The Coconino weekly sun., 1895-05-16
SPRING HousECLEANlNG.
Some Practices in the Work Which should
 Be Condemned.


 By popular custom housekeeping is postponed in the spring till after the winter fires are put out. On most sea- sons this is too late. Every house after the long shut-in 'period of winter needs thorough recognizing and special cleaning. This should be done before warm days, and ought to be commenced as early as the middle of April, or as soon as the windows can be kept freely open while the rooms are being cleaned. Fires ought to be continued some time after houseclean- ing to thoroughly dry out the house, even if the weather is so warm that windows must be kept open for con- fort. It is seldom safe to do away with winter fires before the middle of May in this locality, unless the living rooms of the family are provided with freplaces for use during the spring and fall months. The common practice of cleaning house, scrubbing paint and floors, hastily replacing car pets without fires to dry out the house, is to be strongly condemned. It is an invitation to miasmic colds and all the discomforts that come in their train. The sensible housekeeper begins by cleansing her garret and then looks over the cellar, and sees that both the cellar and Ell buildings near the house are thoroughly cleansed and white washed before the general cleaning of the diving apartments of the house. All closets and stowaway places are next attacked, and every place where moth or buffalo bug may turk must be looked over. The bedsteads must be taken apart and dusted and filled with Persian insect powder. mere. ly as precautionary measure. This work should be done as early as possibles in April, as during this month allinsect life revives, and is matched out for the season. If precau- tions are taken to rid the house of pests of this kind thus early in the sea- son, there will be little trouble after ward. A month later the buffalo bug has gone into papa state, and has ac. complished all the mischief he is like ly to do for the season. and other in- sects have become abundant enough to offer formidable resistance to ordi- nary methods of extermination
 If this preliminary cleaning is done thoroughly and other rooms of the house are'cleaned, one by one, as it is convenient, housekeeping need not be the affiiction it so often is. It is true. where there is a large amount of whit ing and painting, it is often necessary to tear up several rooms at once in order to have the work done at cheaper price by the job, but, except where this is the case, it is far better to do one, or at most two rooms. at once, and settle these completely be- fore going further. It is true that car pet-cleaners like to have large amount of work at once, but they do their work by the yard, so it is just as cheap to have the carpets cleaned by the room instead of by the house, as so often done. The first method can be put in force without any break in the regular family life, and those who are not immediately interested in the work will hardly realize what has been &C., compllshed, except by the result The other method interferes more or less with the comfort of every member of household, and has brought the season of house-cleauing under the just ban of man.-N. r. Tribune.