SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR Mansions—and how to clean them

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33806, 1 April 1975, Page 6

SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR Mansions—and how to clean them

If you have half a million dollars to spend to put a roof over your head there might be a bargain for you somewhere in Sydney. Half a million could always be relied on to buy a fair slice of house not to mention the land to go with it. But at the moment, times being what they are, it is buying a lot more.

You pay your money and I you take your choice.; ;Depending on which of the; ; really big houses to be! I found on offer just now —■ 'mainly because some people' iare buying their way down ■ — you could find yourself with a whole bagful of as-, sorted comforts and ele-! gancies. Naturally you would get,| you would expect to get,! what is known as a good] address. But depending onl your taste you could pick a| harbour view, panelled! drawing rooms, more bath-; rooms than bedrooms,! !marble terraces, a “reflection! ; pool” (swimming pools are, i basic), air conditioning, cen- ( ; tral heating, servants’ quar-j ters, room for more cars! (than people, room to stable! !your horse, billiard rooms,! jtennis courts, family rooms,! (bars the size of a pub par-j I lour . . . well you name it] (and you can probably get it. I ! And all under the one roof. I ! On the market at the mo-! iment in leafy Dural — not all that far to commute — at around half a million dollars, there is a sprawling ha-cienda-type house well insulated in its ten-acre setting. Australians reckon the sizes of their houses in squares, a square being roughly 100 square feet. A good three-bedroom house would be about 15 square. The hacienda has 105 squares including 11 bedrooms, seven bathrooms, four kitchens, all packed with imported things like Italian marble and Spanish lights; and every inch is airconditioned. If you really feel that that is your kind of thing, it was j passed in at auction last j October for $455,000. Negotiations have been going on privately, since no sale in New South Wales is secured:’ until the contracts have! I been exchanged and that i ’ takes time. Not too many people, it|j

seems, are in the market' tor .mansions at the moment. And one of the troubles with 1 mansions is that once you have yours you also need to be able to run it. clean it. mow the lawn and remember to put out the rubbish twice a week. You need a little left over if you want, or need someone else to do these things for you. DO IT YOURSELF? There is a possibility, of course, that with al! the advice handed out these days on how to Ire more efficient in the home you might just be able to do it yourself. (Though not one feels, in those 105 squares). There has been plenty written about the housewife lately. But very little has been calculated to make her feel much happier with her lot, whether from the point! of view of job satisfaction.

status or even sheer efficiency. No matter what she lives in. from the mansion down to the fibrocement bungalow, she has become familiar, with her drug dependence and drug abuse, her neuroses, her stresses, ■ her complexes, and the plain awful life that she leads, in what has become popular ! thinking now. ! But of all the jobs done by people, housework, the traditional job of women, is probably the least studied, the least taught and certainly the least appreciated, according to Mr Don Joinson.

“Its neglect as a subject! for study suggests that: housework is just another 'area for unskilled labour. ! “It is not covered by wage ■ tribunals, its atrocious! I seven-days-a-week condition j of work is unending, no! trade union protects the, interests of its workers and the worker is rarely, if ever, considered a worker in the traditional sense.” Mr Joinson is a management consultant and for three months he turned a trained eye on his wife at work at home to research a book he has compiled. Called “Housework — Improving Methods,” the book was produced for the management course of the New South Wales Department of Agriculture and has just! been published by that De-j partment for the general! public as the first of series! designed to help with daily! living. “PRE-POSITIONING” j His suggestions on how! the housewife can get the! best value out of her days, work: management, organ-; isation. planning, task! grouping, “pre-positioning”!

I (like having all the things 'needed lor a job close t-o Igether). a bunch of assorted i principles and practices that I could. I suppose, be described as just getting on| with the job and getting it done. Mr Joinson sees a lack, of organisation as the real .bugbear in housework It is. laborious when it is disEngageinriit (Engagement notices must be signed b\ both Newall — Daley: The engagement is announced with great pleasure of Colleen Mary, second daughter of Mrs M’. P. Daley and the late Mr Pat Daley, 16 Westholme Street. Christchurch, and Brian Stewart, youngest son of Mr and Mrs J. D. Newall, No. 7 RD. Waimate.

i organised. Actually I seem to recollect that Mrs Beeton 'was of a like mind. Actually Mr Joinson has not been without a critic m | his own hearth. Mrs Joinson the guinea pig" for his research. was “rather crcsv I when she failed a test he de- . vised so that women could discover whether they really are efficient housewives. But. Mr Joinson said, he had since tried out the questi naire on a number of triends and none had rated well Yoga leader. — One of the foremost yoga leaders in the world. Dr Swami Gitananda, will visit New Zealand in April and May. Dr Gitananda is the “soul force" of yoga jivana and the author of several books on yoga — (P.A.)