Make Housework Easy by Making It Simple
THERE are two principal objects in housekeeping, or home making: First, to supply a place in which the necessities and comforts of life may be enjoyed; and second, to furnish a school in which the inmates obtain a training and preparation for a future home of splendor with heavenly beings. It is here that character is formed. Leaving out of the question the stamp given to character in prenatal life, the atmosphere of the home exerts the greatest influence upon the child’s life, the school coming next in importance. The building of a character has been very beautifully compared to that of a house, each act and thought of daily life to the bricks which are placed one by one upon the wall of the rising structure. While the first object mentioned is necessary, the second is no less important. Then, since time for this work is the chief obstacle, it appears that a study should be made by the mothers of how they may simplify their work so as to gain this time. Therefore, the subject of how to simplify housework may properly be considered an important topic for mothers to discuss. Physicians who treat disease by the rational methods, tell us that in many cases of illness, instead of urging the patient to eat more he is advised to eat less, and a smaller variety of food, because the overwork of the digestive organs is what has brought on the illness. Now let us think for a moment what it is that has caused us to overwork. This may not be true of all, but is it not dress that causes most mothers to be so busy? Was there ever a time in the history of the world when dress and the changing fashions absorbed more time among the masses than now? There are many other things equally superfluous in housekeeping that will appear when we compare the simple mode of living in the early days to that of15the present; or the simple life today among the people of the East with our own complicated customs. In the present generation housekeeping has become so intricate that the mother of two or three children must constantly have her nerve and muscle on the stretch to meet the demands of the family needs.—Selected.