House Hold Cleaning Tip Sitemap

1. EQUIPMENT - We hope you won't find it disconcerting to open this book and find that you have landed spang in the cleaning closet. But what better place is there to begin a discussion of easier and more effective home cleaning methods? The easy cleaning methods advocated today, the improved cleaning agents that are available and the efficient streamlined equipment we have are based on long scientific investigation in the nation's laboratories and the workshops of engineers.

2. WALLS - We are not going to make a room by room tour of the house, since many of the problems presented in one would be found in all, but some rooms do require special techniques which we will cover adequately. Walls and ceilings, obviously, are to be found in every room, so let's begin there.

3. FLOORS - To look its best a room must have a clean, softly lustrous floor whatever the finish or covering may be. Such floors are not difficult to achieve with the equipment and materials available at small cost to today's housekeeper.

For waxed wooden floors and resilient coverings there are long handled buffers and applicators of modest price, while electric polishers can be rented inexpensively from hardware and grocery stores.

4. CARPETS - Now, presumably, we have the floors finished and looking spic and span. What about the rugs and carpets? No matter what material they are made of or how much they cost, they will look faded and dull if they are not kept fresh and clean.

DAILY CARE is the same for all types. A quick brushup with a carpet sweeper, especially in areas of heavy traffic, will remove dust, dirt, ashes, and crumbs, and fluffs up the nap so that it is kept soft and attractive.

5. UPSTAIRS - With the vogue for ranch and other one-floor houses-not to mention apartments-you may not have an upstairs, but that doesn't mean that you can sidestep second-floor problems. Bedrooms and bathrooms will be somewhere about.

BEDSTEADS AND MATTRESSES are of top importance because your proper rest depends upon them. Lumps and depressions in your mattress, inner springs that emit musical notes when you turn, soiled ticking, and lack of bounce are warnings that your bed is no longer what it used to be, but a new mattress may not be necessary.

6. FURNITURE - A CAREFUL WASH FOR HARDWOOD FURNITURE is in order when it begins to look clouded and scummy in spite of conscientious dusting and polishing. You can choose between warm water with a mild white soap or unbuilt synthetic detergent, or a furniture wash that you can easily mix yourself. Old wax can be removed by applying liquid wax generously and wiping the surface promptly.

7. WINDOWS + CURTAINS - A logical time to tackle the job of washing the windows is right after you have taken down your curtains and draperies for washing or dry cleaning. Give the screens a brushoff first so that rain won't drive dust from them against your nice clean windowpanes. Dusty screens shut out a lot of sunlight too.

8. A FIRE - Eons ago, when man first discovered fire, he wisely rigged up a hearth in his cave and cozily toasted his toes. He never let that fire go out and the hearth became the symbol of home.

A FIREPLACE DOMINATES ANY ROOM it occupies and its appearance tells what kind of person you are-neat, lazy, indifferent, or sloppy. A cluttered mantel, accumulations of trash in the fireplace waiting for the touch of a lighted match, and facings grimed with smoke suggest a carelessly run home.

9. LIVING ROOM - Aside from being the room most likely to have a fireplace, your living room is important because it keynotes your home and tells so much about you. In pictures and books it reveals your taste and personality and the interests and hobbies of members of your family. This is the haven your family seeks after the stresses of the day. This is where you entertain your friends.

10. DINING ROOM - Today's dining room may be a corner of the living room, or a little dinette. In these hurly-burly days, when practically no one has regular help, you may even serve most of the family meals at a table in the kitchen.

BUT WHEREVER YOUR MEALS ARE SERVED, in a real dining room or in an attractive corner, there are holidays and special occasions when you want your table to look its sparkling best. This means bringing out your linen, polishing the silver, and using your best china and glassware.

11. ELECTRICITY - In today's busy world, when more and more women work outside the home as well as in it the only servant most of us have is that mysterious traveler-electricity.
No one completely understands electricity; but day after day it accomplishes prodigious chores. For a few cents' toll, like a partially-tamed genie, it gives us light, washes our clothes, makes our toast, polishes floors, washes dishes, provides easy ironing, makes coffee, does the dishes, cooks waffles, and runs the kitchen range. For diversion it provides radio and television shows.

12. KITCHEN - This is where we spent so much time, bouncing back and forth between refrigerator, range, and sink-juggling pots and pans of various sizes, contours, and materials.

The major items of equipment that involve us here are the refrigerator and range and, of the two, the range perhaps poses the most exacting cleaning problem. It calls for rubber gloves, if you are fastidious, and know-how.

13. SPOTS + STAINS - It's a smart woman who takes time to learn how to remove stains from clothing and household furnishings. She can rescue many an expensive or well liked item that another woman might discard as hopeless, or ruin by hit-or-miss attempts to clean.

STAIN REMOVERS. The first requirement in stain removal is to know the agents that are specific for the different stains. Some spots are unaffected by water but are removed by solvents, and vice versa.

14. FABRICS + FINISHES - THE BEWILDERING ARRAY of new textile fibers and blends, with their variety of special finishes, has caused a wail to go up from the women who use them, the manufacturers who spin the synthetic fibers, and the textile experts in the government who are called upon to answer questions about them.

THE SPECIAL FINISHES and no-ironing materials are intended to ease the laundry burden of today's busy women and to give them pleasure through beauty of texture, feel, and drape.

15. ATTICS + BASEMENTS - A THOROUGH TREATMENT once or twice a year is needed for attics and basements to be put in order, swept, and dusted. This is the time to discard the accumulation of worthless stuff that tends to move toward the opposite poles of the house.

There is a certain glamour to attics, especially old cluttered ones, with their lure of hidden treasure, rare stamps, papers, or antiques. Let's ascend-up steps or ladder-taking the vacuum cleaner along.

THE END