SPRING CLEANING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 17756, 17 September 1927, Page 14

SPRING CLEANING

OLD AND NEW WAY. Old-fashioned dust-raising methods are at an end, and the arduous tasks may now be done with 'greater thoroughness and with comparative ease. In grandmother’s day spring cleaning time was anticipated weeks ahead with mingled feelings of awe and duty. To visualise the home of a few years ago, with its superfluity of furnishings and adornments, causes Madame 19 27 to either sigh in sympathy or laugh in derision. Minimising Labour. The modern home, whether it he pretentious mansion, cottage, or flat, is designed to minimise that bugbear, work. The Modem Slogan. “The less to do the better” is the housewife’s slogan nowadays. and she does a minimum’ of' work, and manages (thanks to electricity) to keep her home in first-class order. The difficulty of obtaining help is a problem that faces many, and the introduction of the vacuum cleaner is considered a domestic blessing. Spring is Coming. The spring season is fast, approaching, and the trying ordeal of “putting one’s house in order” is looming ahead, but this period is now looked upon—or should be—-as a comparatively simple task. One at a Time. There is no occasion for the woman who works single-handed to start out on a hopeless, nerve-racking campaign, of ridding the house of dust, moths, silver-fish; and cobwebs. Rooms may be “tackled” one at a time, and operations' may be confined to its four walls, although it is wise, even at this time,'to lift such heavy furnishings as curtains and carpets, after they have been subjected to strenuous va cu ti m,t rea tm en t. Take the task in . sections, one room at a time, and as'the.'procedure is similar in each one description should suffice.- . - Chimneys are not.•included among the “necessities” in : many modern homes, but wherever they- are it is wise to arrange for a visit from the sweep as a commencement. ' “The Turning Out.*’ The turning out of drawers and cupboards must also be regarded as a “preliminary,” and winter furnishings and hangings must be thoroughly cleaned, or sent to the... laundry, before being set aside. By the aid of ',tlie electric cleaner picture rails, walls, .draperies, furniture, bedding, mattresses and books may be thoroughly-cleaned. and the use of the “blowerl’dattachment has proved f^rthelnte ri or of pianos, bookcases ■'>' aod( sewing machines. "'_/*■ /> '“s 5 Heavy curtains’ancl'slhj'ilar articles are easily cleaned’ by using, the wall attachment, but it is advisable at this period to carry such’articles on to the lawn for: a sun-bath. This treatment should prove equally popular, although hot a necessity, with the carpet square... Knick-knacks. Pictures must, vof course, bo released from theirv.hangitags and the frames and faces subjected to special individual treatment. China, too, must be carefully 'wifshed and given “a bath” in soapy water: to which a little ammonia has been added. After a day of “strenuous” effort the housewife must concede that the modern day spring’.,clean is,. after all, a “play day” when compared with that of a decade ago'.-. ■ ,