The Management and Work of a Five Bedroom, Three Sitting-room London House—A Labour-Saving Country House—A Labour-Saving Flat—One Visiting Maid instead of Two Servants—A Suburban House—A Cookless Household—A Labour-Saving Household in a Provincial Town.
CHAPTER VI
Other People's Experiences of Labour-Saving Homes
I
A Five Bedroom and Three Sitting-room London House.
"I have been much interested in your labour-saving articles. I send you a description of our new house. We have adopted many of your ideas.
"The family consists of myself and husband and two just-grown-up daughters.
"It so happened that some months ago we lost a little money, and we also came to the conclusion that we had been for some time spending more than we should have spent. Our house was rather expensive for our means; we kept five servants, entertained considerably in a simple manner, and lived easily. Finally, we decided to sell the house and take one which was smaller and possible to run with a lessened staff, and, at the same time, if the servant difficulty became more acute, such a house as would attract domestics by reason of its labour-saving arrangements. A house was found, light, airy, quiet, in the required position, of suitable size, but absolutely lacking in modern improvements. As it stood it consisted of:
"Basement.—Large front kitchen, back room (dark), lavatory, good wide shallow front area, easy stairs up to first floor, a washhouse built out from back room, two cellars, small wine cellar, no larder.