Making our home a haven... with Housekeeping Hints

Two weeks ago, Crystal [1]'s Making Your Home a Haven challenge [2] was tackling a pile somewhere in the house. This was my pile. I took a picture of it that day. And finally, today, I got it taken care of... completely!!

This is such a relief, since this box of papers, scrawled recipes, empty teabags (don't ask! [2]), and website-related notes/lists was taking up precious counter space in my kitchen... and I rarely even touched the papers inside.

Having clutter on the counters bothers me (a LOT!), and so I've been on a mission to reduce what gets kept on our kitchen counters. Too many recent days have found my kitchen counters COMPLETELY filled with stuff.

Now, here's where the Housekeeping Hints part comes in. In that pile of papers were these two books -- Heloise's Housekeeping Hints. They have different covers, but are the same book, and I got them both at rummage sales some time back. As in... over a year ago.

My plan all along was to write a review of the book (with some tips for you!) and then give away the two copies. So, here we go! :) If anyone is interested in having one of the Housekeeping Hints books, let me know in a comment below. I'll draw two names from anyone who is interested. The books are fairly old, and one of them has some loose pages. If no one wants them, that's fine; I'll donate them to a thrift store or something. :)

First, this book was written/compiled in 1962. Some of the tips seem ridiculously out-dated to me, but, I'll let you be the judge of that. ;) I did find some really good ideas inside, and the book is organized fairly well, making it easy to find things. There's even an index in the back!

(The bold type is quotes from the book.)

Never worry about the necessities. Everybody must pay rent, taxes, and buy necessary foods. Accept the fact that you cannot escape these costs. Save your "worry time" for the things you buy and don't need!

It's always good to relax about things we can't change. And how many times have I groaned over an expense or bill that can't be lowered, while wasting precious time or money by simply not planning ahead well enough in some other area? :P

Did you know that you could take any boxed cake and add one-quarter cup of cooking oil and it would be just like the one grandmother used to make? Do not use any more as the cake will be so tender that it will fall apart.

I think I actually did know this bit of advice, but who needs to make a cake that greasy?! :)

Now... another time saver: when you are baking meat loaves, always place baking potatoes in the oven at the same time and utilize this heat. Open a can of biscuits, pop in the oven, and dinner is ready!

My mom does this sometimes, and I heartily agree -- meatloaf goes well with baked potatoes, and it makes such an easy meal!! We use vegetables for our side dish rather than biscuits, though. :)

You might say, "But I don't have servants. If I did, my house wouldn't be so disorderly." That is not so. A servant cannot throw things away and clean your closets. No one but the head of a household can do this. And that is you.

System is what is needed in housekeeping. If we can't find a system, then the thing to do is get rid of excess things. The less we have, the easier it is to clean.

So true! Unfortunately, as family size increases, so does the "stuff". How do big families do it?! And aren't we SO blessed to live with such wealth, that we need to think about trying to have less? Anyway, I am constantly de-cluttering and finding better homes for things that I really don't need! Thankfully, the house usually does reflect this to some degree...

Never walk down a long hall more often than necessary. Place objects which belong in another room at the door. Next time you go to that room, take the objects with you.

If you live in a two-story house, never go down the stairs just to put something away. Leave it at the top stair and wait until you have to go down. Then take it with you. The same applies for things that go upstairs. Leave them near the bottom step. Next time you go upstairs, pick them up. This doesn't make your house disorderly.

Another great tip that we always do. Although sometimes I have to make two trips upstairs with all the stuff that accumulated at the bottom all day... :)

Carpets? Absolutely! This may sound odd, but you will save yourself the time and energy required to wax floors (to say nothing of the cost of the wax), daily sweeping, and washing bathmats.

Look for a cotton run on sale. Once in a while you can get a real bargain. Any woman can carpet her own floor. One nine-by-twelve rug will usually cover two bathrooms and a dressing room. If you only have one bathroom, either buy a small rug or get one of your friends to split one with you.

If you have wooden moldings on floors, buy colored carpet tacks to match and tack the rug to the bottom of the baseboard or directly into the floor itself.

Save the scraps! Cut into little pieces to use as small bathmats.

Instead of waxing and mopping, use your carpet sweeper to clean your bathroom floor. You will find it won't need sweeping as often as you thought it would. Gives you a feeling of luxury, too.

Okay, this sounded totally disgusting to me! I would never, ever, EVER desire to put carpet in my bathroom! I have a potty-training two-year-old boy, and I'm thankful for my bathroom linoleum. ;) Actually, I'm thankful for the linoleum anyway. Is our house the only one with a toilet that overflows on occasion? Carpet wouldn't give me a feeling of luxury... it'd give me a feeling of "ick"!

Now, about washing the tub. Use your broom to do this. Wet the tub and sprinkle cleanser in it. Let the water faucet drip slowly and your old kitchen broom will do the rest for you without your having to stoop over.

...By using the broom you have accomplished two things with one stroke. You have also washed your broom!

Okay. Haven't tried this tip yet. I think I'd need to wash my broom before I used it in our tub, though. :)

Chapter 4 was about laundry, and has lots of information about starching, ironing, clotheslines, getting out various stains, and other stuff I never do. Well, besides the clothesline part. :)

There's one tip about hosing down your laundry after you hang it on the clothesline, because the water will weigh down the fabric and the fabric will be less wrinkled when it's dry. I'm sure it works, but I'd rather my laundry didn't take all day to dry... and it'd never get dry on a cloudy/cold day if it were drenched like that! :)

Most of us wear white gloves, and a friend would like to pass on a good cleaning method...

I laughed at that part! Maybe I just don't get out enough, but I haven't seen any white gloves since the last wedding we went to...

...don't save you good things for "tomorrow" -- use them now. Life is so short -- enjoy every day of it.

Get your good silver out and put it in your kitchen drawer and use it every day. Use your good dishes at least once a week, if not daily. There is no one who will ever come into your home who is more important and loved any more than your own family. They are the greatest!

If you could only read some of the letters that come to me saying such things as:

"Heloise, I never knew how much I loved my husband until he was gone. I ate off old dishes, saved my good silver for company (and none was as good as he) and covered my beautiful satin comforter (the one he gave me) when I should have used it so that the beautiful satin would show and he could see it! If I had it to do over... Tell the young ones to enjoy their families and use their good things."

So go get that pretty sugar bowl out and so what if you put a soap pad in it? At least you are enjoying it daily!

Such good thoughts.

So, this week (and beyond!) I'm going to be mindfully making our home more of a haven by letting everyone (including myself!) enjoy things. I'm all for taking good care of our stuff (after all, if you don't have too much stuff, you need to take good care of what you have!) but sometimes I get a little uptight. There are certainly things that I have kept aside as "too nice" to even have an opportunity to be used, lest they show signs of wear.

My goal is to work on changing that! :)