Part 3
Exactly what proportion of the income shall be placed in the hands of the wife is a matter which must be decided by individual circumstances. Estimate has already been made as to the allowance to be given to food, and it can readily be seen that this must be determined by the character and size of the family as well as by the conditions surrounding them. The household of a farmer or of one who commands a garden and dairy can be kept on a much smaller pecuniary expenditure for actual food than is possible in the home of a dweller in the city, who must buy and pay for every particle of food which comes into the house. The sum disbursed may amount to the same thing in the long run, since the cost of keeping up the garden plot or caring for the cattle must be met by the man of the house, but he will not need to give as much cash into his wife’s hands as will be required in other circumstances.
However the amount may be apportioned, whatever may be the charges laid upon the wife and those assumed by the husband, the necessity of strict and accurate household accounts should be insisted upon. I am not advocating any special system. I have known excellent outlines of domestic expenses which simply darkened counsel with words for some housekeepers and rendered the business of following their outlay confusion worse confounded. Sometimes a woman with little more than a common-school education and an ordinary working knowledge of arithmetic can keep her accounts with a conciseness and cleanness many a trained bookkeeper might envy. If a housekeeper has a system which proves satisfactory it is a mistake for her to try to change it for one which may be more scientific but is less useful.
Merely as a suggested guide I would advise the beginner to provide herself with two books, one small and cheap, to be slipped into the pocket when going to market, the other larger and of better quality. In the first one, to which is attached a pencil, is to be set down every purchase and its cost, as soon as made. The memory should never be trusted in these matters, but each outlay--no matter how small, if it be nothing more than a car-fare or a three-cent bunch of parsley--entered immediately. Then these items are to be transferred in ink to the larger book as soon as possible after the housekeeper’s return to the home. It is fatal to accuracy and to really helpful bookkeeping to let the accounts accumulate before they are written down and balanced.
Still keeping along the most elementary principles of household accounts, let me counsel that on the left-hand page be written the amount of money in hand, while the sums expended and the items for which they are paid out are set down on the opposite page. The two pages may be balanced each day or as the bottom of each page is reached, as best suits the housekeeper. The one immutable rule is that the sum which the written balance shows ought to be in her purse should absolutely be there. This may sound like the very primer of household expenses, but no woman who has ever gone through the anguish of trying to determine what has become of the stray dime her figures show should be in her possession, or of discovering how she happens to have a quarter more than her ciphering proves to belong to her, will ever make light of the endeavor to square her accounts and her cash balance. Such struggles are avoided by the consistent practice of noting down each payment as soon as made.
Possibly the most important decision the young housekeeper has to make in beginning her domestic bookkeeping is how she shall pay for her purchases. Shall it be cash or credit? And if the latter, how often shall bills be paid?
From the standpoint of wise economy it is safe to state that the strictly cash habit is probably the most economical method to follow. The old saying of “pay as you go, and if you can’t pay don’t go!” is put into practical effect. Foolish as it may be, the fact remains that we all feel a certain reluctance to part with actual cash which lays a detaining grasp upon us when we might be tempted to “plunge” if the charge were not to be presented until the end of the week or month. The housekeeper thinks more than once before she buys the more expensive cut of meat, the higher-priced fruits or vegetables than her purse shows she ought to purchase. And there is undoubtedly a comfort beyond words in the knowledge that no vexing bills are coming in after the food has been consumed and forgotten. When feasible, there are countless advantages in paying cash for everything which is brought into the house and leaving to credit only such items as cannot well be met except periodically--such as fuel, light, wages, and in some cases milk and ice.
On the other hand, the charge system has something to its account. It is much more convenient, in the first place. When one is in a hurry to finish her marketing and get on to something else the nuisance of having to wait for change is vexatious. Sometimes the article desired is not in stock and must be ordered. One hesitates to pay for it before it is certain that it can be obtained. Again, the telephone marketing or commanding of groceries, disadvantageous as it is, must sometimes be followed because of illness or inclement weather, and then the habit of paying cash is a bother. Moreover, there is little doubt that the charge customer usually receives a meed of consideration often refused the cash payer. It is also a genuine inconvenience to pay cash for milk and for ice and for certain other commodities, such as butter and eggs supplied by special dealers.
