Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, 7 April 1910, Page 553

Domestic

By MAUREEN

Need Sun and Air. +u n be . droom 1 sliould be aired at least two hours before JJl® )ed | 18 made - Bedclothes and pillows should be placed where the sun and air will reach them. Closet doors should be opened at the same time, as it is just as necessary for closets to +i aired daily as for the beds. If each person attended to this in the morning before leaving his or her loom the labor of housekeeping would be greatly lessened. Little Economies Important. Little economies practised , in the household are the secret of success of every good housekeeper. No matter how perfect the system may appear to be, if her results were attained by overtaxing either her purse or strength her methods prove themselves too faulty to be continued. Economy in labor may be begun by regulating the work “teach day. Each household, can best arrange its own work. What might apply to one would not suit another, but everyone should have a definite plan of work. Then remember it is labor ® ave .to wash the pots and pans as soon as you are through using them, and not let them stand until dish-washing time; and that instead of piling your dishes up promiscuously after a meal it saves time to place saucer on saucer and plate on plate, and put them so arranged into the pan. lour china will not be nearly so apt to be broken, and the washing and the draining of it will be reduced to a minimum. Have strips of carpet across the kitchen where they are most needed. This helps to keep your boards white or your linoleum bright without frequent sciubbing. Learn these and many other economies of time, labor, and expense, and your housekeeping will resolve itself into a pleasant day’s work instead of a life of drudgery to be looked forward to with dread from one day to the next. As to the Children. Here is a description of one woman’s ways with her children : I desire to have all of my children’s meals served at the family table, so that I. may give attention to the kind and quantity of food which they eat and also to their manners at table. As we have so many guests, I particularly wish my children to appear well bred, and for the same reason I do not wish to be obliged to be continually talking to them at the table. My children coax for pennies like other children, and I teach them the value of a penny while they are very young in this way: When we go into the dining-room I place in front of my plate a penny for each child. At the close of the meal the child who has not been corrected in any way is given a penny. They are encouraged to talk, but not to interrupt. They are taught to eat properly, to ask properly for anything they may wish. Any misdemeanor which they understand to be such results in the loss of the penny. Sometimes they are fined a penny besides for any particularly unpleasant act. For any disrespectful word to the servant they are at once sent from the table. It may not be the best way, but one thing is certain : the meal hour is the pleasantest in the day to children, guests, and myself.' To Dry Wet Boots. When we have reached the office or home, after having trudged through the mud or the pelting rain, one of the first things we do is to change our boots, if that be possible. Following this comes the drying of the footwear. If you get your boots soaked while journeying to the office, this process of drying is an important matter, because we wish to put the boots on again to go out to lunch or to go home. At home this is not so serious, because we can have a change and leave the sodden leather to get dry in a more leisurely fashion. The most natural action is to place the soaked leather near the fire not too near, but sufficiently close to cause the steam to rise promptly. We watch this steaming with satisfaction, which shows itself in our faces. That is the most expeditious way to dry leather, but it is certainly ifot the best. Although the boots are not scorching, they are to some extent burning, and the heat which produces rapid evaporation is also damaging the leather. All the ‘ life ’is being taken out of the material; it loses its pliability proportionately to the degree of heat, and the boots have their period of service correspondingly shortened. The best plan would be to bury the boots in some substance that will absorb the wet, such as sawdust. As that process of drying offers disadvantages by reason of the possibility of the sawdust > not being entirely removed, we should let the leather dry slowly and naturally. A warm atmosphere will do, but the heat of the fire is detrimental.

-''^^fKff-^^