BAD RIDDANCE TO GOOD RUBBISH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22397, 19 October 1934, Page 17

BAD RIDDANCE TO GOOD RUBBISH

Tiie call of the chimney-sweep is more insistent than the call of the cuckoo to womankind! Even to those who maintain that spring-cleaning is unnecessary in a methodically run household, there comes a restless fever for gome extra work. Often this takes the form of a good “turn out.” An organised raid upon all drawers, shelves, cupboards, and “ glory holes ” with a view to discarding superfluous matter, is a worthy object. In the days of large houses, hoarding rubbish was practised easily, but in times when most people live in restricted quarters, tilings that are not useful have to go. The modern tendency is tp get rid of as many objects as possible. Tiie secret of effective clearance is to view the debris with an eye to possibilities. Many apparently worthless articles have hidden in them some fresh use. A large bundle of old silk stockings looks hopeless. Laddered, darned, with big holes in the feet, some might be used as polishing pads, but beyond that what can be done with them? Well, they make marvellous bath mats! The silk legs are cut away spirally in strips about two inches wide; these are joined together in one long rope which is crocheted with a coarse bone hook. The mat is made in double crochet stitch, starting with a ring of five chain, and working round and round, increasing, but keeping the work fiat, just as one makes the flat lop for a sports cap. Colours do not matter, they bjond effectively without special arrangement, and the result is novel and charming and serviceable. Many- a table grampohone has been superseded by n radio-gram., and secondhand machines hardly fetch any price nowadays. If the works are taken out and the doors glued shut there remains a polished wooden box that can be used for slippers, needlework, or to receive the mass of newspapers and magazines that accumulate in living rooms. A store of smooth sheets of tissue paper are a treasure for packing best dresses, but often the collection is found to contain many crumpled pieces. There is nothing better than this for polishing the glass of pictures. Every scrap of old linoleum is worth keeping, the worst bits for fire lighters and the best .for lining shelves. Some butchers send metal skewers in every joint until a kitchen box overflows with them. These are invaluable to any | gardener for marking where seeds are planted, the looped ends being used to tie 1 the labels to. ' Fashions in house linen change. Where j are the white honeycomb bedspreads of | yesterday? Some live again, having been I dyed a bright colour and embellished with ; a bold design appliqued in cretonne, the i best parts having been cut from an old j chair cover. | When tiie real rubbish has been col- , lected it may still be precious to seme- j one. Hospitals cry out for old books and i magazines, unemployment centres beg for ! the oldest of clothes and battered house- j hold utensils. The dustman and the rag- ! aud-bono man are the final resort, but ; they should never be called upon to cart away good rubbish.—An exchange.