Today, I am taking out a leaf of an old-fashioned book that I have, titled ‘A Book for Every Woman’ from 1926! It has numerous ideas and tips for home-making that I feel like sharing with you all! In my blog, I have revised some paragraphs from the book’s chapter titled ‘Do you make work for yourself?’ I hope you enjoy reading the blog!
If you feel that you are overworked, look around your house and see how you can make things easier for yourself. Easier – without sacrificing the essentials of a wholesome living, namely, cleanliness and nutritious food.
Too much clutter
Maybe you do a lot of unnecessary work every day as your house is over-furnished. Is the mantel of your house loaded with ornaments? Is the top of the bureau filled with fripperies? Are the walls overloaded with pictures? Putting away some of these things can help! Now, notice how much more restful and neat your home looks and how much work this saves.
One morning, I suddenly woke up to the fact that I was doing a lot of unnecessary work. I can never forget the length of time it used to take me to dust and clean my bedroom. I always used to go to my writing desk first of all. It looked like a fancy table at some fair, I would rub my eyes in astonishment and would feel pity about the things that my little duster always passed over, but they were never used.
Order restored!
My room offered a great deal of elegance and cleanliness without those things. What mattered for me was that the things I want or use regularly are right in front of my eyes. They could not show up when they were closely elbowed by the things I did not care about. I sorted out my stuff and it helped me in creating an atmosphere of accessibility and cleanliness in my room that I never had. I was proud of myself when I calculated the lesser time it would take me to set it to rights in the mornings.
Kitchen and Dining de-clutter
Then I diverted my attention to the sitting-room and the dining room and even the kitchen came in for its share of this weeding out process. I found out that one cupboard was full of utensils, both household and kitchen, that we never used. They were either too big or too small, which made them unserviceable. For example, there was an ice-chest that was too big for our family and then a preserving kettle that was not satisfactory in the functioning and many other utensils. The things were all good in themselves so I had kept them. I decided to sell the contents of this cupboard. This greatly helped me in managing the mess!
In short, this cleaning process ensured that I pay attention to everything, regardless of its size. The things I was saving with a view of being possible for use someday, weren’t used till date. I asked myself what will be useful in the near future. It turned out that no matter if you will be using these utensils in the future or not, this cleaning process will help you in managing your mess and time.
So you see, the woman of the past were decluttering their homes long before we were!
