Harper's Household Handbook: A guide to easy ways of doing woman's work

by Martha McCulloch-Williams

Mission Furniture and Fumed Oak: Dust real mission pieces with a soft damp cloth followed by a dry one barely sprinkled with turpentine. Use any good leather dressing on seats and backs. Neat’s-foot oil and beeswax, equal quantities, melted over hot water with twice their bulk of turpentine, is a good thing, and safe. Apply soft but not liquid, put on barely enough to rub over the leather, and rub until absorbed. For fumed and Flemish oak use a soft, thick dust brush, followed by a thick cloth slightly dampened. If greasy or grimy, wash very quickly in hot naphtha soapsuds, wipe dry, and rub until hot. Once a year rub very lightly over with sweet oil, turpentine, and alcohol, equal parts, shaken well together. Varnished pieces can have thin white varnish instead of alcohol. Put on with flannel and rub till hot.

Gilt Furniture: Dust well, and either sift on whiting, let stand an hour, and brush off or cover a little at a time with whiting and alcohol, as thick as cream, let stand three minutes, wipe with a damp cloth, and rub dry with old silk or flannel. Take away specks of whiting or tarnish with a swab of chalk tied in silk and wet with alcohol. Cork sawdust tied tight in chamois makes a good burnisher if high polish is desired. Garlands, bow knots, and traceries need to be rubbed out with a blunt skewer inside a clean leather and polished the same way, using silk or flannel in place of leather.

Gilt Frames: Cover with the cream of whiting and alcohol after wiping and brushing away all possible dust. Remove and polish as above directed. Repair breaks and chippings with plaster wet with white of egg, and paint with the finest gold paint, then burnish. Take off fly specks with a cloth dipped in alcohol, and rub away any obstinate dark specks or remnant of whiting with the same cloth.

Upholstered Furniture: Cover the stuffings with a bath towel, whip lightly, shaking the towel whenever it shows dust, then brush evenly with a soft bristle brush, wipe out the tuftings with a swab of cotton tied in silk on the point of a blunt skewer. Wipe quickly all over with a flannel wrung dry out of hot water, following with a cloth wet in alcohol. Change or wash the cloths as they grow dirty, especially upon delicate colors. Neither cloths nor swabs must be wet enough to leave marks. Alcohol, properly used, will leave no trace upon anything. Wash the wood in white soapsuds, about blood-warm, wipe dry, and rub with a flannel sprinkled with kerosene. This for ordinary wood; very fine things, and especially inlaid ones, had better have sweet oil and turpentine on the polishing-cloth, and not too much.

Upholstery can be dry-cleaned with starch and whiting sifted together and applied thickly all over it. Let stand a day, in sunshine if possible, then brush off, going over and over. If there are grimy spaces, wet them with alcohol before putting on the powder. Brush hard, and if flecks remain take them off with a cloth wet in alcohol.

Wicker Furniture: Scrub raw wicker with a stiff brush and white soapsuds, rinse, dry quickly, then brush over with turpentine, sweet oil, and alcohol, equal parts, mixed, then one-fifth their bulk of thin varnish added. Coat well. When dry, rub over with a thick soft cloth.

Dust gilt or enameled wicker very clean, wash quickly in weak tepid suds, wipe, and sift on whiting and corn starch, let stand half an hour, and brush off. Dry-cleaning alone suffices for things not much soiled. Instead of sifting, the starch and chalk or whiting may be tied tight in coarse net and used as a swab. Take out spots and stains (see section Spots and Stains) before cleaning.

Porch Furniture: Porch furniture, whether rattan, rustic, or bamboo, needs only to be dusted, well and quickly, washed in tepid suds, dried, and rubbed liberally all over with crude kerosene and creosoted turpentine (see section Renovators). Dry in air, but away from sun; do the work, however, if possible, upon a dry, sunny day.

Enameled Iron: Resurface things as they chip (see section Making Whole). Wash clean in tepid suds after dusting, wipe dry, then rub over lightly with sweet oil and alcohol, equal parts, with a teaspoonful of thin varnish added to the pint and well shaken.

Sundry Preventions: Crumple tissue paper thickly over upholstered furniture before putting on covers—it saves from wear, dust, and fading. Newspapers pasted into big sheets and spread over floor, bed, dresser, and couch in spare rooms likewise catch dust and stop light. They can be gathered up in a few minutes; take care, though, to lift edges first and shake dust inward, then fold. Where sunshine falls upon matting a double thickness of paper saves fading. Narrow lengths either to hang or pin about draperies will keep the draperies fresh. Paper is as nearly impervious to dust as almost anything known. Paper bags tied over gas globes, brass door knobs, and candlesticks prevent both dust and tarnish. Also there is no better summer ambush for articles of “bigotry and virtue” than a thick swathing of tissue paper inside a paper bag. Newspaper has further the merit of discouraging moths—they hate printers’ ink the same as other plunderers. Shut down windows upon newspaper, letting it fall well over the inner sill, and there will be no fading of paint there nor cakings of dust.