Vintage Housekeeping
Homemaking Receipt Books
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 to them these days as homemaking journals. Some were turned into volumes for purchase and others are only passed on from [...]
Vintage Aprons
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 [...]
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 [...]
To Dust a Room
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 [...]
General Rules for Cleaning a Room
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; [...]
Autumn Cleaning
“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 [...]
Vintage Summer Cleaning
Although the onset of summer does not begin the same frenzied housecleaning as that of spring it still holds a few choice housekeeping chores of it’s own…
“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, [...]
Spring Cleaning of the Past
Did you know that women (and their families) used to spend up to 2 weeks each fall and spring readying their homes for the coming season? This would involve any number of things up to and sometimes including putting in new lineoleum on the floor! Much of this was due in large part [...]
