Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-12
Definite Working Schedule Devised
in Main Zone of Labor,
the Kitchen.

oI conversation let, strange to relate,
although husbands talked business eff
ficiency over the dinner table with their
| wives and guests, the idea that. there
| could be such a thing as household eff
1ciency never seemed to occur to any
one. at least for long time. But there
was just as much innate logic in house
hold as in industrial efficiency: some
one made a chance allusion to it some
khere, the germ of the idea grew and
spread, until now household efficiency
has been put into practice in so many
progressive homes that well defined
principles for doing homework with the
time and labor are available for every
housewife.
Works Out Own Standard.
In the last analysis. household eff
ficiency is first simply a matter of
studying ones motions about every item
of housework until one has worked out
for ones self a standard and economical
way of doing every task and to arrange
definite working schedule for each day.
The next step is to study the arrange
ment of the kitchen, which, of course, is
the main zone of housework In every
home. The final step is for the house
wife to select the most efficient tools.
The first step of standardizing house
work is not nearly as difficult as it seems
on the surface Once a woman realizes
that it is very awkward and Wasteful
method to wash dishes with the drain
board on her right and the dishes piled
on her left she will have the drainboard
changed to her left and stack her dishes
on the right-hand side wheEe they Will
be most quickly get-at-able. And If she
will go at her dishwashing job with the
idea of eliminating every minute of
waste labor she will also quickly learn
the importance Of adjusting her dishpaE
to the right height and of sorting her
dishes into the group that must be wiped.
and the group that need not be wiped
because it comprises chinaware that
drains dry of it's own accord.
1t is the same with busting, sweeping,
breadmahing-in everything that the mis-
tress Of the household does in the good,
old-fashioned way" there are any num-
Der of wasteful steps, stoops and stretches
that modern household efficiency would
daily eliminate.
An Example Cited.
Citing a well known example, the old
time bricklayer used to stand before a
wall, and when he wanted to lay brick
he had to stoop. pick up brick weighing
four and one-half pounds from a mixed
pile at his feet and carry it to the wall.
II he happened to weigh $50 pounds, he
would have to lower his bulk four feet
every time he picked up each of the
2,OGO bricks he laid in day. One day,
after he had watched bricklayers at
work, an efficiency expert devised sim
pie little table which holds the bricks
in an orderly pile at the workman's
side. They are brought to him in orderly
piles right side up. Because he doesn't
need to stoop or sort, the same man who
formerly could lay only 100 bricks an hour
can now lay 800 bricks. and he uses only
five motions, where formerly it required
eighteen. What a suggestion there for
the woman who when she sprinkles her
clothes, stoops to lay each separate piece
in the clothes basket at her feet instead
OF placing the basket on a high chair
beside her and level with her table.
Studying kitchen arrangement should
lead to fruitful labor-saving in any home
For standard kitchen arrangement means
keeping all the cooking and cleaning
utensils In compact space, each where it
is always at the workers elbow at the
moment 1t needs to be used. 1t means, as
one household efficiency expert points out,
the arrangement of utensils in relative
groups, those that are used in preparing
| the meal. together; those that are used in
| cleaning up after the meal, together 1t
| means having everything at the proper
height for easy reaching, and it means
| well-lighted surroundings, it being borne
| in mind that the central station in every
1 IHOucTIl lOWH ready TO suggest now
each living and working room can be
electrically lighted SO as to afford every
possible help to efficient Homework
Selection of Implements.
| The selection Of tools that will best
eliminate waste motion is just as i'm
portant to the housewife as to any other
worker 1t is often suggested that cleo.
| trio equipment makes efficient tools fol
| the mistress of the home to work with
| An expert has devised tentative list OF
! electric home appliances in what she con.
siders to be the order of their efficiency
! The list includes the electric iron, the
| electric washing machine, the sewing ma
| chine, the electric sweeper, toaster, grill
| coffee percolator. fireless cooker and cleo
! trio fan.
| The housewife who devises ways and
means to reduce her waste motion to a
minimum will do her work much better
| and more quickly than heretofore, nc
matter what her household utensils But
| the ideal combination for her would be te
! devise a really efficient way of doine
| things, and in accordance with a strict
| daily schedule. and then do them with as
| complete a modern electric household
| equipment as possible. For these electric
| appliances save countless steps and stoops
| and waste motions where they are used
| regularly in the home, and their cost is
quickly forgotten in the convenience, sat
isfaction and improved health which their
use entails.