The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1907-06-06
KEEPING THE HOUSE
sYsTEMis THE KEYNOTE OF sue.
CESS.
Regularity In Putting Things to Rights
Far Better Than Annual upheav-
al Formerly Known as House
Cleaning.

One woman says that housekeeping
is the most delightful. easiest work in
the world If you know how to do it
and throw over tradition. There's
such lot in that! For instance, time
was when every good housekeeper
turned her house upside down and her
family into the streets, very nearly,
with a spring house-cleaning. ] sup
pose there are still old-fashioned
"sot" housekeepers who maintain it's
the only way. Every curtain and car
pet and smallest drapery was beaten
and cleaned within an inch of its life,
and every drawer and cupboard was
made TO give up its secrets. And in
the middle of ii all sat disconsolate
family. The latter-day housekeeper
never has one of these cleanings, for
the whole house is kept in perfectly
good condition without this annual
awful upheaval, and she even does
without weekly upheaval, for. says
the modern woman. what is sweep
ing but stirring up of dust from
carpet or rugs to settle on furniture?'
Every day each hardwood floor is care
fully gone over with a good brush,
which has hollow handle in which
is a receptacle for oil, which, by
means OF a spring in the handle, is
forced out drop by drop. This takes
up every particle OF dust, leaving the
floor shining and bright and not hor-
ridly oily to the smell. as is evident
when the floor has an oil treatment
occasionally. And then very often the
rugs and hangings are taken out OF
doors for good beating. II certainly
is energy saving! l fancy in the coun-
try women are still Shaving at their
housework in way that 1t has been
done for a century Hardwood floors
may not be possibilities in old country
houses, but the carpets can be taken
up and the floors painted and the
rugs put down, to the infinite saving
of time and work, and the tiring
brooms may, after this one woman's
example, be made into kindling wood.
Traditions are all very well. but we've
outgrown most of them for utilitarian
purposes.
Tablecloths should be ironed on
both sides. If they are of good quality,
are well moistened, and then ironed
until dry. they will have quite enough
stiffness and gloss. If they are worn
so thin that they become limp by once
using, take what starch is left after
the other clothes have been starched
and dilute it with water enough to
rinse the tablccloth. Dry. sprinkle
and iron as usual. The thinned starch
! is just enough TO give some body to
the soft old linen.
An anxious inquirer wants to know
what to do to brass beds that have
lost their luster and grown very dim.
Unfortunately, it's too late to do any
thing now, I'm afraid, except to take
off the trimmings that will unscrew
and replace them with new ones, or
else send it away to be entirely re-
Furnished In the days of splendid
solid brass 1t could be cleaned with all
kinds of things, such as salt and vine
gar, which / fancy is what this cor
respondent used, but most of the brass
beds one buys nowadays are a thin
veneer or some other metal, and the
only way one dares treat them is with
a daily rubbing with flannel or old
silk cloth. This procedure will, how
ever. keep the brass in good condition
for several years.
A laundry bag, big and roomy, Of
turkey red, with a panel on one side
of ecru taffeta cloth with great pink
and red roses and wreaths cut from a
chintz, makes an awfully nice present
! for traveler.-Boston Herald.