More on Homemaking



Tammy shared her routine with us and I thought you'd like to see that comment.

Monday - kitchen day - clean out the refrigerator, quick inventory of the pantry, prep food for the week including baking, then cleaning of counters, floors, and straightening cupboards and drawers as needed.

Tuesday - deep cleaning day - weekly rotation of concentrating on "zones" which include living/dining, bedrooms, bathrooms, porches/garage/car.


Wednesday - laundry day - we do laundry daily, but this is the catch-up day. I do our sheets, rugs, any odds and ends in the laundry room. I also take this day to clean the laundry room and check inventory of supplies.



Thursday - office day - work in th
e den, pay bills, do correspondence, etc.

Friday - errand day - I have to go to town on Friday mornings to do some things at work, so I do my errands then, too. These include grocery shopping, library, post office, dropping off donations, any other shopping that needs done.


Saturday and Sunday are catch-up and rest days. Lots of times I work one or the other or both days, so instead of assigning chores, those days are open to just whatever needs doing.


There are daily tasks, of course, like dishes and keeping the bathrooms picked up and neat. The kids help out before bed by picking up their things. This summer they'll have a daily/weekly chore list to get done before any pool time or library programs.



Debby added this on the Good Housekeeping Book post:
I was happy to read that about dissolving the soap in hot water before adding clothes. I always do that. I have this odd hanger I use as a stirring stick! I also always use hot water to soak undies since they drip dry. I read an article about bacteria, EColi, etc. and it said that it took hot water about 20 minutes to kill them. Or a hot dryer. Since my *new* undies are almost 4 yrs. old and still in pretty good shape, I'll assume I'm doing okay lol. Not using the dryer makes a big difference in how well the elastic does.

Debby in KS
P.S. Did the blogging world change how you can sign your name at the end? I can no longer post on If You do Stuff....there's no "anonymous" anymore. :( I noticed several blogs have changed
.

Debby, I'm not sure about the posting problem.  Rhonda reads here and will take note.  It may be a setting she had to put on her blog due to spam woes.  Those spammers are a real pain and often come in under Anonymous.

Bed bugs, lice, and MRSA are best dealt with in HOT water washes, as well.  I know this from first hand experience, unfortunately.   It is a misfortune that in John's work he gets exposed to lots of stuff and in turn we at home get to be exposed as well, no matter how careful he may be.

From Sarah
The newer washing machines will not let you put in detergent then add clothes. You put the clothe in and the detergent in the opening for it and shut the door. No way to use Oxi clean cause you can't put it in first either. New is not always good. :-)  

I have a very good old 1920s novel that is all about a women in her first year of marriage and her housekeeping and friends.


The title is: A Thousand ways to Please a Husband with Bettina's Best Recipes. You can find all about it on Amazon and I saw one of the sites had a Kindle edition. It might be found on line too. It contains 1001 recipes or some such number. There are other Bettina's recipe books. I bought two other original ones hoping they too had more of the stories but they just had recipes. :( If anyone knows of any of the other Bettina's books with stories or other good homemaking books please let us all know! You will Love this book though. She talks of using a fireless cooker. I found one mentioned in an old magazine. Like a hay box where you get the food hot and then put it in a lined box to finish cooking. Some had hot tiles that went round the food. It was her crock pot of those years. Look this books up and let us know what you think. :) Sarah

Sarah I noted that about the washing machine that Sam and Bess have.  It's one of those non-agitator types.  I didn't do the soap right.  I was supposed to put in a dispenser and I dropped it in with the clothes.  I had just about learned how to do it all properly when I came home to my old standard washer.

Sarah left two comments.  She had to go look up her book to get the title for us so I blended the comments..   I checked online and the Bettina book is available from Amazon and several other sellers for all price points imaginable.   On Amazon the kindle version is just a bit over $2 and it looks like they reprinted the out of print book with a new cover  for a little under $10. 

I haven't checked eBay which is usually my first port of call when I'm looking up older books.  I'd love to find an original copy and there you often can and for good prices.

Carolyn @ Our Gilded Abode  shared these books.  I believe someone else mentioned Martha Stewart's book as well...
 A few books that I've found helpful are "America's Housekeeping Book" (compiled by the New York Herald Tribune Home Institute) from 1941. A couple of others, though not vintage, are "Home Comforts - The Art and Science of Keeping House" by Cheryl Mendelson, and of course, Martha Stewart's "Homekeeping Handbook." Such great resources. Thank you again for all the practical tips and info you share - I always look forward to them!

I looked up the older book American's Housekeeping Book and it is still available for a reasonable enough price.  Again, I haven't checked eBay but

Just because it's a good hint I thought I'd share this tidbit from Becky who is very aware of her schedule and how it affects the home:

On Mondays and Tuesdays, I try to get some food cooked and set out in a crock pot or ready to warm for Rob and whichever girl or girls are home that day because I am gone into the evening at work. Today, Ja'Ana packed Rob and the girls a nice lunch in a pail to take with them. They went and did some errands, including getting another van load of firewood from my sister's farm, while I was at work. 

I am glad so many of you had comments to make on this series.  Thank you all for sharing!

8 comments:

Angela said...

