Omaha daily bee., 1920-11-07
AHouse With
No System

f II was charming little bunga-
4 low OF five rooms and bath. nestled
in the palms and blossoms of a
garden. There were two small boys
OF school age, and a real story-book
husband. too, who loved the little
family and worked hard to provide
every necessity and some OF the lux
uries, too. But the wife
She looked old for her years. She
grumbled at her housework-in
fact, she was always grumbling,
for she was always doing house
work. And the trouble? Well,
Mrs. James just lacked that glori-
Gus thing we call system. She poo
poohed the idea of doing particu-
i lar task at a definite time. But
when Mrs. James "broke" and her
sister came to take charge there
was vast change in that house
hold. And the sister stayed long
enough to show Mrs. James the
way TO leisure, through system"
Leisure time--a certain amount
in the birthright of every individ-
ual. Upon what we do with our
leisure time frequently depends the
health and advancement, not only
of the individual, but OF the COM
munity as well. And so it is the
duty of every housewife TO so ar
range her household that there
shall come to her leisure time.
Mrs. James began her day by
nerve-straining hustle to get
breakfast. She arose early enough,
but even at that she had so much to
do that it required much hurrying
to accomplish it if she were to get
the family out in time. And just
how did her sister change this'
Sister planned a simple breakfast
to begin with One breakfast might
have consisted of apple sauce, oat-
meal, toast and cocoa. The apple
sauce was prepared the day before
while she had to be at the cook
stove watching something else. 1t
was set aside ready to be dished at
a moments notice. The oatmeal was
put into the fire!ess cooker and was
nicely cooked when the family
arose in the morning. The bread
was cut and trimmed and placed on
plates ready to be slipped into the
broiler OF the gas range and
toasted next morning. .-~
The table was set and. covered. |
And this arrangement allowed the |
housewife to sleep at least one hour |
longer than she had been sleeping |
each morning and still gave the FAM
lily a simple, nourishing breakfast
before they left home.
Sister requested the children and
the husband to throw back the bed |
covers so that the beds might air [
thoroughly until the appointed time
for making them. By $50 in the
morning she was ready to wash |
dishes. For this task she allowed
one hour. But she had more than
the breakfast dishes to- wash. She
stored the dishes from luncheon and
evening dinner CT the previous day
in a zinc-lined covered box under
the drain board of the sink.
By this system she washed dishes
intensely, just once each day. and
devoted full hour to the perform
ance. Next the living room was put
into order and the beds made. By
IL o'clock she was ready for the
market on days that she went to
market. Luncheon, consisting OF
left-overs usually plus warm milk
soup or drink, was on the table bv
1880 The dishes were scraped and
stacked in the box. -.
From one o'clock until 2:30 she
arranged some particular task for
each day. One day it might be a
thorough cleaning of the bathroom
or one of the bedrooms. From
2:30 until S, until it was time to
begin preparations for dinner, in
general she was free. And she kept
this time free from household du-
ties. This time allowed for enjoy
ing the sunshine or for leisurely tub
bathing or the witnessing of a mo-
tion picture or a visit or the devel-
oping of some talent One house,l
wife | know devoted one hour ay
day to the practice of the violin for
six years. And when misfortune
came knocking at her door, it found
her ready to earn a good living with
her beloved violin.
Of course, it takes will power
Everything worth while does. In
the beginning, you will find great
temptation to infringe or allow
household duties to infringe on your
leisure time. You may have to re-
arrange your plan. But realizing
that a plan, however faulty, is the
first step toward creating leisure, is
good sign. Try it for month.