Or the periodicals will always be welcome at hospitals, schools, and oth er institutions, which in many cases will send for them if notified that they may be had at the expense of removal.
Curtains and Draperies. — Take down all curtains and draperies; laun der, fold, and store them before the house cleaning begins. Thus they will be out of the way and ready to be put up when papering, painting, and whitewashing are finished.
How to Clean Rooms.—Clean one room at a time, doing everything thor oughly. Settle each room before go ing to another. This avoids upsetting the whole house, and is much better than cleaning by floors and having all the bedrooms or all the living rooms upset at the same time.
First take up the carpet and scrub the floor; then beat and clean the car pet and hang it on the line, so that both the carpet and the floor from which it is taken may have all day to dry and air.
Or, after the floor covering is taken up, the ceiling may be first cleaned, and papered or whitewashed, if neces sary, and the walls papered before the floors are scrubbed, this being reserved for another day. Lastly, any neces sary painting and varnishing may be done and the windows and woodwork cleaned.
In cleaning paint use but little soap, as the alkali tends to injure paint and varnish. If paint is kept in good con dition by being rubbed occasionally with a cloth moistened in kerosene, it will need little scrubbing at house cleaning time.
Last of all, stain or paint the floor, or relay the floor covering, and return furniture and pictures to their posi tions.
House-cleaning Hints.—Split open two short pieces of rubber hose and fasten them on the lower end of the stepladder. Turn them up on the sides of the supports, and nail them there. This prevents the stepladder from slipping on the bare floor.
Use a stiff bristle brush, preferably of wood fiber, to clean the cracks and crevices of woodwork, iron beds, and the like. Lay the brush when wet with the bristle side down. This pre vents the water from soaking into the wood and loosening the bristles.
Or use .1, damp whisk broom that has served its time as a clothes brush to take dust from cracks and corners, carvings of furniture and woodwork, and to clean windows. If rinsed fre quently it removes every particle of dust with little trouble and no injury.
Have at hand a small stick 3 or 4 feet long and 1 inch in diameter, with a screw hook screwed in one end. This is always handy to reach for articles that have fallen out of the window, behind furniture, or into the water pail or barrel, to hang or take down pictures, pull down escaped window shades, and for many other purposes.