THE WASHING UP

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 316, 29 March 1928, Page 9

THE WASHING UP

The average housewife is always at a disadvantage, because in nine eases out of 10 she has to follow up her cooking with her instant presence in the dining-room, and so has no chance to get straight immediately after dish-ing-up. It pays enormously when allowing time for the preparation of a meal to include odd minutes for washing-up the basins, spoons and forks, etc., used in the kitchen. Often the kitchen looks most disheartening if we have been late and just raced a meal together at top speed. It is the odd things that litter up the place, and if we can only train ourselves to washup as we go, the actual dining-room washing-up is easily coped with. The pex’fect kitchen should look absolutely neat when the meal has “gone in.” Saucepans should be filled with water (hot for greasy pans, cold for those used for anything clingy—such as white sauce. If we usually have a hot meal in the evening it is often much more of a rest and change if the washing-up is left alone until next day. And if there is no muddle of odd things, the mere plates, glasses, and cutlery, and two or three saucepans can well be left to spend the evening by themselves in the scullery! A few minutes in the morning will quickly set things right. When hired help is scarce it makes a great difference if the sweets are prepared beforehand, so that everything used in their manufacture can be washed at once and set back in its plaSe. Hot puddings, on “guest” days, can be an awful nuisance. They use up basins, spoons, and forks, and we begin to work with eye on the clock and the other on the piled wash-ing-up board!