Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-07-05
wELL-kEPT CLOSETS.
How to Have Them, and How to Avoi,
ss(,Iufter Places.ss

Il =
How to Have Them. and How to Avoid
.sCIutter Places
Can we not slightly modify an old
and wise adage and find that woman
is known by the closet she keeps?"
for closet indicates. to greater or
less extent, some traits in the average
woman's character.
Have we not seen all kindse Look
into this one-we do not need to open
the door, it's never shut-not a hook
is visible, each one being covered with
double or triple layer of garments,
skirts hung by theiI bindings; waists
suspended by their collars-ruinous
to the fit-winter and summer clothes
promiscuously mingled; soiled aprons;
all go to make up a part of the general
confusion. On the floor boots and
shoes; cast-off pairs; old, new, knock
ing about any way; the shelves, if
there are any, crowded with empty or
useless bottles, or piled high with
boxes or baskets. Perhaps our own
closets may contain one or more of
these evils. How shall we remedy
hem?
In the first place. keep the closet
door shut during the day, for an open
door is one thing that gives an air of
untidiness to the whole room. On the
other hand, always leave the door open
at night. That is the proper time to
air the closet; it's then that the cham
Der is the coolest, and the daily-or
rather nightly-change of air, prevents
any mustiness cIinging to the gar
ments hung there. Do not hang your
winter and summer garments in the
same closet. In the fall put away the
summer dresses-the cotton ones
washed and rough dried-folded in an
empty trunk or box or hung in dis
used closet kept for the purpose. In
the spring do the same with the winter
garments. One will find it refreshing,
after putting-away of this kind, to be
able to catch sight of hook or two
that has nothing on it.
Hang up waists and skirts by loops
properly attached. IT'S not always
as convenient, but it repays in the end.
Keep soiled clothes from the closet,
unless in laundry bag.
1t is great deal more convenient to
take a pair of shoes, polished and
clean, from shoe-bag of linen or
ticking, hung on the inside of the
door, than it is to strain ones back
STOPPING over and picking among half
dozen dusty pairs-to find the mates
on the floor. If one has a shoe bag
she will intuitively keep cast off shoes
to cover nearly the whole door; then
the upper pockets, made any size con-
venient, are used for soiled collars,
cuffs and handkerchiefs; and the score
of little necessities. Keep only the
bottles and boxes needful on the
shelves. This prevents one of the dis
agreeable features of house cleaning,
overhauling the closets.
In house recently built, the linen
closet had three Or four immense
drawers, each large enough to hold
two pairs of blankets or the same num-
Der of quilts, placed on rollers; SO
there is not back-breaking strain in
opening the heaviest of them.
My mother told me she learned
when she was first married, never to
put any thing away without purpose;
for, by a little thought and little
careful engineering at the proper time,
she was saved the horror of the annual
clearing out of a ''clutter place.
Good Housekeeping.