Dear Penelope:

Your sense of the ludicrous is going to be of the greatest help over rough places, for often little troubles seem to vanish if we can only laugh over them. I was very much amused with your clever devices to cover up from your maid the fact that you could not remember in what order her work ought to be done. It is surprising, isn’t it, how we can go on living for years in our mothers’ well-ordered households without ever thinking what the method is that makes everything go so like clockwork?

But it is the experience of most of us, and this letter shall go off at once to you hoping to reach you before the next sweeping day, for, as I understand it, that is the vital question for the moment. Without any preamble I shall plunge right into my subject. With two or three maids, of course, every room should have its regular weekly cleaning, but where there is but one she can only manage to sweep each room once in two weeks, you arranging the order of her work as I suggested to you in my last letter.

I will give you two methods of cleaning, one with a broom, and the other with a vacuum cleaner, but I strongly recommend the cleaner as it raises almost no dust and makes the cleaning much easier. You can buy a kind now in the department stores that is no heavier than an ordinary carpet sweeper, is used the same way by hand, does not require electricity in the house, and is comparatively inexpensive, ranging from six dollars up.

The following is the order for the thorough weekly cleaning with a broom:

Before beginning run the shades up to the top and open the windows at the top keeping them shut at the bottom. The rising hot air will then carry the dust out of the window, while, if the window be open at the bottom, the cold air, which falls, will blow the dust in.

Take small rugs out to be shaken.

Brush window sills and lower part of blinds.

Dust each small piece of furniture and take it out of the room.

Shake out of the window all table covers and take them out of the room while the cleaning is going on.

If it is a bedroom, cover bed with dusting sheet.

Brush hard all upholstered furniture with a whisk broom and cover with dusting sheets.

Dust all ornaments laying them carefully under dusting sheet on sofa or bed.

All little things being out of the room and large pieces of furniture covered, sweep carpet or rug, and then, with dustless mop, go over the floor, being careful to clean under heavy pieces of furniture that cannot be moved, rubbing the floor well, but not using oil, as it soils light dresses, or water, as it takes the polish off. Once a month or oftener wax the floor and polish it with a soft cloth on your broom or a polishing brush that comes for the purpose.

Clean mirrors by washing with water that has a little ammonia in it. Wipe and polish with a lintless cloth or newspaper. Newspaper is always on hand and makes a fine polish.

Wash the gas globes if they are dirty (probably about once a month), being careful not to screw them on tight when they are put back, as that makes the globes crack when they get hot.

Take away all soiled bureau and sideboard covers. Lay the fire if it has been used, and wash up the hearth.

Laying a coal fire in the grate: Put the blower on to prevent as much as possible the ashes flying about. Shake the ashes down through the bars of the grate with a poker. Remove them from the pan with the shovel and put them in the coal scuttle. Take the ash-pan out and brush under it. Take the blower off and twist newspapers in loose rolls and put them in the bottom of the grate. Lay kindlings crosswise on top of the paper with spaces for draughts in between. Put coal on top of the kindlings. When the fire is wanted, put the blower on, and light the fire from below. When the coal is well caught, take the blower off.

Laying an open wood fire: Place a large log close against the back of the chimney, another in front, leaving a space between. In this space between the two lay lightly pieces of newspaper twisted loosely; on top of this paper place kindlings crosswise resting on both logs, and far enough apart to let the air through; then one or two other sticks on top of the kindlings bark side down. Do not remove the ashes from a wood fire, as it burns better on a bed of hot ashes.

If soot should ever fall from the chimney on to the rug, sprinkle the place thickly with corn meal and brush it up. This removes at once what otherwise would be a bad stain.

After the fire has been laid, empty all scraps from scrap baskets into a receptacle and take this and also the hod of ashes, if the fire was of coal, downstairs.

Close windows, pull shades down half-way, arrange curtains, take covers off furniture, bring chairs back. Put clean bureau and sideboard covers on, and put the ornaments back in their places. Fold up dusting sheets and put them away.

If brasses are brightened once a week, they remain bright with less effort, but if you have a good many it is best to reserve one morning for this, as it is dirty work. A pair of large old gloves should be provided to keep the hands clean when doing it. Just as with silver, with only one maid it is better not to have too many brasses out, unless you can hire some one to clean them.

When I tell you the order of cleaning a room by a hand-power vacuum cleaner that is made only to sweep the carpets and rugs, does not go by electricity, and has no attachments, you will see that it saves you the most troublesome and heaviest part of the work of sweeping day and that two or three rooms can be cleaned in the time it would take to clean one with a broom. By the following order of work you get the best results and do not have to go a second time over any of your dusting. No dusting sheets have to be used, rugs do not have to be taken up nor furniture and ornaments removed. Of course, before beginning to clean you open windows and arrange shades in the same way that I described when preparing to sweep a room with a broom.

The weekly cleaning of a room with a hand-power vacuum cleaner:

Brush window sills.

Brush hard all upholstered furniture with a whisk broom.

Shake out of the window all table covers and take them out of the room while cleaning is going on.

Go over carpet or rugs with the vacuum cleaner and then the bare floor with a dustless mop. (Sweeping with a vacuum cleaner is supposed not to make any dust, but as it isn’t perfection there is a fine dust that rises from it; so all the dusting should come after the sweeping.)

Dust every piece of furniture, shaking duster out of window.

Dust all ornaments and shelves.

Clean mirrors and do all the work coming after this in the same order as described in cleaning a room with a broom.

With the more expensive electric power vacuum cleaners the order of work is the same, but there are all sorts of attachments to clean floors, upholstered furniture, curtains, etc., that any of their agents would explain to you.

I am speaking from experience when advising a vacuum cleaner, because, after using an electric one in town, I bought for use here, where I haven’t electricity in the house, the hand-power kind, as I couldn’t stand the dust made by an ordinary broom. If you decide to get one, do let me know how you like it.

Your practical but loving friend,

Jane Prince.