Much Can Be Done Now To Ease Spring Cleaning

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29878, 19 July 1962, Page 2

Much Can Be Done Now To Ease Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning will soon be due again and it is not too early, while sitting by the fire in the evenings, to plan an attack. It is pointless to clean down walls, wash drapes and cushion covers while fires are still necessary. But in rooms which are heated by radiators, some jobs can be done now to lighten the September-October tasks.

Books and bookcases, for Instance, may well be cleaned in July and August if they are not near fireplaces. Magazine shelves and racks can be cleared and sewing baskets. drawers in sewing machine cabinets, ‘‘muddle'' cupboards and “catch-air* drawers can be rid of rubbish.

The pages should be opened out and the books shaken carefully to rid them of certain types of insects which may be there if the bookcase is dark. Beauty Treatment Leather-bound books need an occasional beauty treatment w-ith saddle soap to remove stains and restore a little oil, then lightly polished. An artgum eraser will usually remove finger marks from paper dust jackets. Old books, which smell musty, should be left open in a warm part of the room in a draught for two days. A thorough airing will also check the spread of any mildew- that has appeared. Mildew mould can be brushed off, but the stain cannot be removed. A little talcum powder sprinkled through the leaves will counteract the smell and help absorb remaining moisture, which causes the mould. Never put musty books near new ones. Make quite sure a book case is completely dry after cleaning before putting back the books. Glass-fronted bookcases should be left open at least once a week for a good airing during the winter months in particular. Clearance Needed Be ruthless in clearing out old publications from magazine racks. If any are needed for reference, put them in a pile, out of the way in an unused cupboard. Hang old new-spapers neatly in single pages on a teatowel rack in the kitchen. When a page or tw-o are required

for vegetable peelings, the paper is ready for quick use. An attack on the "muddle” cupboard under the stairs could be done now-. All oddments stored away last year and never thought of again should go out for ever. Useless hoarding is the cause of much of the average household's "out-of-sight” clutter. Keep a glass preserving jar —one with a chipped rim will do—for the bits of string in the kitchen “catchall” drawer. Exercise discipline with the recipes cut from newspapers and magazines and put in the drawer for future reference. In one evening by the fire much can be done to restore order to personal recipe books and files. Bag of Bags Make a gay cotton bag to hang in the kitchen or laundry for keeping brown paper bags and folded pieces of wrapping paper (but not too many'. The quickest way of disposing of cigarette butts and other debris in the sitting room before going to bed is to collect the lot into a paper bag and put it in the garbage tin. A bagful of bags has many uses and helps to keep the kitchen drawers free from bits of paper. Another July job is sorting the linen cupboard. Remove sheets, pillow slips and towels that have passed their intended use and put them in a separate pile on the top shelf. Then, when the heavy phase of spring-cleaning begins, there will be the source of supply for dusters and cleaning rags.

In family homes, where there may be hundreds of books, spring cleaning bookcases is a time-consuming job. By doing the books well before the other chores, more attention can be given to them.

Do one bookcase at a time, taking out all the books, wiping into every comer with a damp cloth. Polish if the wood is varnished. The books can be cleaned adequately by running a soft brush in a vacuum cleaner over a pile of them. But once every two years they should be cleaned with a soft duster individually.