Esther Barnes
English Theme
Exposition
April 20, 1933
In the spring a woman’s fancy sorrowfully turns to thoughts of—house-cleaning. Every spring as sure as the trees begin to bud, the housewife begins to think of cleaning her home. Being such an experienced hand at the job I shall give you a few pointers as to the correct way to do this.
Before starting, all matters such as cleaning the furnace, redecoration, the purchasing of new curtains and other things should be attended to.
The curtains and draperies should be removed and laundered; all pictures and hangings on the walls must be taken down and cleaned; the rugs should be cleaned or taken outside and swept and beaten and left in the air; all lighter articles of furniture should be removed from the room being cleaned.
After a winter of endless fires the walls are apt to have collected their share of the coal. They should be cleaned by placing a flannel cloth over a broom and wiping well, paying particular attention to the corners.
What you do to your floors all depends on the type of flooring you have. Regardless of the type, they should be thoroughly cleaned with gasoline. If you have danced a great deal on your hardwood floors they should be sanded before being waxed and polished.
After finishing our walls and floors we turn our attention to the windows—the soul of the home. There are numerous preparations on the market such as Bon Ami, Bab-O, etc., for the express purpose of cleaning windows. I, personally, prefer soap and water and a small amount of household ammonia. This not only cleans but polishes them as well.
All articles of furniture should be cleaned with an efficient cleaner and polished with a sort cloth. The upholstering should be brushed and swept with an electric sweeper.
We should now be ready to lay the rugs, hang the curtains and draperies and pictures, set the furniture in place, and dust the floors once more. Your house should now be fairly clean, if not, something is surely wrong.
This, gentle readers, is my idea of how to go about this unwelcome task of annual spring cleaning. If you follow my instructions implicitly I can assure that your home will appear much cleaner. It should be because you will have collected a nice supply of dirt on yourself and clothing along with a tired body and broken finger nails.
Teacher’s comment: S+