Cleaning

“ Every house certainly should have a thorough cleaning every year, that there may be a check put upon the accumulation of dust or dirt which might breed disease, even if no other reason influenced the housekeeper. ”

“ But though men like clean houses, they do not like house-cleaning. They have certain absurd notions which they would wish to carry out; such, for instance, as that constant-quiet, preventive care, or frequent topical applications, carefully applied, would gradually renovate the whole interior. But who wishes to be cleaning all the time? ”

“ You will use less time, take the month through, by careful dusting and necessary cleaning each day than—neglecting this duty—you would be compelled to give every few weeks in one great cleaning effort, by which the whole family must be incommoded, meals delayed, poorly cooked, or dispensed with altogether for the time being, because it is “cleaning day.” No wonder husbands shrink from such days, preferring dirty rooms all the time to having clean ones, for which they pay such unsatisfactory premiums. ”

“ A garbage can should be cleaned as often as it is emptied, and should with its surroundings be watched all the time, lest the cover is left off or any scraps or splashes are left outside to draw flies and make disagreeable odours.
A kitchen in which much work is done needs a thorough weekly cleaning. ”

“ One should especially beware while house cleaning of what Bishop Hall calls the "lust of finishing." Try to clean only as much each day as can be put back into habitable order by the time the men of the household come home. One room a day is all a woman unaided should try to do. Mankind are [338] pleased to make jokes about house cleaning and glad am I that they can take it that way, for really it is a trial of character to come home tired and hungry and find the house cold, the rooms in disorder and a picnic supper spread in the kitchen by an overwrought wife. ”

“ The housekeeper, forgetting the experience of former years, hastens to get out scrub-cloths, brushes, and all the implements of house-cleaning. Those whose homes are in the city hurry back with the first puff of cold air, believing that flies and heat have both alike departed for the season. ”

“ Periodical Cleanings.—Besides the daily routine which we have described, there are portions of every house which can only be thoroughly cleaned occasionally; at which time the whole house usually undergoes a more thorough cleaning than is permitted in the general way. ”

“ And as for cleanliness, my house is cleaner than any other house on the Common, though the half of ’em swarm with women. Will Baker’s lad comes to help me in a morning, and we get as much cleaning done in one hour, without any fuss, as a woman ’ud get done in three, and all the while be sending buckets o’ water after your ankles, and let the fender and the fire-irons stand in the middle o’ the floor half the day for you to break your shins against ’em. ”

“ This means much labor, and some people cannot accomplish it every week; and different rooms should have different cleaning days. But such thorough cleaning occasionally is necessary for keeping all articles in good condition and also for the health of the family. ”

“ Perhaps we can clean our school coats or some wool garments brought from home.
Brushing clothes. Many people who live in large cities do not have gardens and yards where they can hang their clothes and brush them. Often brushing and cleaning must be done on the roofs of houses. How glad we should be for space and a chance to keep clean. The Pleasant Valley girls have studied about this. Do you know that it costs to keep clean? It takes time and energy and much thought. People who live in the country can keep clean more easily than city people. ”

“ Baking, cleaning the refrigerator and food receptacles, cleaning the kitchen and looking after the garbage can is the work of the cook. If there is another maid in the house, the cook has the four days of the week not used for the laundry work when she may do these things. If she is the maid-of-all-work, she will have the two days left from the laundry and sweeping in which to do them and many others. ”

“ It is being taken out of the hands of the individual houseworker, who is wont to scrub, sweep and dust in the intervals between marketing, cooking, laundry-work or sewing, and by whom it is performed well or ill, but always according to the standards of the individual household, which means that there are no accepted standards in sweeping, scrubbing and dusting. House-cleaning is becoming a specialized, skilled trade, performed by the visiting expert and his staff of professionally trained employés. ”

“ GREAT MISTAKES. WHEN the weather becomes so warm that furnaces and large fires can be dispensed with, the regular “spring cleaning” is usually commenced in earnest. Until then, the most perfect housekeeper cannot prevent the accumulation of ashes or fine dust, which, ascending from the furnace or stove below with each morning’s renewal, will find a lodgment in carpets and furniture, and can be fully removed only by a longer process than can be given weekly. ”

“ Sweeping and washing the floor of the three rooms every morning, two stoves which must be black-leaded weekly, each taking an hour, weekly cleaning of windows, tins, dinner-chests, washing-up of bandages, &c., besides the washing-up after each of our five meals, keeps one busy. ”

“ Gradually, in connection with the making of simple dishes, the pupils should be taught special methods of dish washing, sink cleaning, and dusting. Each day as they are appointed to different duties in cleaning, these methods should be strictly followed until they become well known. ”

“ The work that the housewife must do in the care of the house is the maintenance of such standards of cleanliness and order as are to prevail. It includes the daily routine tasks of bedmaking, cooking, sweeping, dusting, dishwashing, disposing of waste, and the heavier work of washing, ironing, and periodic cleanings. ”

“ The old-fashioned yearly house cleaning seems hardly necessary if cleaning is well done through the year, but in both fall and spring some extra freshening may be necessary in the way of thorough cleansing of textiles and furniture. All closets should have everything removed from them and the whole closet cleansed. Drawers should come out, be emptied, washed and aired, and fresh white or brown paper put in all. ”

“ Ladies’ shoes are to be cleaned with milk, and other liquids, according to their colour, and merely the edges of the soles are to be blacked and polished, but in cleaning these and gentlemen’s dress shoes, great care must be taken not to soil the inside linings.
Afterwards, the next business in rotation in the morning, will be to clean the mahogany and other furniture, in the parlour and best rooms. Whether the tables, side-boards, cellerets, chairs, &c. be of a light or dark colour, they must be cleaned with a preparation or oil of an appropriate colour. ”

