The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-04-02
HOUSE CLEANING.
The Coming Spring Campaign-The
Care of Carpets.
Good and Bad Methods of Scrubbing, Clean
ing, and Putting the House
in Order.
Philadelphia Sunday Times.l


There is story of clever sharper who,
wishing to replenlsh his funds, advertised,
for small consideration, to furnish appli-
cants, by mail, with the secret of success in
all their undertakings. The dupes who sent
him money received in return card with
the motto: s'Begin in time and keep at it
until you get DONE" The advice, though
hardly worth buying as talisman, is new
ertheless good doctrine on many occasions,
and on none more so than that of house
cleaning. Lack.of method, which is the soul
of management, has done much to render
the annual publication of the household the
error of the masculine portion of the family.
Every one knows that painters paperhang-
ers and white-washers are persons who re-
fuse to be quietly struggled into and out of
O house. Where their presence is necessary
they make it felt, and 1t must be endured
like other disagreeable remedies. But it is
not often that the whole of house has to be
renovated in q single season, and the ordin-
airy house cleaning may be easily managed SO
that the gentlemen of the family will scarce
" be aware that anything unusual is going
on. Take one room ct time, beginning ct
the top Of the house and work down-fnish
ing as you go. In this way the whole house
will never be upset at once and the dirt Will
not be trodden back and forth upstairs.
THE PLACE OF BEGINNING.
To clean room thoroughly the carpet
must be taken up, the pictures, blinds and
curtains taken down and well cleaned and
busted. The furniture must all be moved
from against the walls, the paper must be
brushed with broom covered with a soft
cloth, the paint must be washed. the CRATES
blackened, the floor scrubbed, the carpet
beaten, and the furniture polished. If the
room is bedroom. the bedsteads must be
taken to pieces and we'll cleaned. This
should always be done early IN the season.
First wash every joint and Stat of the bed
with common turpentine soap-or, better
TIL, with carbolic soap Then dust every
psrt with insect powder. Powder the seams
of the mattress, and air the bed and bed
clothing thoroughly. Sun them also out of
doors, if you caa-though in town this is
not always possible. Nail holes
and crevices in the bedsteads can be filed up
with putty well packed in, or with mercu-
rial ointment, which last is preferred to all
other insect destroyers by many good house
wives. II vermin have made their appear
ance, examine the bed every two or three
days during the next moath, and use insect
powder freely. II their presence Is sus-
pected in the walls dust with insect powder
around the washbosrd, and fill the cracks
between it and the floor with common yell
low soap pressed in with a knife. In mov-
ing into an old house which has been care
lessly kept, it Will sometimes be found that
one paper has been laid On over another I'M
til two, three, or perhaps half DOZEN thick
nesses are on the wall In this mass the
vermin easily harbor. The remedy in such
a case is to tear off the paper entirely and
whitewash or paint the walls.
HOW TO CLEAN CARPETS.
If the carpet Is to be taken up and beaten,
the Job had better be intrusted to some man
who makes it his business 1t this can not
be done, lay it on the grass or hang it on
clothes lima and beat IL on the wrong side
with canes-taking care that the canes have
no sharp points. Then spread the carpetout
and sweep well on the right side. There is
more art in sweeping carpet than novice
is apt to suppose. An old broom should
never be used, and a new one should be kept
especially for the carpets With Brussels and
velvet carpeting there are two ways to the
pile, Just as in velvet, aud they should al
ways be swept with the pile. 1t carpet is
swept against tha grain it soon looks rough
and scratched up After being swept and laid
down on the floor, the carpet should be wiped.
Have two pals, Que OF Clean soapsuds the
other with lukewarm water, clean flannel
cloth and two coarse, clean towels. Take
the carpet by breadths, wiring the flannel
out of the lukewarm water and hold it so
that you can turn and use it up and down
three or four times on the same place. Rub
both with and against the grain as hard as If
you were scrubbing the floor, then throw
the flannel into your soapsuds and rub the
carpet dry with one of your dry towels. If
YOU leave the carpet wet the dust will stick
TO 1t and it will smell sour and musty.
Wash your flannel clean IN the soapsuds,
wiring it out Of the warm water and proceed
as before. If the carpet is very dirty or has
much green in it use fresh OK gall in the
luke-warm water in the proportion to a
quart of gall to three quarts of water and
rub the carpet dry as already directed. This
rubbing a carpet rises the pile and freshens
the colors.
THE KIND OF BRUSSELS TO SELECT.
Choose for long wear a Brussels carpet
where the pattern Is small, as the carrying
of the threads of the different co!ors to the
back of the carpet strengthens the material
and makes it wear better. Ingram carpets
need to be shaken oftener than Brussels, as
from their more open texture the dust per-
colates through them. 1t is rarely necessary
to take up Brussels carpet more than every
two or three years, and not 50 often even
where the room is not in constant use.
Sweeping on the floor answers every pur-
pose for removing the dust. 1t is mistaken
idea to cover a carpet with drugget in the
belief that it saves it. What wears out car
pets is the grinding on the floor, and the
protection should come from beneath.
Moth proof carpet lining is best, but sew
eral thicknesses of newspaper comes
next as carpet preserver. The printers
ink is an excellent moth preventive, and
the newspapers keep the carpet from rub
bling on the boards. On stairs uss stair