I have not touched upon the possibility that ready money may be lacking, as is sometimes the case with the man on a salary and still more with the one who does piecework and is not paid on a fixed day. Often the need for paying “real money” amounts to a hardship, not because the purchaser is not solvent, but because his remuneration is slow in arriving. At such periods the charge account partakes of the nature of a sheet-anchor. And yet there are strong arguments against it.
Perhaps it is useless to lay stress on the disadvantages of the charge account, and yet I would feel I was in error if I did not speak a word of warning against the fatal facility attending on credit arrangements. It is altogether too easy to have an article charged, forgetting that a day of reckoning can only be postponed at the best. The housekeeper who for good and sufficient reasons decides to pay by check periodically should lay down for herself certain fixed rules.
One of the chief of these is to have short accounts. A grocer’s or a butcher’s bill should be presented weekly and paid punctually. When the bill comes in it should be gone over carefully and the items on it checked up, to be sure, in the first place, that every article charged has been delivered; in the second place, that the charge set against it is that which was stated when the purchase was made. It is a common occurrence to find an increase of from one to five cents on several entries on a bill. The error may be due to the bookkeeper’s mistake or to the dealer’s dishonesty. In either event the blunder should be called to the merchant’s attention and corrected. He will respect the housekeeper none the less because he learns she is on the alert for possible discrepancies.
Another principle to be followed is that the marketer should not be led into making foolish or extravagant purchases because they are to be charged. In the majority of cases it is a mistake for the small housekeeper to buy in quantity, since the cash saved by the transaction is offset by the waste of the material, either by spoiling or because of extravagant use. Yet when the purchase can be charged it is easy to yield to the temptation toward what seems at the first glance like an economy.
Again, the possession of the charge account should not be permitted to lead the housekeeper into the habit of vicarious marketing--either by telephone or by messenger or by ordering through an employee of the concern she patronizes. Other mistakes may also be made, but these are probably the most frequent and those into which the woman who is not on her guard against pitfalls in the domestic path is likely to slip.
I have said that it is not feasible to state here a fixed sum to which the housekeeper must limit her outlay for food. Her best plan for arriving at an approximate estimate is by a process of averages. A single day or even a single week cannot furnish a standard any more than can a single meal. The wisest method is by the aid of strict system to keep track of her expenditures and then study how the economy of one time offsets the liberality of another.
To illustrate: when the holiday season is at hand expenses are bound to increase. The cost of the Thanksgiving or the Christmas turkey and pies cannot be appreciably reduced. But it is possible to make a science of economical purchasing and catering--this, too, without stinting the family or feeding them poorly--so that the burden of high-priced food may not hopelessly swamp the income.
A like principle may be followed on other occasions. If company must be entertained, if a family feast must be observed, prudent marketing and skilful cookery may delude the household into an ignorance of the fact that money is being saved to carry the housekeeper over the time of increased bills. Constant thought and consideration are required for this, but to the lover of housekeeping the occupation after a while becomes almost like a game in which she pits her wits against the cost of living and glories when she comes out ahead.
Here is an enterprise in which the habit of going to market for oneself and the custom of keeping strict account of disbursements both help the worker. She can pick up at a bargain a cut of meat, a selection of fish, a choice of vegetables or of fruit, or an occasion in canned goods which will at once bring down her average and permit her to lay aside a little toward the next heavy pull upon her purse. This is especially likely to be the case in the period of preserving, pickling, and similar pursuits, when often a happy “find” in fruit will help to lighten the unavoidable weight of conserving of any sort.
The wise student of housekeeping need not let her family recognize the alternation of a feast and a fast at the table. When they eat a larded lamb’s liver, they will not suspect an economy; when they rejoice in filleted sole they will have no idea that the cheapness of flounders is responsible for their treat, any more than they guess that a delectable trifle which redeems a rather simple dinner is made from the remains of stale cake, the left-overs of a couple of jars of jam, and a simple custard.
Some of the so-called economies do not economize. A bread-pudding which requires eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and raisins to the value of fifteen or twenty cents to use up three cents’ worth of stale bread can by no stretch of the imagination be regarded as a saving. Better make toast of the bread, save it for stuffing, or dry it and keep it for crumbs to serve in frying. But there are genuine economies galore, and the woman who makes a science of them will lay up for herself a series of agreeable sensations when she balances her housekeeping accounts at the end of the month.
