The Labour-Saving House - free ebook by C. S. Peel

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The Labour-Saving House

C. S. Peel

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THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE

THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE

BY MRS. C. S. PEEL small decoration LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXVIII SECOND EDITION PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE ANCHOR PRESS LTD. TIPTREE ESSEX AUTHOR'S NOTE Some portion of this book appeared in the form of articles in The Queen and The Evening Standard . My thanks are due to the Editors of those papers for permission to republish them. Dorothy C. Peel....

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CHAPTER I

CHAPTER I

THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE CHAPTER I Why Labour-Saving Houses are Needed Why do we need Labour-Saving Houses? Because: 1.—Life is too short and time too valuable to waste in doing work which is unnecessary and which adds little or nothing to our comfort. 2.—There is a scarcity of labour. Girls of the class from which domestic servants were drawn formerly now dislike service. The would-be employer finds it difficult to obtain servants and to keep them when obtained. 3.—Unless great changes are made

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I

I

"Servants? We haven't a single-handed cook or a house-parlourmaid on our books, madam." This, in many cases, is the reply of the registry office to-day, and as time goes on the shortage of domestic workers will become more and more acute. Of highly-paid upper servants, with under-servants to wait upon them, there is no lack, for the supply of persons wishing to fill the few "plum" posts in any profession is always adequate; but as there is a lack of under-servants, even the very rich find it dif

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II

II

The wide dislike of menial work which exists was brought before me vividly a short time ago. A secretary was advertised for, an educated, quick, methodical worker—good typist and shorthandist. The lady who needed the secretary almost required one to deal with the letters she received in reply to her advertisement. [1] A holiday nursery governess was advertised for: again with the same result. Women with every qualification were anxious—desperately anxious—to obtain the post. These educated women

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III

III

Study the psychology of the question, find out what it is young women want of life. Be progressive. Do not say, "Because it was, it ever shall be." Thank God, things do not stay as they were, or we might still be working little children eighteen hours a day in factories, starving and whipping lunatics, and burning witches. Having realised that it is the human attitude which is of first importance, then let us go on to see by what means we can lighten the work of our households so that we may mak

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I

I

The other day I was re-reading that delightful story of a simple soul, Kipps , and was struck anew by the truth of the difficulties which beset Artie and Ann when they went house-hunting. "'They build these 'ouses,' said Ann, 'as though girls wasn't 'uman beings.... There's kitchen stairs to go up, Artie.... Some poor girl's got to go up and down, up and down, and be tired out, jest because they haven't the sense to leave enough space to give their steps a proper rise; and no water upstairs anyw

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II

II

But in the ideal labour-saving house (ideal, mark you, from a labour-saving point of view), there are no fires, no chimneys, no grates, no coal-devouring, dirt-making range, always requiring coal and yet more coal and returning you evil for good in the shape of soot and dirt. Have you ever watched a sweep at work? Have you ever cleaned the flues of a coal range? In our dream-house we have no such horrors. We save the cost of chimneys, sweeps, grates, fenders, fireirons, coal-boxes. We need not p

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III

III

But our house must be well supplied with natural light, for without light and air we cannot live. Away, then, with basements. There must be ample space between the rows of houses so that every room may be light, that the sun may penetrate into it, and therefore the windows must be large. These, too, must be light and airy. The kitchen should not be used as a sitting-room; it is the place in which food is prepared, and should be a place which can be kept exquisitely clean. It should have tiled wa

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IV

IV

Of polished metal there should be a minimum, and glass rather than silver should be chosen for table use. Stainless steel knives take the place of those which need cleaning. The meals should be simplified as much as possible. Earthenware casseroles in which the food is cooked and served save washing up. Rotary brushes by which boot and other cleaning may be carried out are worked by electricity. Linoleum with rubber treads is substituted for stair carpets whenever possible, in order to save carp

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I

I

It was an Irishman who advised, "If ye can't be aisy, be as aisy as ye can," and his advice was good. Thus, if you cannot have an ideal house, have a home which is as nearly ideal as possible, so let us consider the house as we generally find it, and see what can be done to improve it. Most houses built prior to the last ten years seem to have been planned with the express desire of providing an unnecessary amount of hard work for the unfortunate persons who inhabit them. Fifty years ago labour

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II

II

Two servants can easily do the work of a house such as this will become, and the kitchen premises are only suitable for two servants. Extra help, however, can always be employed in times of stress. In order that two women may keep the house in thorough order, gas fires should be used in all rooms other than perhaps the drawing-room and the nursery, though now that gas fires have been brought to such a state of perfection I can see no reason why there should not be gas in the nurseries. The doubl

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III

III

But in addition to structural labour-saving arrangements, these rearranged houses are furnished in a labour-saving manner. Except in the drawing-room, there is as little furniture as possible, for crowded rooms are difficult to clean and take a long time to keep in order. Wherever it is seemly, the floors are fitted with linoleum, for no other floor covering is so cleanly or so easy to keep in good condition. When there are rugs, they are sufficiently light to be easily shaken. Fitted carpets ar

