe all metal articles as soon as they are washed. Put all the rest into the rinsing-dish, which should be filled with hot water. When they are taken out, lay them to drain on the waiter. Then rinse the dish-cloth and hang it up, wipe the articles washed and put them in their places.

About the Author

Catharine Esther Beecher (1800 - 1878) was a noted educator, renowned for her forthright opinions on women's education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of a kindergarten into children's education.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 - 1896) was a white American abolitionist and novelist, whose Uncle Tom's Cabin attacked the cruelty of slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential, even in Britain.