Housekeeping on a Homestead
(Page 4 of 6)
If you already have a conventional house there are still
plenty of things you can do to make housekeeping easier. On
your floor you can use patterned or neutral colored rugs
which don't show dirt quickly, or scatter rugs which can be
picked up and washed. The floor itself is easier to clean
if it's waxed and a vacuum cleaner can often be used on it
to more advantage than a dust mop. Or if you have an old
unsightly floor, spatter painting might be the answer to
simple care. Wooden furniture collects less dust if it's
waxed instead of polished with oil.
RELATED CONTENT
When it comes to upholstered furniture most of us know how
much simpler it is to have slipcovers which can be removed
and washed easily. And if you buy or make slipcovers,
bedspreads and draperies out of material that doesn't have
to be ironed, (say seersucker, monkscloth - rubber or
aluminum cloth that can be washed with a hose) then you've
saved yourself even more work. These are just a few samples
of what you can do if you look at your work with a mental
question mark.
Equipment
I remember a city husband saying, "I don't want my wife to
have any more gadgets to make her apartment keeping easier
- she'll just spend more money shopping!" I guess it's true
in the city that the more spare time you have the more
money you spend, There's not much else to do.
On a homestead, however, spare time is time to use
productively. Of course you can run into town but
you don't want to go when you've got a garden to
plant or the bees are getting ready to swarm or a new lamb
is expected.
So machinery for housekeeping and homesteading jobs is a
good investment, for you use this equipment to create more
for your family. One homestead husband told me he would
rather have an electric mixer with all its extra parts in
his home than an automobile (granting that a car wasn't a
vital necessity to his job).
Here are some specific ways to use equipment on a homestead
like ours:
a) Cooking. The freezer is one of the greatest
aids to cooking. While its primary function is to preserve
raw food, it is a boon to better cooking management. While
you're cooking stews, soups, beans, creamed foods, cakes,
cookies or breads, it is easy to make double or triple
batches and put part of them in the freezer for another
meal. You can assemble a variety of dinners from soup to
dessert, place each dinner in one bag or box and freeze it
for future quick delivery. Lunches too can be prepared for
the week and frozen each complete in a separate lunch box.
I should mention that "a grocery store in your home" also
saves a surprising amount of shopping time.
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