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I

I

Those women who have never been obliged to undertake any domestic duties have little idea of the amount of work which has to be done in the average house. The following is a list of duties, and we must add to it the answering of bells, tidying up after untidy people, any personal services required (in many cases this is considerable), door opening, telephone answering, letter posting, note and message taking, "running out" for things which have been forgotten, whistling for cabs, waiting in the

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II

II

"I have an idea about gas cookers: they should be made longer and not so high, then they could be mounted at a convenient height. But I suppose they are planned to take up as little space as possible. It's all the stooping that makes domestic work so tiring. "Jane does not go out until six o'clock on weekdays, and 3.30 every Sunday. We always go out to tea on Sundays, and the supper is left ready. We keep the house clean and have nice cooking and things well served and are very comfortable. I ha

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I

I

"I have been much interested in your labour-saving articles. I send you a description of our new house. We have adopted many of your ideas. "The family consists of myself and husband and two just-grown-up daughters. "It so happened that some months ago we lost a little money, and we also came to the conclusion that we had been for some time spending more than we should have spent. Our house was rather expensive for our means; we kept five servants, entertained considerably in a simple manner, an

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II

II

"I live by myself and have until lately kept two servants. In consequence, most of my income has been spent on housekeeping. I prefer many other things to food, soap, dusters, and servants, so now I have altered my arrangements. "My flat consists of two sitting-rooms, kitchen, and three bedrooms. The block ought, of course, to have been supplied with a constant service of hot water for heating and cleaning, but we are behind the times in England in these matters. So now I have gas fires in all t

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III

III

"My labour-saving ideas were put to the test, for the gardener was called up, and the cook was ill, and I could not get anyone else for nearly a fortnight. My husband fed the furnace night and morning, and he and I gardened (he was in London five days a week from nine till seven). The house-parlourmaid (a capital girl), and myself, cleaned and cooked, and by careful planning we kept the house nice, and fed well—that is, as well as one does feed nowadays. I was able to go on with my war work, and

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IV

IV

"This is rather a clean town, and with no fires the rooms do not get dirty, and are quickly swept and dusted, and of course there are no coal boxes to fill or carry, and no grates to do. We find the doorstep only needs doing three times a week, except in very dirty weather, and there is no polished metal on the door. We have a simple breakfast of porridge (cooked the day before), toast, done on our own electric toaster on the table, fresh and crisp and hot. We make our own tea and coffee, and bo

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I

I

For many a year I have thought that the average good domesticated woman wasted far too much of her own time and that of her servants in housekeeping, while, on the other hand, many women give too little time and attention to their households. Clever organisation will do much to lighten the work of a household. Take, for example, the ordering of meals and the cooking thereof. The average mistress orders the meals each day with no regard except for the needs of that special day, and the average co

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II

II

"For a long time it was the late-dinner bogey which caused us to keep more servants than we needed, and to live expensively and rather uncomfortably. "At last my husband's dislike of cooks became so passionate (and not without reason), that I determined to change my household arrangements, arguing that we could scarcely have worse food than we were having already. My husband, I must explain, is one of those men who cannot eat a heavy lunch and work after it, so he needs a hot and substantial din

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I

I

Of all labour-saving forces at present available, I think we must regard electricity and gas as the most important. Often, however, it is not for us to choose which we will employ. We must needs use gas if electric current is not available, and we must count the cost of both before deciding whether or no we may employ either. Counting the cost is not so simple a matter as it seems, for it does not suffice to ascertain the price of gas per 1000 feet, and of electricity per unit, and of coal and c

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II

II

When planning out the bills of fare the cook must use more brains and less gas. For instance, let us say that she wants to serve hashed mutton (and Heaven help that it may not be that grey and slimy mass endured in too many an English home!), potatoes, Brussels-sprouts, milk pudding, and stewed fruit. Let her heat the oven and cook the mutton in a casserole. The potatoes and sprouts can cook in the oven just as well as over a boiling tap, the milk pudding is baked, and the fruit baked in a cover

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"The Poor Man's Light."

"The Poor Man's Light."

Some five-and-twenty years ago, when sixpence a unit was considered a very low charge for electricity, Colonel Crompton, R.E., C.B., claimed that before many years electricity would be "the poor man's light"; and if the various supply companies had been developed on the broad lines he advocated, there is no doubt that his prophecy would by now have come true in every town of medium size and in many villages in the area of supply, and we now might have been using electric current to light and war

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Basement Rate and Checking of Waste.

Basement Rate and Checking of Waste.

