Housekeeping on a Homestead
(Page 3 of 6)
First, your own attitude is brighter and more interested.
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Second, your work gives you pleasure and satisfaction
because it is creative.
Third, you have that fine independent feeling of holding
your security in your own. hands, and you'll take great
pleasure in knowing your children are being well-fed and
growing up in the most wholesome of surroundings.
Fourth, you are more of an executive and have more interest
in increasing your efficiency.
In the book "Zero Storage" Mr. Sparkes, the author,
describes the Fylers, a family of seven who have been
homesteading and he sums up the economic point with this
sentence. "For Mr. Fyler, one fact must be crystalclear: by
reason of the land and the freezer, instead of one Fyler,
seven are now helping to make the family living."
When Jackie gets a little older, there will be three
Robinsons instead of two "bringing home the bacon." Before
we started homesteading it was just Father!
Now For The Housekeeping Itself
It has taken me three years of "homesteading" to realize
how ridiculous it is to judge a woman's housekeeping
ability by whether or not her country house is spotless,
with dishes and beds attended to by 10 a. m. Instead of
ironing or dusting, you will want to pick strawberries that
are just ripe, wrap a chilled lamb for the freezer or go
fishing with your children. But your very annoyance with
the routine tasks will give you the incentive to cut down
the time they take. And when you tackle them with this sort
of outlook, they immediately become more interesting!
It seems to me, proficiency in housekeeping falls into
three main divisions:
(1) Layout and furnishing of your house.
(2) Equipment.
(3) Management and organization.
The House And What YouPut In
It
Architects are now beginning to realize that a woman's
working areas should be laid out in an orderly, convenient
way. I have begun to see more plans recently where washing,
ironing, sewing, cooking and children's play areas are
correlated instead of being scattered all over the house
from attic to basement. Also on a homestead you will want
to consider whether the bathroom is handy to the outdoors,
whether there is plenty of space for outdoor clothes where
you usually enter and whether there is sufficient place for
country tools and equipment. The amount of your routine
work is somewhat determined the minute you choose a house.
If you should build a new house, there will be many new
designs and ideas to choose from. For instance, new radiant
heating (hot water pipes under the floor) not only provides
a healthier heating plan, but it will mean less work for
Mama - no dusting and no painting those unsightly dust
catchers called radiators. Also floors over the heating
pipes may well be tile - warmer in winter, cooler in
summer. And if the floors are pretty and warm - why, fewer
rugs to pay for or to clean.
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