Spring Cleaning

I am not sure that I can do this justice, but I will try and paint you a word picture of
what it was like to do Spring Cleaning at the Smith House. Well I guess it was
pretty much done in every house, but I speak only of what I knew of the process.
Come a good day - when the weather was good and you could open all the doors
and widows, the work began. First mother would strip all the beds and wash the
sheets and pillow cases and blankets if they needed it. Bedspreads were laundered
as well. The pillows were beat with a "carpet beater" and then hung on the line to
air for the day. The beds were super sweet smelling when they were made up at
the end of the day.
Next the rugs were rolled up in the living and dinning room and put outside - over the
clothes line if they were not too heavy and given a good beating to loosen all the
dirt the carpet sweeper hadn't removed. After we got a Hoover Vacuum it wasn't so
big a job. These were the days before hard wood floors even. The floors in the house
were pine and were painted a dark brown with enamel so they could be cleaned and
waxed. Now this was only about two feet from the wall and about 3 feet in between
the living and dining room. The floors otherwise had to be scrubbed and let air dry.
In the evening the carpets were brough back in and turned so they would wear evenly.
They had a pattern so this was not a difficult decision. The furniture had to be replaced.
I can't forget the Wall Paper cleaning. It was not a dirty job, but it was time consuming.
A cleaning compound much like "silly putty" was bought. It came in a can and
got hard if it was exposed to air too long. Small pieces were taken from the can and
rubbed over the surface of the Wall Paper. You had to kneed it to keep the dirt from
going back onto the paper. Now this was "really" paper, not like the coated varieties
that are available today and can be washed with water, etc. As the process continued
the dirty piece of cleaner was disposed of and another piece was taken from the can.
Hopefully the job and the cleaner equaled out.
Windows had to be washed inside and out. That was not the hardest job, the washing
and drying of the curtains was the hard part. Mom would put the curtains in the washer
and then when they had washed and were still damp they were put into a container
containing a heavy starch water. They were dipped until they were well coated then
we would put them on Curtain Stretchers. These were frames with hundreds of little
needles to hold the curtians tight on the frames while they dried. Many a finger was
pricked by those sharpe little needles. Setting up the frames was a job in and of itself.
Once they were the correct size of the curtain panels the stretching began. The frames
were put in the yard mainly leaning against something so the full sun could bleach and
dry the material. They were beautiful when they were finished.
The kitchen cabinets were cleaned inside and out. The walls were washed and the
floors mopped and waxed. The dining room cupboard was emptied and all the
dishes and glass ware was washed and replace after the shelves had received a
new sheet of paper on each shelf. All the wood work was washed and polished
as well. Every bedroom got what it needed. Painted if it was time to do that, or
washed along with the woodwork and windows. Every bedroom had linoleum floors,
so they were scrubbed and waxed and the throw rugs were washed, or taken out
an beat until they were as dirt free as they could be made. The closets were emptied
and the clothes were hung outside to air while the closet floors were mopped and
waxed. Everything was put back, and the house was neat and clean.
You have to remember the house did not have air conditioning, not even fans in those
days. Heat was gleaned from a small upright stove that has since been cast off as a
danger of carbon manoxide poisoning. Dad didn't put in forced air heating until all
the kids had married and moved away from home. That tiny heater had to heat
the whole house. Mom would generally heat the kitchen by using the oven for
part of the cooking she did each day. It wasn't efficient, but it was the best we had.
The bedrooms were cold and Dad would be the first one up so he would lite the little
stove and we kids would bring our clothes out and dress by the fire in the mornings.
The bathroom was way out back - the last room in the house - the house being built
in 1929. It had a small stove as well, it never really kept the bathroom warm enough,
but then we did not know any better - we just didn't dally when taking a bath, except
in the summer time. Oh, and I mean bath - we never had a shower in the house.
Mom always had an "Easy" washer. She couldn't use a wringer type very well so
Dad paid the difference for her to be able to do her job. In reality it was the beginning
of the Automatic washer as it spun the clothes and made less wear on the fabrics.
The Washer had two tubs with a tray that could be moved from the washing tub to
take the clothes to be spun and then to the basin where the water that was spun
out could be drained off. When the wash water was drained, the basin was filled
and the clothes put in to be rinsed. Then back into the spinner to remove the rinse
water. It was time consuming, but it did a great job.
Mom had a laundry fork. I don't which one of the boys made it for her in Wood
Shop at the High School. She used it to poke the laundry down into the tub, and
to help her remove heavy things out when wet. It looked like a two pronged fork
and was about 24 inches in length.
Of course every home had a back yark set of clothes lines complete with poles
that were used to raise the lines so the clothes did not touch the groung. There
were push clothes pins and there were spring type pins. Lines were first out of
cloth , then wire and later replaced with plastic coated lines. In either case
the lines had to be wiped down before clothes could be hung because they
accumulated dirt from one wash day to another.
Wash day was Monday unless they had smudged the night before in the Orange
Groves. In that case laundry couldn't be done because of all the oil smoke in the
air. Whites were hung so the sun would bleach them while the colored clothes
were hung in the shade so they would not fade. It took all day to dry the clothes
and in the afternoon it was time to take them down and fold them to be put away
for use. Shirts, pants and dresses were usually starched to some degree. As
they were brought in, Mom would "dampen" them and put them in a clothes basket
for ironing on Tuesday. Wednesday was house cleaning day, Thursday was a
day for other activities, Friday was for shopping and Saturday was the day we got
ready for Sunday. Sunday we kids went to church - either that or we couldn't
go to the show in the afternoon. I am not sure what logic that would hold today,
but back then it worked fine.
The world is now so mecanized that house keeping isn't done in the same old
way. So much is automated that if you want something it can be done in a matter
of minutes insead of days. I am not sure we haven't lost more than we have gained,
that this is progress and there is nothing we can do about it.
Written this 2nd day of Febraury 2009