Spring Cleaning Tips

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 505, 7 November 1928, Page 7

Spring Cleaning Tips

Annual Overhaul Made Easy

Things Worth Knowing

IT could not be suggested that these few hints will make spring cleaning a positive pleasure, but they should be of use in undertaking the annual campaign against dirt and untidiness that is being waged by housewives all over the Dominion about this time.

Don’t let the workman blame liis tools. Before starting work, be sure that the cleaning shelf and the housemaid’s cupboard are well equipped with everything needful—and that all the brooms and brushes are workmanlike, and in good condition. When shopping, take time to study the claims and merits of the articles required, and remember that quality always gives the best service, and is cheapest in the long run. Ask the grocer, oilman, and ironmonger to show you the latest products in soaps and cleaning materials, and the newest labour-saving and cleaning devices which he has to offer. BRUSHES AND BROOMS NEEDED If wired for electricity a suction sweeper is absolutely essential. This can be hired by the day if you don’t happen to have pne. If hired, it should be made to do as much "work in as many rooms as possible each day. Two good hair brooms are needed — one with a long and one with a short handle; a long-handled whisk broom, a furniture brush; a soft brush for washing dirty paintwork; and a small painter’s brush to be used for getting into the corners and crevices. Also •a hard scrubbing brush, for floors. Many of the newest cleaning brushes are made without wooden backs. The bristles are lirmly bound into galvanised wire. Plenty of clean old cotton rags are essential for washing and drying paint work, and heavier cloths for floor washing and polishing. THE CLEANING SHELF The following household chemicals should be ready to hand: Ammonia, for water-softening and other cleaning purposes; soda in crystal form; paraffin; methylated spirits, which is extremely useful for polishing silver, glass, tortoiseshell, etc.; turpentine, petrol; and a disinfectant fluid for pipes and drains. Soaps may be included under the heading of chemicals, and among these the follow-ing will be needed: Soft soap for cleaning dirty floors, window sills, etc.; soap powder tor making a good cleansing lather; sugar soap, for outdoor paint-work; yellow soap, for ordinary cleansing and household purposes-; and a disinfectant soap. Also cleansing powders, which are extremely useful for cleaning tiled or marble floors, and for particularly obstinate marks on paint. Be sure also that the household step-ladder is sufficiently high to work from and that it is absolutely safe. CLEANING WHITE PAINT Good enamel paint should never be touched with soap and water, a clean cloth dipped in paraffin will both clean and preserve it. This also applies to enamel and porcelain baths. If you do wash paint-work, use a soda-free lather in conjunction with a soft cloth or sponge, and rinse thoroughly with clear water in which a little borax is dissolved. Builders and decorators use sugar soap, which is very useful for spring cleaning purposes, especially for very dirty paint-work. WINDOW CLEANING An exceedingly good gloss can be obtained by washing windows with strong soapsuds and letting them dry on the window. When dry, the window is covered with a fine soapy pow-der, which should be rubbed off with a soft, dry cloth, leaving the glass beautifully clean and polished. Mirrors and glazed pictures can be cleaned in the same way. PICTURE FRAMES Gilt frames may be cleaned and brightened by rubbing with a cut onion, or with water in which onions have been boiled. Carved wooden

frames must be well brushed with a soft brush and then polished. STAINED FLOORS These may be washed all over with a flannel, wrung almost dry, and very hot water to which a little turpentine has been added. Then polish with a good beeswax floor polish. If the floor does not require restaining, it can be preserved by applying a thin coat of varnish all over. If it does require restaining, then the old varnish, and as much of the old stain as possible, should first be removed with a hard scrubbing brush and a pail of strong soda water with an ounce of rock ammonia. POLISHED AND PARQUET FLOORS These can be thoroughly cleaned by rubbing down the surface all over with steel shavings (steel-wool), which can he obtained at any ironmonger’s. Then sweep up all the dust, go over the whole floor with a nag dipped in turpentine, before applying a good beeswax floor polish, and finally polish "with a soft floorcloth or flannel. Better still, use a weighted floor polisher. Highly polished woods, such as mahogany, may be ■ cleaned all over with a cloth wrung out of warm water, to which a little methylated spirits has been added. Dry thoroughly and polish with a good furniture cream. Obstinate stains from hot plates on polished table tops can be removed by using oil of camphor; rub a little of this into the stain with a soft cloth. The rubbing softens the stain and redistributes the varnish. Wax polished furniture should be treated with clear white beeswax only. DRAWERS AND CUPBOARDS Clean inside with a cloth dipped in paraffin. This cleanses, disinfects, and acts as a preventive against moths and wood worm. DRY CLEANING A great many delicate fabrics, including silks and lamp-shades, may be cleaned at home with a generous supply of pure petrol. Swislt the articles thoroughly in a vessel filled with liquid, giving special attention to the dirtiest parts. Rinse in a fresh lot of petrol, then rub lightly with a clean cloth, and hang out in the air (not near a fire) to dry. LEATHER UPHOLSTERY This may be both cleaned and preserved by rubbing over with a solution of boiled linseed oil and vinegar, in equal proportious. Then polish with a soft chamois leather, or a silk cloth. SILVER CLEANING Use rough powder or whiting moistened with a little ammonia or methylated spirits. A very q*.ick method is to immerse all the silver in a vessel containing water and a patent silver-cleaning disc. STOVES All gas stoves should be thoroughly overhauled. The outside can be reenamelled with a good black stove enamel which will keep clean and bright for months. This also applies to stoves, grates, and fireplaces in sit-ting-rooms. COLLAPSIBLE FURNITURE INVALUABLE IN SMALL HOMES The collapsible principle in furnishings is indispensable in the small home, since there is little room to spare for pieces not in actual use. Here are some of the useful “collapsibles” which should commend themselves. An aluminium clothes-airer of many arms, fitting into a central holder which keeps them outspread In semicircular arrangement. As soon as the clothes are dried, the whole can be taken to pieces and laid in a drawer. A collapsible rubbish destructor Is useful when cooking is done by gas In summer and by a range in winter. When the kitchen fire exists to deal with refuse, the incinerator can lodge flat on a shelf or behind a door only coming into use again with the return of hot weather.

