Days and Weeks » Vintage Homemaking

The Daily Details of a Vintage Weekly Schedule

The art of scheduling the days within your week was fine tuned long before I was born. Planning the steps of your day leaves little undone. This extremely detailed workweek from an early 20th century housewife did include rest periods which are important for well being.

Examples Of Schedules

While, as was said, it is not possible to give one type schedule that will apply to any and all conditions, here is a work schedule carefully planned for a week for a woman who does all her own work in a family of 5, the 3 children going to school (but coming home at noon) ; husband’s shirts being sent to laundry. The house is a detached, 7-room suburban cottage; the fuel used gas, with coal water heater.

ONE WEEK SCHEDULE FOR FAMILY OF FIVE

Without Labor-Saving Equipment

~Monday~

6 : 00 – 6 : 30 Rise and dress; start water heater

6:30- 7:00 Prepare breakfast

7:00- 7:30 Breakfast

7:30- 8:30 Wash dishes; straighten kitchen; inspect icebox; plan meals for Monday and Tuesday

8:30- 9 : 00 Prepare towards lunch

9 : 00-1o : 00 Bedrooms, bath and hall cleaned; sort and prepare soiled linen and laundry

10 : 00-11 : 00 Thorough downstairs cleaning

11: 00-11 :30 Rest period

11:30-I2: 00 Serve lunch

12 : 00 – 1: 00 Lunch

I : 00- 3 : 00 Lunch dishes; prepare cooking for Monday
and Tuesday; mop kitchen

3 : 00- 4 : 00 Sewing and mending

4: 00- 4:30 Soak clothes and prepare for next day’s washing

4:30-5:30 Rest period; play with children; walk, recreation or market

5 :30- 6 : 00 Prepare supper

6: 00- 7: 00 Supper

7: 00- 7:30 Wash dishes

~Tuesday~

6: 00- 6:30 Rise and dress: put on boiler

6:3o- 7 :00 Prepare breakfast

7: 00- 7:30 Breakfast

7:30- 8 : 00 Stack dishes; make beds

8: 00-11:30 Washing 1

11:30-12: 00 Rest period

12: 00- 1 : 00 Lunch (prepared day before)

I : 00— 2:30 Wash breakfast and lunch dishes; clear up laundry

3:30- 4 : 00 Take in clothes; fold, sprinkle, lay away

4 : 00- 5:3o Rest period

5:30- 6: 00 Prepare supper

6: 00- 7: 00 Supper

7: 00- 7:30 Wash dishes

~Wednesday~

6 : 00- 6:30 Rise and dress; start water heater

6:30- 7: 00 Prepare breakfast

7 : 00- 7:30 Breakfast

7:30-8:30 Wash dishes; inspect icebox; plan meals; start lunch

8:30- 9: 00 Make beds; light cleaning

9 : 00 – 12 : 00Ironing

12: 00- 1 : 00 Lunch

1 : 00- 2: 00 Finish ironing; put away clothes

2: 00- 3: 00 Wash dishes; straighten kitchen

3: 00 – 4: 00 Rest period

4 : 00 – 5: 00 Market; walk

5: 30- 6: 00 Prepare supper

6: 00- 7: 00 Supper

7: 00- 7: 30 Wash dishes

~Thursday~

6 : 00- 6: 30 Rise and dress; start water heater

6: 30- 7 : 00 Prepare breakfast

7 : 00- 7: 30 Breakfast

7: 30- 8: 30 Wash dishes ; straighten kitchen; plan meals

8: 30- 9: 00 Make beds

9: 00-11: 30 Bedrooms and closets cleaned

11: 30 – 12: 00 Rest period

12 : 00- 1: 00 Lunch

1: oo – 2: 00 Wash
dishes; prepare vegetables toward supper

2: 00- 3: 30 Upstairs windows cleaned(Up and down stairs windows alternately each week)