In many districts special rates are offered where heating or cooking apparatus, or motors for pumping, etc., are used during the daytime, also for basement lights. So when arranging for a supply enquiry should be made as to terms. In the case of basement lights in small houses the saving is nearly all swallowed up in the extra meter rent, but in houses having large basements where it is necessary to use the lights for many hours a day the advisability of going on the special rate is a point well

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When Putting in Electric Light.

When Putting in Electric Light.

It is as well to err on the side of extravagance in the number of wall plugs. When the floor-boards are up it is not a very costly matter to have them put in, and then when the furniture of a room is altered from the position originally assigned to it, as is so often done with a new house, it will not be found that the writing-table or sofa is on the opposite side of the room to the plug to which the lamp required to light it is attached. The placing of the lights and the careful use of them wou

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To Avoid Waste of Current.

To Avoid Waste of Current.

The staircase lights should be on two-way switches, so that they can be controlled from each floor—that is to say, from the hall you can switch on the hall and first-floor lights. From the first floor you can switch off the hall and light the second floor, and so on up the house, the reverse process taking place in descending. If the lights are installed in this way it is not necessary to keep all the staircase lights burning, as is done in so many houses; the extra cost of installing is triflin

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Makes of Lamp.

Makes of Lamp.

The invention and development of the drawn-wire lamp, made by various firms and sold under trade names such as "Osram," "Mazda," and "Z," have made a great saving in the annual bill for electric light, and at the same time have raised the standard of illumination. With the carbon filament, a 32 c.p. lamp would burn for seven and a half hours with the expenditure of one unit of electricity. Now the same light can be obtained for twenty-five hours at the same cost with the metal filament lamp. Aga

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Electric Fires.

Electric Fires.

Various makes of fires are illustrated in this book. A great advantage of the electric fire is that it is red-hot in a few seconds and may be placed where it is most required....

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The Electric House.

The Electric House.

Now let us see how things are done in a house which is worked by electricity throughout. A maid is awakened by an electric alarum (she cannot say that her clock was wrong, because all the clocks are controlled by a master pendulum). She goes downstairs, touches a switch, and sets the hot-water apparatus going. To warm or light a room, to set the cooker to work, needs but a touch. An electric service lift makes the laying and clearing and serving of meals a quick and easy matter. There are no hea

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In the Kitchen.

In the Kitchen.

Let us descend to the kitchen. In the average kitchen the coal range is placed where it is difficult to see the contents of the pots and pans, and each time the cook wishes to put anything into the oven or take it out she must stoop. To stoop and then lift a weight from oven to table adds considerably to the labour of the day. In the intervals of cooking the fire must be made up, and not only must all the pots and pans be cleaned inside, but the outside becomes black and sooty, and must be scrub

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Simplicity.

Simplicity.

That electrical household labour-saving appliances are no longer in the experimental stages, and that now they can be depended upon to work satisfactorily, is shown by the number of schools and restaurants and canteens in which electricity is used. Yet all the cook has to do is to turn the switches and so obtain different degrees of heat. If she needs a fierce heat, she can secure it in a moment, while if she requires a gentle heat, she can secure that, in either case by turning a switch. If a f

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The Saving of Meat.

The Saving of Meat.

I will confine myself to the question of meat. When roasting with coal the loss of weight on a joint is anything between 25 per cent. and 35 per cent. A really bad cook who gallops the meat and does not baste it can effect a shrinkage of even 50 per cent.; but, fortunately, in this land of bad cooks there are few who sin so deeply as this. Twenty-five per cent., however, is quite a common loss, and even good and careful cooks will account for a 20 per cent. loss. In proof of this weigh the meat

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The Cost of Current.

The Cost of Current.

We must now consider the question of cost of current, and here we are in many cases up against a difficulty, for unless current can be obtained at a reasonable price the use of electricity in the household is not a paying proposition. Speaking without inside knowledge of the workings of the power companies, it would appear that they are greatly to blame that electricity is not in more general use. Apparently few of them make any effort to induce their customers to use current for aught but light

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Labour-Saving and Comfort-Giving Appliances.

Labour-Saving and Comfort-Giving Appliances.

But even when all the cooking is not done by electricity, the would-be labour-saver may avail himself of a large number of labour-saving inventions and comfort-giving inventions in the shape of chafing dishes, kettles, toasters, and dish-heaters. Examples of these are to be found in all electrical showrooms, and these, even when cheap current is not available, may prove a great convenience and indirectly a saving of money. In one house known to me, where one servant only has been employed since

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A FINAL WORD

A FINAL WORD

Just as the book was going to press I received this letter— "I must tell you how thankful I have been for your labour-saving ideas. My cook left to make munitions; my housemaid's fancy led her to become the driver of a tradesman's cart; the parlourmaid remained, and still remains, bless her! I have had to rely on what temporary help I could obtain, for cooks so far turn a deaf ear to my entreaties. Had it not been for our gas fires, circulator, and cooker, our washing-rooms and our lift, Heaven

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