A LITTLE SYSTEM, PLEASE!

Otago Witness, Issue 4048, 13 October 1931, Page 57

A LITTLE SYSTEM, PLEASE!

We are apt to be a little acorxlul about the very systematic person. When we describe someone as being “very practical ” there is invariably a hint of disparagement in our description. Yet how very often do the systematic and practical-minded people contribute to our comfort. The dreamers, the artists, the temperamental and impractical people may make life more’ exciting and amusing for us, but it is the practical people who make life easier. Those who have lived for long amongst so-called artistic temperaments know that a home run by one of these “ so impractical ” people is never a very comfortable place! If there is not a practi-cal-minded person somewhere in the offing the whole fabric of the home seems to go to pieces. But it is not necessary to be born practical-minded. A certain amount ot system may be cultivated. Indeed, the ideal home-maker and perfect hostess often will appear to combine the imagination of the so-called artistic person with a practicality that has obviously been cultivated. A nice combination this, and one for which we should all strive. Strangely enough, the very people who most require system in their lives are often the people least inclined for it. It is particularly the salvation of untidy, undecided, and even unhappy people. All the solitary workers of the world who have to arrange their lives and work for themselves would be quite lost

without some sort of system. Housewives, as well as artists, writers, and musicians, need its tempting touch. And here is a simple truth for the dreamers, if they will only heed it. A little system is often all that the dreamer needs. No long, intricate, or monotonous task can be completed without it.

Whoever you be. and whatever your work, it is of inestimable help to make out for yourself every day a brief timetable. You may not, perhaps, accomplish all you intended, but you will do more than if you go haphazard from one task to another.

Most housewives keep some sort of time-table of the week’s work, but this is generally a regular affair for the guidance of maids or helps, and not sb much a personal guide. Add to this a daily personal time-table, including any little odd jobs you hope to get done, calls you wish to make, letters you want to answer. and so on.

The admirable plan of making out the week’s menus beforehand may only seem practicable in large households, yet it can also be of assistance to the housewife who always seems bothered about “ what to give them next,” however small the menage. Changes may have to be made hero and there, but the suggestions will often solve the problem, and there will be few of those badly balanced meals which are the result of last-minute catering. Much of the apparently inevitable humdrum can be taken out of housework merely by the application of a little system. When spring cleaning or similar activities are contemplated pressure should be relieved in other directions. It is, for instance, quite possible to prepiire a whole day’s meals the day before so that catering worries, at least, are obviated. They need not be cold, uninteresting meals cither. Meat pies or puddings wifi only want heating up. Stews and casserole dishes are equally

The housewife who is apt to allow herself to be monopolised by household cares should lake herself sternly in hand. A review of one’s life—domestic or otherwise—will soon show up the deficiencies, and the life that i s at all ill-balanced in the matter of play and work calls for a little adjustment.

Sometimes it seems that the house or home is getting the upper hand, and then it is time for the housewife to be strong-minded! If no one seems to be planning any little pleasures for her, let her plan a-feiv for herself. Let her not sacrifice her friends, hobbies, and even talents to a cause that does not really demand such sacrifice! To take only one instance, if she finds mending particularly uninspiring, let her not mend more than one night or afternoon a week.

The young modern housewife would appear to have more wisdom in ths? respect than her immediate predecessors. She sees to it that her home does not get the better of her. If she finds it making too many demands on time which can be more valuably employed elsewhere, she dispenses with something. Some of the more modern will start out with little but tlie bare necessities. Silver and unnecessary china seldom figure on their wedding present list. If you are a very muddlesome person a detailed weekly time-table will clear away most of the muddle for you. This need only be something a very little more ambitious than an engagement diary. You review your week beforehand and, n part from ordinary routine, you find that you will be in some nights, out others; that so much time is devoted to work, so much to exercise, so much to amusement. Your week at. once seems

a more orderly affair. Your whole life seems a more orderly affair. All this may sound rather cut and dried, but when you look back on those weeks, you will find that the days which have been harnessed to a little system show better results. Even that precious commodity, time, will stand you in better stead, and seem to go further.—Answers.