3: 30-4: 00 Silver polished

4:00- 5: 30 Rest period

5: 30 – 6: 00 Prepare supper

6: 00- 7: 00 Supper

7: 00- 7: 30 Wash dishes

Friday

6: 00- 6: 30 Rise and dress; start heater

6: 30- 7: 00 Prepare breakfast

7: 00- 7: 30 Breakfast

7: 30-8: 30 Wash dishes; straighten kitchen; plan meals

8: 30- 9: 00 Make beds

9: 00 – 11: 30 Downstairs cleaning

11: 30 – I2: 00 Rest period

12: 00- 1: 00 Lunch

1: 00- 2: 00 Wash dishes; start supper

2: 00 – 3: 30 Clean refrigerator, pantry, kitchen, drawers

3: 00 – 5: 30 Rest period; marketing

5: 30- 6: 00 Prepare supper

6: 00- 7: 00 Supper

7: 00- 7: 30 Wash dishes

7: 30- 8: 00 Set bread

Saturday

6: 00- 6: 30 Rise and dress; start heater

6: 3o- 7: 00 Prepare breakfast

7: 00- 7: 30 Breakfast

7: 30- 8: 00 Make beds

8: 00- 8: 30 Wash dishes

8: 30 – 11: 30 Special cooking, and baking

11: 30 – 12: 00 Rest period

12: 00- 1: 00 Lunch

1: 00- 2: 00 Wash dishes; start supper

2: 00 – 3:3o Clean stove; wipe kitchen and porch

3: 3o – 5: 30 Rest period

5: 30- 6: 00 Prepare supper

6: 00- 7: 00 Supper

7:00- 7: 30 Wash dishes

light or cold meals Sunday

~Household engineering

The Weekly Cares of Home – Vintage Weekly Home Chores

Forgive me for yet another post about the Vintage (mostly Victorian) woman’s weekly chores schedule.

This choice tidbit is found in Catherine and Harriet (Stowe) Beecher’s American Woman’s Home…

Monday, with some of the best housekeepers, is devoted to preparing for the labors of the week. Any extra cooking, the purchasing of articles to be used during the week, the assorting of clothes for the wash, and mending such as would otherwise be injured–these, and similar items, belong to this day.

Tuesday is devoted to washing,

and Wednesday to ironing.

On Thursday, the ironing is finished off, the clothes are folded and put away, and all articles which need mending are put in the mending-basket, and attended to.

Friday is devoted to sweeping and house-cleaning.

On Saturday, and especially the last Saturday of every month, every department is put in order; the casters and table furniture are regulated, the pantry and cellar inspected, the trunks, drawers, and closets arranged, and every thing about the house put in order for…

Sunday.

By this regular recurrence of a particular time for inspecting every thing, nothing is forgotten till ruined by neglect.

Vintage Weekly Schedule

These days we find great interest in the fact that women of time’s past had specific home duties they did on specific days. It’s really ingenious if you think about it. Something about applying a rhythm to your homekeeping duties not only brings order to your days but a connection to the past.

Here are a few examples…

On Monday: Wash

Tuesday, iron

Wednesday, bake and scrub kitchen and pantry

Thursday, clean the sliver-ware, examine the pots and kettles, and look after store-room and cellar

Friday, devote to general cleaning and dusting

Saturday, bake and scrub kitchen and pantry floors, and prepare for Sunday

~Practical Housekeeping

——————–

MONDAY – Brush up after Sunday, mend soiled linen, soak clothes, market for and prepare Tuesday meals in advance.

TUESDAY – Wash clothes every other week (Mothers’ Meeting on alternate Tuesday), wipe bathroom and kitchen.

WEDNESDAY – Iron clothes every other week, mend and lay away clothes, market for Thursday.

THURSDAY - Do new sewing in forenoon (Club every other Thursday), wipe bathroom.

FRIDAY – Do baking and special cooking, clean bedrooms, market for Saturday and Sunday.

SATURDAY – Clean living-rooms, bathroom, and kitchen, clean silver; generous dinner Saturday night, so only light meals Sunday.

~The New Housekeeping Efficiency Studies in Home Management

——————–

Monday – Pick up after Sunday. Brush Sunday clothes and put away. Clean bathroom and put clothes to soak for washing.

Tuesday – Washing and cleaning kitchen.

Wednesday – Ironing, and arranging clothes to be mended

Thursday – Clean bedrooms and hall. Sew or mend.

Friday – Clean sitting room, parlor and dining room. Bake bread.

Saturday – Clean kitchen, lamps. Cooking

~ The Profession of Home Making

The one thing in common with these three schedules is the observance of Sunday as a day of rest.

Vintage Daily Homemaking Schedule

from The New Housekeeping Efficiency Studies in Home Management
1912,1913

(take with a grain of salt and do try to remember she did not have the internet, television, or mommy play groups)

Rise 6:30 o’clock.