Sarah, I have the same Bettina book though mine was published in 1917. I bought it because I loved the title but then fell in love with the book. I like the subtitle on the inside "The Romance of Cookery and Housekeeping." It is the only one I have though so I can't help you with any other suggestions. Terri, Guess I have to chime in on schedules. I try to sit down on Sundays and look at the calendar for the week and make a game plan. Mondays is my only "hard a fast" day. On Mondays I do sheets, laundry (though I usually do at least one more load during the week), water plants, clean sink/ toilets, and a few other things. This way if the rest of the week goes to pot for whatever reason I know at least we have clean clothes and a clean bathroom. Then the rest of the chores are scheduled on Sunday according to what is planned for the week, outside chores, or projects such as painting. I love being a homemaker and making my own schedule!

Anonymous said...

Sarah, I have the same kind of washing machine and I grumbled to myself about the use of Oxi Clean. Finally, a light bulb. I mix it up in a small bucket, a gallon or so, of very hot water, stir until it's nearly dissolved and throw it in on top of the clothes. Add another bucket or two of water and start the machine upright away. I've had no problem with unwanted bleaching of fabric. Mindy

Anonymous said...

Hi Terri! HaveI mentioned how much I love the fact that you share the wisdom nuggets found in your comments as a post?!
I truly appreciate that you do this. I would miss so much great information if you didn't! That said, I wanted to let everyone know that I found the BETTINA book free to read online, for those who care to have a look it is found at this link:
https://archive.org/stream/thousandwaystopl00weav#page/12/mode/2up

Warmly,
Tracey
Xox
P.S. Good news, I have FINALLY gained access to our frugalluxuries gmail account after nearly nine months of zero access. I'm not sure what changed, but I was finally able to access my account and change the password. I do believe it had been hacked sometime last summer. Blah. Happy to get it accessed and am now working on changing my blog to Wordpress...if I can figure it out haha! And eventually a new email as well! Will keep you posted ... wish me luck haha!

Rhonda said...

Dear Terri and Debby in KS
I am up in the middle of the night with some allergy coughing. I went and checked the settings on my blog and saw the comments part ere set to not allow anonymous. This is not a change I made, maybe blogger did it, who knows. I did change it back to allow anonymous so hopefully it will allow you Debby to comment.
I've been very busy with holiday things and gardening and family and trying to exercise. I just haven't updated my blog in a few days.
But no matter how busy I am, I always read Terri. That's funny that I was able to get Debby's message through you, Terri. We've never met but we are sort of cyber-sisters, right?

Rhonda said...

PS- I went to Tracey's link and found the Bettina book. It looks like lots of fun to read.
I have a 2nd cousin named Betina. Her parents called her Betina but now she just goes by Tina.

Anonymous said...

The first Bettina book we got was from a Synagog rummage sale. It was actually the yellow cover one seen on Amazon and was a book club edition. Then I got the 1917 one and found it had a few more stories in it than the other one. I hope somewhere out there are more stories..but probably not. If I ever hear of any other homemaking books I will mention them in the comments here sometime down the road. It is so fun to peek in other homemakers windows and see how they go about their days!
Thank you Teri for bringing scheduling and such activities up. I do try to have a few things to do on certain days just to try to keep somewhat on track. I so miss my days alone at home being able to get my jobs done. :-) Even on days we are gone from home or hubby has me helping with things here and I can't get to my chores,.. I do get the very basics done. It may mean no relaxing time but I will sleep better not getting even more behind. :-))) Then too I do try for my satisfaction, to get one tiny extra job done. Even if it is only to clean out one section of my silverware/ utensil drawer. Maybe only the teaspoon section!!!! LOL
I thought I had heard the Bettina book with the story line was free on line somewhere. I am glad it was found. As I read it I see it like a movie playing in my head. It is so fun to imagine her little cottage, friends and activities....and meals! She is learning how to do things then she turns round and mentors those starting out. A Titus women. Sarah

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, thank you for the oxi clean suggestion. I was worried it would mess up the clothes to pour this on top of the dry clothes. The machine automatically measures the weight of the clothes then adds water according to that. {although I think too little} They even said in the instructions,,yes the water does not cover the clothes! Wow! Donna at gdonna.com has the same machine and she actually wet some of her clothes before adding it to the machine to hopefully trick the machine into adding a bit more water. Her machine has the glass lid so she took a flashlight and watched how it worked! When she wrote she said this machine drives her crazy! Yes no agitator..which is nice when doing blankets and pillows and such. Don't even get into how it can leave the sheets all balled up and end up when you open the lid and look in it looks like a mushroom top how the sheets have settled. I add the sheets as they say to do but sometimes they come out ok and other times not. What fun. Mine is a Maytag Bravos top loader. One hint. My washer is deep. Deep. I am 5'3" I have to stand on my tip toes and stretch to get the things on the bottom of the drum. If you are short check the depth of a machine out at the store and see how easily you can reach in! I used to be 5'6" so hopefully I don't shrink more or I will need a stool to get my washing!!!! LOL My husband says he worries he will find me with my feet sticking out the washer top one day cause I fell in!!!!! LOL LOL No matter what though I am grateful I have a washer..any washer. It is a blessing. Sarah

Melanie said...

I *love* those red canisters and the cookie jar! :-)

The Long Quiet: Day 21