Vintage Homemaking

You’ll find them listed as “Receipt Books” . Volumes originally meant to be cookbooks that came to mean much more as historical housewives journaled their homemaking tips, notes, and routines in them. We refer tto them these days as homemaking journals. Some were turned into volumes for purchase and others are only passed on from [...]

From what we know the Vintage Homemaker’s uniform always included an apron.
Used as a way to protect good clothing without having to wash too much the apron could be donned once again for the next day’s housework without worry of a few spills from the previous day’s toil.
The apron has long been the symbol [...]

The dusting of a room during the Victorian era was serious business.
Here is a systematic list for dusting the parlor courtesy of …
TRIED AND APPROVED.
BUCKEYE COOKERY
AND
PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING.
COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL RECIPES
C.1887

The sweeping and dusting of a parlor seems simple enough, but is best done systematically.
“Dusters,” made of old prints, with which to cover books, statuettes, and [...]

THE CLEANING OF ROOMS

In the The American Woman’s Home
Catherine E. Beecher lays out an orderly manner of cleaning a room

 
 
General Rules for Cleaning a Room.
Dust and remove or put under cover small articles and bric-a-brac.
Dust or brush furniture; [...]

Fall
In October and November, it will be necessary to prepare for the cold weather, and get ready the winter clothing for the various members of the family. The white summer curtains will now be carefully put away, the fireplaces, grates, and chimneys looked to, and the House put in a thorough state of repair, so [...]

The summer will be found, as we have mentioned above, in consequence of the diminution of labour for the domestics, the best period for examining and repairing household linen, and for “putting to rights” all those articles which have received a large share of wear and tear during the dark winter days.  In direct reference [...]

 
Vintage Spring Cleaning
 
The Book of Household Management
The spring is the usual period set apart for house-cleaning, and removing all the dust and dirt,
Winter curtains should be taken down, and replaced by the summer white ones; and furs and woollen cloths also carefully laid by.
Included, under the general description of house-cleaning, must be understood, turning out [...]