Breakfast 7 o’clock.

Dress little boy; scrape and carry dishes to kitchen; air beds. Baby’s bath,

7:30 A. M.; the baby naps from 9 to 10 A. M

Wash dishes, plan meals, cook and prepare for dinner, 9 to 10 A.M. (Little boy plays on porch or in room.

Make beds, sweep, dust, 10 to 11 A. m., while the baby is awake.

Prepare for luncheon, sew half an hour while playing with the children, 11 to 12.

Lunch with both children at noon.

Leave luncheon dishes unwashed, so as to nap an hour at once with children, uninterrupted.

Dress self and children at 2 P.m.; go for walk, market, or make a call.

Home again, 5 P.m.; give children supper, start own supper.

Give children bath, put them to bed at six O’clock.

Have own supper alone with father, 6:30 P. m.

Wash dishes, and while doing so prepare cereal, fruit, and the baby’s gruel for the “fireless cooker.”

Finish about 7: 30 P.m.

Smoothing out the Wrinkles – Tuesday Ironing Day

Box Irons Heated Internally by Patent Artificial Fuel

Today most of our clothing is wash and wear, wrinkle free, or dry clean only. In the past Tuesday was the day to take all that was washed up on Monday and iron it to a becoming crispness. There was no benefit of wrinkle free fabrics in these women’s day so ironing was a must.People took pride in looking their best and that meant smoothly ironed clothing and even bedsheets. A person knew how a women kept home based on the number of wrinkles in her husband’s clothing and a competent housekeeper knew how best to accomplish the task.This is from a household manual that described the work of a home with hired help nevertheless this treatise will give some idea of all that was involved on ironing day.

Ironing: The irons consist of the common flat-iron which is of different sizes, varying from 4 to 10 inches in length, triangular in form, and from 2-1/2 to 4-1/2 inches in width at the broad end; the oval iron, which is used for more delicate articles; and the box-iron, which is hollow, and heated by a red-hot iron inserted into the box. The Italian iron is a hollow tube, smooth on the outside, and raised on a slender pedestal with a footstalk. Into the hollow cylinder a red-hot iron is pushed, which heats it; and the smooth outside of the latter is used, on which articles such as frills, and plaited articles, are drawn.

Crimping- and gauffering-machines are used for a kind of plaiting where much regularity is required, the articles being passed through two iron rollers fluted so as to represent the kind of plait or fold required.

To be able to iron properly requires much practice and experience.
Strict cleanliness with all the ironing utensils must be observed, as,
if this is not the case, not the most expert ironer will be able to make her things look clear and free from smears, &c. After wiping down her ironing table, the laundry-maid should place a coarse cloth on it, and over that the ironing-blanket, with her stand and iron-rubber; and having ascertained that her irons are quite clean and of the right heat, she proceeds with her work.

It is a good plan to try the heat of the iron on a coarse cloth or apron before ironing anything fine: there is then no danger of scorching. For ironing fine things, such as collars, cuffs, muslins, and laces, there is nothing so clean and nice to use as the box-iron; the bottom being bright, and never placed near the fire, it is always
perfectly clean; it should, however, be kept in a dry place, for fear of its rusting. Gauffering-tongs or irons must be placed in a clear fire for a minute, then withdrawn, wiped with a coarse rubber, and the heat of them tried on a piece of paper, as, unless great care is taken, these will very soon scorch.

The skirts of muslin dresses should be ironed on a skirt-board covered with flannel, and the fronts of shirts on a smaller board, also covered with flannel; this board being placed between the back and front.

After things are mangled, they should also be ironed in the folds
and gathers; dinner-napkins smoothed over, as also table-cloths,
pillow-cases, and sometimes sheets. The bands of flannel petticoats, and shoulder-straps to flannel waistcoats, must also undergo the same process.

Mangle: Vintage item used to remove water from laundry before hanging to dry. It also proved to smooth the items enough that sometimes ironing could be omitted.

Gauffering Iron: Iron coated tong like things used to crisp frills and ruffles. This item was also heated.

The Daily Details of a Vintage Weekly Schedule

The Weekly Cares of Home – Vintage Weekly Home Chores

Vintage Weekly Schedule

Vintage Daily Homemaking Schedule

Smoothing out the Wrinkles – Tuesday Ironing Day

Pertinent Spots

Vintage Patterns

Categories

Other Items for You

Recent Articles