DRESSING FOR WORK
A sub-professor on a small salary in one of our best eastern educational institutions married a charming young woman with a wise head on her pretty shoulders. Her thought was that she could best help him by doing the work of a maid. Her name wherever known had been a synonym for exquisite taste, and she lost nothing of this in the conduct of her new rôle. Ugliness of any sort was not in her scheme of things. She determined that she should be no less pretty in her husband’s eyes because of the part she was to play in his kitchen. She had made for herself eight blue and white striped seersucker gowns with broad hems on the short skirts and with plain shirt-waists. The sleeves were made elbow length, so as not to incommode her in her work, and a turnover collar of white which left her throat free was at once comfortable and becoming. With these dresses she wore dark aprons or white ones, according to the work she was doing. Her husband and friends declared she had never looked more pleasing than while “in service.” She was an excellent refutation of the idea that a woman must look slovenly when doing household tasks. Though “dressing the part” seems a small beginning toward getting the work of a house done, it is a helpful beginning because it affects the spirits. A working woman needs working clothes. If they be pretty as well as comfortable and appropriate, they give an impetus toward cheerful labor that is not to be lightly estimated.
AVOID INTERRUPTIONS
THE VALUE OF SYSTEM
A woman who learns to be her own maid and makes a success of the work must adopt it as a business and must devote herself to her tasks with regularity and system. She must be firm against intrusion and interruption from the outside world. She must adopt housekeeping as a profession and aim not merely at completing the daily round but at achieving an excellence that will in time impart interest to the work. Order and simplicity are the two laws she must obey if she is to get through with dignity and self-respect. An order of the day and an order of the week must be made out and followed as far as possible. System and arrangement are the great time savers. To sit down at one’s desk once a day or once a week and make out conscientiously a list of all the things necessary to be done in the time named, then divide and tabulate these according as seems best,—this use of the brain will economize time and will save many a weary step.
Orderliness in work leads most directly to that harmony and peace in housekeeping which the average woman is so fearful of losing when she takes up the labor for herself. The writer used frequently to take luncheon at the house of a clever friend who cooked and served the meals. Her cooking could always be counted on as delicious; but it was the serving, that Scylla and Charybdis in one, of most women who must “do” entirely for themselves, that astonished and delighted one. On a side-table, ready for her hand, were placed the extra dishes needed. On this, too, was room for those things only temporarily necessary on the dining-table. The occasions when the hostess must rise to serve her guests were reduced by the perfection of her arrangements to a minimum. When she was compelled to visit pantry or kitchen, she left the table without a flurry and was back with the article in question almost before one realized her departure. This grace in service was partly, of course, a matter of nature, but it was largely due to trained and systematic habits of work. These oiled the wheels of housekeeping and made them run more or less smoothly.
A SIMPLE MENU
The woman without a maid must cultivate simplicity as well as order in her household arrangements. To do this requires some originality of soul and mind. She must model her work not upon what her neighbors and friends do, but upon what she thinks necessary to be done for the comfort and good health of herself and those dependent upon her. She must not attempt more things than she can do well. Many a young woman who starts out with joyous intention to be cook for husband and family, fails in her intention by reason of planning too large a bill of fare. For beginners, at least, it is well to cut out made desserts and pretentious salads. A cream soup with a broiled steak, potatoes nicely cooked, lettuce with a French dressing, coffee and fruit, make a dinner which, if neatly served, affords nourishment and delight to the ordinary man. How much better to attempt nothing more than this and make a success of it than to try for roast, two or three vegetables, an intricate salad and a pudding,—to have these imperfectly achieved and awkwardly served. For it goes without saying that it is much more difficult to serve an elaborate than a simple meal. Also the elaborate meal demands for serving many more dishes, and the extra dishes make added work in the dish-washing which follows a meal as the night the day. Simplicity of living must be the aim of the woman who does her own work. It is only by cultivating simplicity that she can live restfully and with the taste that makes for beauty.