Housework Should Always Appear to be Done

My mother-in-law showed me an article from The Australian Women's Weekly (1 Janruary, 1975), enlightening women on how to be more effective with their housework, which Noelene has dutifully kept all these years in her 'Helpful Hints' folder. I'm always on the look out for ways to make cleaning the house and getting organised easier. I was surprisingly impressed with what the article said, so much so that I thought it worth sharing. The advice in this article is only for those who don't really mind a bit of mess, but are embarrassed by being caught out by visitors (and that would be me!).

Here are some snippets from the article...


First things first...

Housework Should Always Appear to be Done

• A housewife's maxim, "It is not necessary that housework should be done, but only that it should appear to be done."
• The house, or some other house, would be there all your life, but the baby won't be a baby for long. If you're going to be a stickler for dusting your dusters and polishing your polishers, you're likely to miss a lot of the fun children provide, no matter what age they are.

Next...

What You Need Mostly is Lots of Cunning

• Lower your sights and develop a lot of cunning.
• Housework should be divided into cunning and cleaning. You always ought to do the cunning bits first, and fit the cleaning bits in when you've a bit of spare time.
• If you're caught out by unexpected visitors, don't scuttle, don't apologise, and don't start pushing things out of sight. Say nothing at all, or just say airily, "Sorry about the mess. It's been one of those days."
• More importantly, don't go into competition with any of your friends whose floors are so clean you could eat off them, and then lick them clean! Most people prefer food and some good conversation, anyway.

Let's get to it...

But You Can Have the House Tidy in 40 1/2 Minutes
This 40 1/2-min plan is geared to the one-baby family (add an extra 10 minutes per child's bedroom).

1. As soon as breakkie's over and the mob has gone, fill the kitchen sink with hot water, dump in everything that needs washing, throw out the rubbish, wipe down the benches and sweep the floor (10 mins).
2. While the dishes are soaking, open the lounge room windows, pick up any papers, books, toys, bits and pieces, etc. (5 mins).
3. If the floor looks really dirty, run the vacuum cleaner over it (2 mins) and rush around the edges with a mop (1 1/2 mins).
4. Next, the bathroom. Hang out the towels, wipe the basin, brush the toilet bowl, wipe up any floor puddles and open the window wide (5 mins).
5. In your bedroom, make the bed, hang up any clothes, put dirty ones in the wash, flick a duster over the dressing-table (10 mins, if you hurry)**.
6. Go back to the kitchen and finish the washing up (7 mins).

That's 40 1/2 minutes, and you have done no housework that a good housekeeper would approve of, but all the parts of your house that visitors are likely to see are fit to be looked at.

If you've still got an hour in hand, that's an hour for cleaning, so use it to vacuum one day, mop the floors another, or any other horrible thing that has to be done once a week. If you haven't got an hour in hand, forget it. The house looks alright, anyway. The absolutely essential thing, for your peace of mind, is never to start a major cleaning job until you've done that cunning clean-up.

There are some important DON'TS:

• Never decide to clean out all the kitchen cupboards (that's asking for unexpected visitors!). Do one shelf tonight while the vegetables are cooking, another tomorrow.
• Don't hoard things with the idea they'll be useful some other time. They won't.
• Don't aim at perfection. Spotless houses are very unwelcoming.
• Above all, don't feel guilty. Housework's not the be-all and end-all of any woman's life.

* The Australian Women's Weekly, 1 Janruary 1975, 'At Home...With Margaret Sydney.'
**Do the same in children's room/s.