V
THE HOUSE IN ORDER
Putting the house in order is one thing.
Keeping it in order is quite another.
Once upon a time there was a theory that every house, no matter how well kept, how frequently swept and scrubbed, must be torn up by the roots twice a year, for the spring and fall cleaning. At those dreadful periods mere men fled from before the devastating broom and scrubbing-brush wielded by the woman of the family. Even when they stole home in the evening to the slim meal which was all the worn-out housekeeper could provide, the halls and stairs were likely to be blocked by pails of suds, by furniture or rolls of carpet _en route_.
To the aged survivors of that epoch the phrase “housecleaning-time” is still enough to provoke a shudder. I have heard the assertion made that it lasted at least six weeks, although all seem to be agreed that the spring visitation was more severe than that of the autumn.
Even in this day and generation there are found certain authorities to declare that a house cannot be kept so clean that it does not once in so often require a thorough going-over. In a way there is an element of truth in their claim. In every home there are nooks and corners not in constant use, and therefore not regularly cleaned; store-closets, trunk-rooms, cupboards or drawers reserved for extra bedding, clothing, furnishings, into whose closed confines dust mysteriously seeps, wherein moth and other vermin make their breeding-places.
At least once a year--and better, twice in a twelvemonth--these “glory-holes” should be emptied, the contents looked over, beaten or dusted, the floors, walls, shelves, etc., wiped off carefully. This is the time to give away or throw away treasured possessions no longer of use to their owners and which may be of service elsewhere; to rearrange such articles as escape banishment; to put aside for the next season the summer or winter clothing, hangings, and the like which are not needed at the moment. So long as dirt and dust continue to exist and to work themselves into the most jealously guarded precincts, so long must the housekeeper bestow at least a semi-annual inspection on her reserves and their quarters.
She fails signally to understand her business, however, if she permits an accumulation of dirt with the comforting conviction that it will all be removed in the spring and fall clearance. More and more we understand the importance of purity to health, and with this comprehension we have grown to perceive that the best method of retaining high cleanliness is by never allowing the dirt to get the better of us. A little brushing and sweeping and cleaning here and there as it is needed, a more attentive treatment once a week, will keep the house clean without making the labor a burden.
The system which should be the housekeeper’s most valued ally in the effort after efficiency comes into play here. By the time she is fairly settled in her new home she should have evolved a routine which, so far from being an irksome groove, will be rather a track on which the domestic wheels revolve without undue friction and the consequent wear and tear.
Take into consideration first the round of the day as it has to do with keeping the house in order. When the maid or the housekeeper herself comes down in the morning to start the breakfast, either by making a fire with wood or coal, or by lighting the oil or gas flame, or turning the key that sets the electric current to work, she should open the windows to let in fresh air and the light which reveals the dusty or the untidy corners.
While the kettle is boiling or the cereal simmering she may have to set the table, or if this has been done the night before and a light cloth thrown over it to protect from the dust, the dust-pan and broom may be called into service or the carpet-sweeper run over the places which demand attention. The fortunate woman who has a vacuum-cleaner, either one of the hand variety or the larger style which connects with the electric current supplying the house, has work simplified and time saved, as well as strength conserved.
In those homes where an early and rather hasty breakfast is obligatory for the sake of the commuter or the business man who must get to his office promptly, or the children who must be off to school, it is better to have done what superficial tidying was possible the night before and to let the sweeping and dusting go until after the morning meal is despatched and the workers on their way. If a system is followed which obliges the readers of books and newspapers to put them in their place before going to bed, which insists that toys, tools, and clothing shall not be left lying about for some one besides the scatterers to put away the next morning, there need be no confusion encompassing the breakfast-table. A few moments should have been snatched for dusting the more conspicuous portions of the dining-room furniture, and distress of digestion should never be induced by the presence of dirt or disorder in the surroundings.
When the housekeeper has the home to herself, has disposed of the details of dish-washing, bed-making, etc., has planned for her meals and made out the list for her marketing, she should turn her attention to the removal of the “matter out of place,” as dirt has been gracefully termed. The living-room will probably require her first efforts after she has reduced the dining-room to the proper condition of shining tidiness.
