Evening star., 1942-09-05
By MARGARET NOVEL;

Now that the children are almost
back in their school routine, or soon
will be. after some weeks have been
spent in assembling the wardrobe,
buying shoes. seeing the dentist and
the barber there is bit of a breath
ing spell. The days seem full Of
hours, and at the end of about two
of them we all begin to take stock of
the house and its furnishings.
This year when vacations were
meager or absolutely mil" the house
has had to stand exceptional wear
and tear in addition to the heat,
damp and mildew Knowing that
it is up to all Of us to make things
last it behooves us to do some dras-
tic refurbishing before the house is
dressed up again for the winter.
Modern housekeepers abhor the
old-fashioned idea of tearing the
house apart twice year for a COM
plete house cleaning. They prefer to
take a room at a time or a section
at time SO that the machinery of
living is not seriously handicapped.
Also every time-saving device must
be used so that process may be
finished as quickly as possible. A
good plan is to start on the bedroom
floors or the least-used part of the
home first.
A Systematic Plan.
First remove all curtains, counter
panes and slip covers which must be
washed or dry cleaned. These may
be sent out, or Numbered at home,
while the background is being
cleaned. - 81
Next dive into the closets, chests
and dresser drawers. Remove all
garments, and clean closets thor
oughly. AS an extra precaution
spray them carefully with a good
moth spray or use the "de-mother"
on your vacuum cleaner.
Lift out the dresser drawers and
spray the whole interior of the chest
before returning the drawers. With
these areas weeded out large part
of the job is done.
Then wipe down or brush the
walls, with attention to holdings,
window reveals and the backs of
radiators. There are special hand
brushes for all these purposes and
the attachments on the vacuum
cleaner will simplify the whole thing.
Next the windows should be
cleaned and other surfaces, such as
light fixtures and venetian blinds.
There are excellent liquids on the
market that make glass cleaning a
pleasure. Special paint cleaners
simplify the cleaning of venetian
blinds which is long and difficult
process no matter how you do 1t.
To keep the dust from settling into
the surface Of the blinds go over
them Immediately they are dry with
thin coating Of wax. This will
make the surface CLASSY enough to
shed dust at the touch Of a brush
or the small tool on the vacuum
cleaner, and make it unnecessary to
clean the blinds more than twice a
year.
Handling Special Items.
With all OF this in hand we come
to the special" items. The spot
on the wall paper, the place where
the wall paper has lifted from the
wall, the small nand- hooked rug
which needs a gentle shampoo and
the lamp shades which need fresh
ening.
There is a splendid spot remover
for wall paper which should be Oil
the cleaning shelf at all times. Made
into paste 1t covers the spot and
when dried and brushed off leaves
no sign OF stain. BY moistening the
outer surface of the wall paper that
has buckled 1t becomes soft enough
TO handle. The flap may be turned
back and fresh wall paper paste ap-
piled. Then eased back into place, it
is patted with soft cloth and when
dry will be good as new.
The surface of a delicate rug or
tapestry may be shampooed with
the silds of a mild Soan If tho color is