The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping

by Elizabeth Hale Gilman

Tables.—In a kitchen where there is no sink, the substitute should be a steady table placed as far from the stove as possible. If a definite place is appointed for dish washing even to the choice between two ends of a table, the appliances needed can be hung within reach, and one will naturally pile soiled dishes in that place and go there to wash them without taking thought about it.

Besides this table another will be needed on which cake and bread can be made, or food can be set without fear of contact with soiled dishes or dishwater. This table is equally necessary in kitchens where there is a sink. Sometimes in small kitchens its place is taken by the shelf of a dresser, the tops of the tubs or a board which, when not in use, folds down beside the wall or the dresser. The point is to have some place other than the draining boards where food can be prepared.

You will read in magazines that it is lovely to have kitchen tables covered with white oilcloth. Unfortunately the statement is not always followed by its complement, namely, that such a covering must be protected from being scorched and cut by means of pot boards, asbestos mats or folded newspapers. Several practical cooks and housekeepers have told me that there is nothing so good in the kitchen as a zinc-covered table. It is not pretty but one need never spare it any usage, and at rest times its ugliness may be covered with a cloth. Spots on zinc which will not yield to soap and water can sometimes be removed with vinegar.

Plain wooden tables are hard to keep in satisfactory order. They are easily scorched, easily stained, and they require daily scrubbing.

A pretty kitchen is a pride and delight, but the serviceableness and practicability of its furnishings must be the first consideration in selecting them. Things which have to be constantly remembered and guarded take too much thought and strength to be in place in a workshop. A kitchen should be bright, orderly and noticeably clean, but I think the less it looks like a sitting room the better. Wherever it is possible, maids should have some other place to sit.

Chairs.—For much of the kitchen work a woman needs the reach, muscular leverage and alertness which she gets from standing. There are, however, some things such as preparing fruit and vegetables, stoning raisins and beating eggs which she can do as well sitting down. If the kitchen is as it should be, a workshop, stools are the best seats with which to furnish it. They may be scrubbed, they take up little room, and they afford an opportunity to rest, without an accompanying temptation to loiter. "Sittin' back" is in some places an equivalent phrase for "inactive." It picturesquely explains why people work more alertly sitting on stools than in chairs.

If the kitchen is also the maids' sitting room, it must have comfortable chairs in it. But they should be made of scrubable materials, and cushions should be covered with wash fabrics. Rocking chairs are the worst possible kind for a kitchen, they are especially irritating to the ankles and temper of the cook.

Shelves.—Shelves are necessary for kitchen comfort. They are for dishes, crockery, utensils which can not be hung up and for stores if one has no store closet. As it is easier to have things stand one deep on shelves, more narrow shelves will be needed than wide ones. Some people get along with a few shelves for the sake of having them shut in with glass doors; others have many shelves like open book-cases and keep the pans, dishes, cups and bowls turned upside down. Stores have to be kept in tightly closed receptacles in either case. Most utensils are the better for being kept on open shelves or hung on hooks in the light and air. That is a rare pot closet which is quite agreeable either to eye or nose.

Shelves painted white, or covered with white oilcloth or white paper, are neat and pleasant to look at. Painted ones are probably the least care, they have only to be occasionally washed and few things injure them. Plain wooden shelves ought always to be covered, as they are easily stained and become darkened with dust.