“ Hygienic Housekeeping.—However carefully a house has been constructed from a sanitary standpoint, the constant care of an intelligent housekeeper is required to keep it a healthful place in which to live. Daily cleaning and airing of all living rooms are necessary, while such places as the kitchen, the cellar, and the closets need extra thoughtfulness and, at times, hard work. ”

“ The hearings of the street-cleaning contractors by the Metropolitan Board of Health demonstrated that cleanliness of the streets is comparative and relative, and a subject upon which men entertain different opinions. A dwelling which a good housewife declares is filthy and intolerable, another housekeeper, less tidy, industrious, and exacting, will pronounce cleanly and satisfactory ”

“ The time of cleaning will vary in buildings of different character and used for different purposes. In office buildings the cleaning force work throughout the night or about 10 hours, while in school houses the cleaning is done by the janitor force which has been on duty throughout the school period and the time is necessarily limited to about two or three hours after school hours, the corridors and play rooms being cleaned during the school period and only the class rooms being cleaned after closing time. ”

“ Spring cleaning must include the turning out of the all the nooks and corners of drawers, cupboards, lumber-rooms, etc., with a view to getting rid of unnecessary articles, which left there create dirt and harbour mice and other vermin, though only useless encumbrances left where they are, they may be of great value to one's poorer neighbours. ”

“ So far as street cleaning is concerned they undoubtedly contribute more filth and unhealthiness because their work as scavengers is limited to rooting and scratching around for morsels of food in the offal and other débris, and thus they keep it stirred up when it would be less offensive if it were let alone. ”

“ In the daily cleaning, the work should be so divided throughout the entire hospital that the regular morning cleaning can be accomplished in a comparatively short time, leaving special cleaning to be completed later in the day. ”

“ In well-to-do families there are enough for six months' use, the family washing taking place only twice a year, in spring and fall, like house-cleaning in America. We judge that our housekeeper is well provided, by the pile of neatly folded sheets on the press. ”

“ The practise of cleaning the streets wholly by squeegeeing or flushing is not, however, to be recommended, he believes, if for no other reason than 37that it would be impracticable to do the work several times each day and thus prevent the formation and flying of dust. ”

“ In my youth, the pursuit was associated exclusively with laundry-workers, but in later years I realised that, except in that small proportion of houses where servants are kept, every woman is a laundrymaid, [43] and that in every house throughout the land, or indeed throughout the world, the cleaning and the washing are done mainly by women, by wives and mothers, their girl children or women servants. Washing, the making clean that which had been dirty, and making the crumpled and uncomfortable things smooth, was my hobby. ”

“ To preserve the neatness of a house, there must be regular attention on the part of the mistress. I am a great enemy to the system of periodical scrubbings and general house-cleanings, which prevails to so great an extent, and especially in the country, where, when the appointed day comes round, carpets are taken up, and floors, even though they be delicately clean, are washed, whether the weather be suitable or otherwise, the health of the family being left to take its chance. The day of general house-cleaning is no other than a day of commotion and discomfort. ”

“ I never am going to spring clean at my house. The dust and soapsuds are not the worst part of house cleaning, though they are bad enough, goodness knows! What I hate worst to see is the battered old bureaus and shabby old quilts that you've kept a secret from the public for years pulled out from their corners by the hair of their heads and knocked around in the back 250 yard without any pity for their poor old bones! ”

“ Are entirely under the direction of the Upper House Maid, and are chiefly employed in cleaning and scouring the stoves and grates, scouring the coal skuttles, kettles, and fire-irons, beating and cleaning the carpets—scouring the floors, stairs, and passages;—washing the dishes when there is company, &c. ”

“ Besides these measures, a house-cleaning campaign, for which women have been largely employed, is undertaken at frequent intervals, when people are made thoroughly to clean the insides and outsides of their dwellings and their furniture. ”

“ A particularly tangible shadow lies upon a meal which is served by [106] some one who after a long morning's work may be faint and hungry for the food she brings to you.
(b) PERIODICAL WORK
The following is a list of periodical work for an average house.
Washing. Ironing. Sorting and mending linen and clothes. Sweeping and dusting. Bread baking. Thorough cleaning of the kitchen. Cleaning garbage can, and surroundings. Cleaning refrigerator and food receptacles. Arrangements for days out. Preparations for Saturday and Sunday. ————— Polishing furniture and floors. Cleaning silver. ”

“ CLEAN′ING. In domestic economy the best way to clean a house is to keep it clean by a daily attention to small things, and not allow it to get into such a state of dirtiness and disorder as to require great and periodical cleanings. Some mistresses, and also some servants, seem to have an idea that a house should undergo regular cleanings, or great washing and scrubbing matches, once every three or six months, on which occasions the house is turned almost inside out, and made most uncomfortable. ”

“ Don't like house-cleaning well enough to suggest it. I did think the hall was rather dirty when I dropped my coat and took it up covered with lint. Is she going to upset the whole place?” asked Mr. Bemis, looking alarmed at the prospect.
“I hope so, for I really am ashamed when people come, to have them see the dust and cobwebs, and old carpets and dirty windows,” said Molly, with a sigh, though she never had cared a bit till lately. ”

“ For use in an office building the cleaner should be able to thoroughly clean an average-sized office, including floor, walls, furniture and fittings in from 10 to 15 minutes, and for residence work, should be of sufficient capacity to clean an apartment, including floor, walls, curtains, draperies, pictures and furniture in not exceeding 30 minutes. ”