I have referred to the vacuum-cleaner. I wish I could put one into the hands of every housekeeper! Several kinds are on the market and I carry no brief for any special make, but I know there is more than one good variety. The woman of slender means can use one of the hand-machines, which, while perhaps more tiresome to work than the cleaner run by electricity, will yet make much less call upon the strength than the ordinary broom and do the work much more effectively. Not the least of the advantages of the vacuum-cleaner is a merit it possesses in common with the ordinary carpet-sweeper--that it does not scatter dust as well as gather it up.
More than this, the vacuum-cleaner enables the worker to remove the dust from draperies without taking them down, to clean walls by a less arduous means than going over them with a cloth-wrapped brush or broom. Decidedly, one of the best investments a housekeeper can make is a good vacuum-cleaner; and she will find that it soon pays for itself in the amount of time and toil it saves. The work it takes a woman hours to accomplish is done by the vacuum-cleaner in a fraction of the time she would bestow on cleansing by the old methods, and more than one housekeeper has found that she saved the wages of an extra helper by the purchase of a vacuum-cleaner that she could handle herself.
When such a cleaner is out of the question, a substitute for minor work in this line is a carpet-sweeper. True, it cannot go into corners and its accomplishment must be supplemented by a dust-pan and broom, but even so, it saves much stooping and struggle to the housekeeper. A trustworthy variety should be selected; it should be emptied regularly and kept in perfect working order. With this there should be provided what is known as a dustless mop--there are several makes of these--to use on the bare floors after the rugs have been treated by the sweeper.
As a matter of course everything of this sort, as well as the use of a broom which raises dust, should be concluded before the housekeeper attacks the furniture with the brush for the upholstered pieces, a flannelette or cheese-cloth duster for the hardwood, or one of the so-called oiled dusters. Of these, too, a good choice is offered at house-furnishing establishments. While the cleaning goes on the windows should be open, but not in such a way as to blow the dust, and the doors into the other part of the house should be kept closed. The old method, still practised by untrained maids or by housekeepers whose zeal is in excess of their knowledge, of cleaning two or three rooms at once and driving the dust from one room to another should be entirely out of date in these sanitary days.
The same sort of surface-cleaning should be followed throughout the house, in halls and chambers, as well as in the down-stairs rooms. Even in the tidiest household dust is likely to gather from day to day, and if neglected twenty-four hours its presence is unpleasantly conspicuous.
This superficial care answers excellently for part of the time, but it is not sufficient without a more thorough attack at least once a week. The housekeeper need not follow the modes of her mother and grandmother and have the whole house swept from top to bottom on one day of the week, unless she finds, after study of ways and means, that this simplifies living for her. A better plan is to have one room or two done a day, so that the labor is lightened by being spread out through the week.
The same method should be followed in each room that is to be cleaned. The smaller ornaments should be wiped and laid away, either in the bureau drawer or on some large piece of furniture which cannot be moved but may have its surface and the objects put on it covered with a sweeping-sheet. Lighter articles, such as chairs and small tables, should be dusted and then carried from the room. The postponement of the dusting until they are brought back after the room has been swept means a fresh scattering of the dust about the clean chamber.
Sweeping-sheets, made of cotton cloth bound with red, that they may not be confused with the regulation bed-linen, should be at hand to lay over such large pieces as cannot be removed. The sweeping should be done from the sides of the room toward the center, recollecting always to have at least one window opened and all doors closed. When the dust is all in one compact heap it should be taken up in the dust-pan, transferred at once to a newspaper, this rolled up tight and put aside to be carried down to the furnace or the ash-can. After the dust has settled the walls can be gone over with a cloth or with a broom about which has been wrapped a duster, or a hair brush with a long handle, such as comes for this purpose.
The above method can be followed in a room with a carpeted floor or with a large rug fastened down. When small loose rugs are used they may be swept first, then rolled up and carried from the room, after which the bare floor is dusted or wiped off with oil or rubbed with one of the good waxing preparations which the popularity of the hardwood floor has brought into the market. In a house supplied with a vacuum-cleaner the floor and the rugs can both be cleansed without the labor of carrying out the latter, and the upholstered furniture will not need the offices of the small brush in removing the dust from folds and tufts.