HOME ECONOMICS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 601, 3 November 1932, Page 15

HOME ECONOMICS.

Husbands’ Advice to Their Wives. (Contributed.) One evening two women sat chatting about their housekeeping problems. Their husbands were discussing the place of scientific management in their business. One man suggested that perhaps homes might be run with increased efficiency if a more careful study of their problems were made. “ Why,” cried his wife, “in a factory the workers do just one like sewing shoes or cutting envelopes, and it is easy to standardise one set of operations. But in a home there are dozen?, ves, hundreds of tasks requiring totally different knowledge and movements. No two tasks are alike. The housewife peels' potatoes, washes dishes and darns stockings, all in one hour. Yes, and right in the midst of peeling the potatoes she has to drop her knife and see why baby is.crying.” “ Yes,” added her friend, “ you men don’t know anything about work in a home. One day a woman sweeps and dusts, the next she irons, and the next she bakes, and in between times she cares for babies and sews and answers the door and telephone and shops, and mends the lining of her husband’s coat and makes a coconut cake for Sunday! ” The men shook their heads—not doubtfully—for the problem had not been properly attacked in many homes, they maintained. And the men were

right. Those particular women and many others like them just carry on with their home tasks, regarding them somewhat in the light of a necessary evil!

The science of efficiency rests on twelve principles: mon sense, (3) Competent counsel. (4) standardised operation*. (5) standardised conditions. (6) standard practice, (7) dispatching, (8) scheduling. (9) reliable records. (10) discipline, (11) fair deal, (12) efficiency reward. Let us

discuss these principles. Ideals: Lots of men and many women run their businesses and their homes with no strong, clear idea of why they are doing it. There must be clear ideals before a home can be successfully run. The clearer they are the easier the woman's work and the greater her strength and suocess. She must know the “ why ” of her business. Common sense is the next principle, and some people think this homely term covers all the principles. It is only common sense not to stoop for a pot if you can hang it where you don’t need to stoop—and it is efficiency as well.

The first Thursday in December we will. continue to discuss these twelve efficiency principles and their application in the home.