Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1914-10-21
WOMEN NEED SYSTEM
IN HOUSEHOLD TASKS
Why, in Many Cases, "WOman'S
Work is Never Done"
Time and Effort Often Wasted; Many
Causes for Inefficiency Are
Here Pointed Out.

ana Inen ne cllncne0 MS argument
with these words, IF women would
stay in the kitchen where they be-
long, they wouldn't need all these
new tangled teachings like Domestic
Science.
He didn't intend to be unjust or
funny, he just didn't know. Most
of life's misunderstanding and
wrong results come from the same
cause.
We are willing to grant that
woman's place is in the kitchen part
of the time, under certain conditions.
The old saying that 'woman's work
is never done' ought not to hold true
under present conditions. If the
principles of efficiency can be carried
out successfully in every kind of
shop, factory and business, why
couldn't they be carried out equally
we'll in the home?
Mrs. Christine Frederick, who has
worked out this gospel of efficiency
at her home in Greenlawn, Long
Island, tells of her struggle and sue
cess in most interesting way.
Her book, ''The New Housekeep-
ing she has put out with a deep
purpose, which she expresses in her
preface. She writes, 81 put out
this book, therefore with a deeply
earnest hope and belief that the be-
ginning made in the applications of
efficiency science, to the household
however modest and inadequate) may
yet assist in cutting from women the
most dreary shackles of which they
have ever complained. -
| cannot do better than to quote a
bit from her book. | wish every
ouse-keeper owned this book. 1t is
well worth buying.
Mrs. Frederick says; From close
" watching myself and others at
work | have grouped the causes which
make for 80 per cent of the ineffici
ency in household tasks, as follows !:
1. The worker does not have all
the needful tools or utensils at hand
before her when she begins work.
Therefore
2. She wastes time and effort
walking to, hunting for or fetching
ingredients, tools o. materials she
neglected to have at hand when she
began the task.
3. She stops in the middle of one
task to do something else quite un-
related.
4. She lowers the efficiency of
good work by losing time putting
tools or work away, generally due to
poor arrangement of kitchen, pantry
and closets.
3. She uses a poor tool, or a
wrong one; or works at table, sink,
ironing board or moulding board
which is at the wrong height from
the floor.
6 She loses time because she does
not keep sufficient supplies on hand,
and because she does not keep her
tools and utensils in good condition.
Any worker who desires to elimi-
nate waste motion, standardize her
tasks and increase her efficiency so
per cent, may ask herself these
questions:
j. Is my table, stool, board or
working surface at the right height?
2. Are my utensils and materials
needed for this task all before me
when l begin?
3. Do l have to stoop unneces-
sarily? Do 1 take useless steps?
4. Are my utensils arranged with
proper regard to each other, and to
other tasks?
5. Do | waste motion and energy
holding a bowl or utensil in place
when it should be screwed to the
table?
6. Is my position comfortable?
z. Are the tools and utensils
grouped properly before me for this
particular task?
8. Am using the best and right
tool for this purpose?
9. Is the tool properly adjusted
and in good condition before l begin
work.
10. Am l making any awkward
motions or ones l could omit?''
Can you not call to mind many
kitchens where the sink is too low,
too far from the dish cupboard and
the icebOX?
Do you know that this subject is
daily increasing in Importance?
Statistics show that there are 10, :
O23. 952 families in the United
States keeping house, and but 8
per cent Of that number keep
domestic help. Every ten years,
figures of the United States census,