A collapsible ironing board, which will clip on to the kitchen table and fold away afterwards in a cupboard, is invaluable. The board is long enough to take a whole dress, and is supported underneath by a hinged foot. The collapsible fire escape of hinged steel is the latest contribution toward the fire difficulty attendant upon houses in which no architectural thought has been taken for this dread contingency. The ladder collapses for storing Into a little pile of very strong steel loops, wide enough to afford a foothold, and be opened out for escape in a moment.

Collapsible bookcases, that can be taken to pieces, for removal, solve the storage difficulty at the same time; they take up very little space when the wedges have been taken out.

JAR LAMP

Tine Things Behind Chinese Rugs

A land of deeply hidden, age-hallowed symbolism is China. Colour there is symbolical to a degree; and symbols, some of them so subtle and intricate as to be utterly inexplicable to an outsider, have crept into the patterns of garment and curtain and rug;. Of rugs, perhaps, most of all. Rug-making in China began to be practised very early in history', but its fullest glory was reached during the 17th century, in the reign of the incomparable Emperor, Ch’ien Lung, who had the soul of a poet and the eye and touch of an artist. One wonders to-day if, after all, it was not his influence which prompted the rug-weavers of China in his time to infuse so much poetry both into the pattern and the colouring of the rugs they made so slowly and patiently'. In colours they showed an almost ascetic economy. The shades now so prevalent on the world’s markets were either unknown or ignored. Thret, sometimes four, shades of blue, and two or three of yellow, were used mostly. No tint was glaring, but its verv inellow'ness was made to endure through centuries. They do not know what fading means, those old Chinese rugs. Blues are dark, gratefully, recedingly dark, though some weavers indulged iD a quasi-turquoise hue, toning it dov/D carefully, however. When choosing then yellows, they often w T ent from the tenderest primrose to the deepest brown merging almost into red, and whenever you see this r*ri note gliding through a pattern you may be sure that the rug was meant for some specially happy occasion. The Chinese interpreted joy in red tints; that is why they use so much red lacquer in their wedding gifts. That winningly simple design known as “swastika,” now copied all over the world, must have been used by those old weavers with the greatest reverence. It symbolises the sacred heart of Buddha, and while the expert hands were weaving it, the lips were supposed to utter prayers. The heart of Buddha, woven in a continuous pattern, was believed to work never-ending happiness both for the weaver and the prospective owner. Another design, somewhat similar and known as the key design, would remind the weaver of the sea and its ever-changing moods. But from these more or less simple and severe patterns the Chinese weaver’s rich fancy would often turn to the other symbols, interpreted by the flowers and trees in his own gar* den. With a minute loyalty to the intricate * detail, he would weave blossoms of the peach tree and the pear tree and the cherry tree. Of these the peach was the most favoured, since it symbolised endless life. And cherryblossom would stand for rippling laughter. Often when the birds sang through the summer days, the weaver would be inclined to work the lotus flowers into his rug, because to him they stood for the riches and the fragrances of summer. There was not one flower but carried its own meaning, and people who came to possess the rugs remembered the symbols.

The ■work of restoring and refurnishing the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster Abbey is now well advanced. The famous tapestries, which date from the seventeenth century* have been carefully cleaned and renovated, and the room, with its stained glass, its panelling, and open timber roof, looks once again what it really is—one of the finest examples of a fourteenth century interior.

The majority of the decorative furnishing fabrics of the British Empire are manufactured in the British Isles, especially cottons, linens and artificial silks. Canada exports none at all. Like Australia and South Africa, what she does manufacture she needs for her own use. Egypt supplies much raw material and exports her native productions—of excellent durability and design—in the guise of striped and plain cottons for furnishings or clothes. Her flaxen stair and passage carpeting is a very fine production where cleanliness, durability, and gaiety of colour are sought. Wall fabrics of cotton or silk, curtains embroidered by the natives, find a certain type of customers in England. India sends stencilled goods in large quantities, especially as bedspreads and hangings. Her fabric exports pertain more to clothes than to decorative furnishings.