Extract from my letter to Hope on the duties of three servants
It was after I had been married for several years and had become weary of recalling afresh for each new servant the details of her work in order to train her into my ways of doing it, that I decided to write a small blank book for each one of them, containing her daily duties, her weekly duties, the arrangement for her Sundays and her afternoons out—something that I could keep permanently and thus save myself much trouble. If you dislike detail as much as I do these books will help you too. When the servants first came I read them to each one letting each keep her own while she was with me and taking the precaution to have a copy of them all in my housekeeping book in case any misunderstanding should arise.
Realizing that much of the general duties must be different in every household, according to the number of the family and the number and arrangement of rooms, and whether they live in an apartment house or not, I shall only attempt to give you an idea of how these books were written, just enough to help you make out your own books to suit the requirements of your family. This is the reason I describe the general duties only in a general way, and the daily duties (where the manner of doing the work is practically always the same) I describe in detail, addressing the maids directly as I did in the books which I made for my own servants. Although the instructions to the maids are in some cases identical, yet, in order to make them clear, I repeat them in each case, even though it seems unnecessary. It would be my advice to you in making your book to arrange the daily duties of the servants so as to insure the early starting of the household. For instance, let the chambermaid wake you on her way downstairs at a specified hour, and, at the same time, let the waitress come to get the silver. If you have a safe for your silver, you could leave out just enough for your breakfast and have it brought to your room at night so that she would stop and get it in the morning.
It is also a good plan to let the servants have their breakfast before the family except in the case of a maid of all work, when this is almost impossible to arrange.
Then, about their Sundays, I think that church can’t do us much good if we don’t give the servants an opportunity to go, too, if they want to, or if we make it a hard day for them. Though it requires special arrangement, their Sundays should be made a day to look forward to with pleasure when each one can be sure of getting out, at some part of the day, to church, or to see her friends. The Sunday morning that the cook goes out, the lunch should be one that can be quickly cooked or her outing would be too short. In the case of the waitress and chambermaid, if, on their Sunday morning out, they waited to finish their work, they would get out so late, in most places, that it wouldn’t be worth while to go at all. This explains why, in the plan that I shall give you, it is arranged that, on their Sunday mornings out, the chambermaid and waitress stop whatever work they are doing promptly at 10 A.M., and get ready to go out, the one who is in taking the work up where the other one has left it and finishing it in addition to her own. You will also see that, with the following plan, you can take your choice of having late dinner every other Sunday (when the cook is at home) or every Sunday if your waitress is sufficiently expert and your cook prepares some of the dinner dishes before going out. Sometimes it is the chambermaid and sometimes the waitress that can cook best and likes the afternoon all to herself. It doesn’t matter which you choose for that duty; you simply use tact in this as in all your housekeeping.
As for giving them any freedom in the evenings I think you will find it a good plan to let the chambermaid and waitress alternate in going out, provided their services are not required; this insures one always being in the house so that the cook never has to go to the door. It is rather an understood thing that the cook can go out any evening after her regular work is done, of course, if her services are not required.
With regard to the cook’s weekly duties I have never found that they could be laid down as definitely as those of the other servants on account of dinners and lunches coming in, when all her time has to be devoted to the cooking. Therefore the washing and ironing (if it is done in the house), the weekly cleaning of the kitchen, the hall steps, etc., semiweekly cleaning of refrigerator and keeping the shelves and closets clean, all have to be fitted in when she can manage them. On this very account the mistress, in her morning visits to the kitchen, should look around carefully to be sure that nothing is neglected, for everything about a kitchen should be very clean if you want it to be sanitary.
Description of the chambermaid’s book—Her general work
Under this head was told, in paragraphs, thus dividing the subjects so that they could be more easily seen and understood, what rooms, halls, stairs, etc., she had charge of, whether she made up the rooms of the other servants, washed her own clothes, bed-linen, etc., or had any of the duties of a lady’s maid, such as mending, brushing, and taking out or putting away her master’s and mistress’s clothes, or washing their brushes and combs (which she can do if the family is small), or polishing her mistress’s boots. As to her neatness,—what she was expected to wear, and what her mistress provided her with, and about asking her mistress for anything needed in order to do her work well. The same instructions were given her about waiting on the door that were given the waitress, telling her that when workmen, inspectors, and such people had any work to do in her part of the house, she should accompany them around wherever they went.
Doing her work quietly and noiselessly was emphasized, especially the opening and shutting of blinds, windows, and doors, and just how a window should be opened top and bottom when airing a room, so that the hot air could go out above and the fresh cold air come in below, thus insuring good ventilation. It was impressed upon her that the doors of a room should be shut while the windows were open so as not to chill the rest of the house.