Like Dorothy, I remember all those chores.
The blackleading of the grate using Zebo and a curved brush.
If I close my eyes I can easily see my grandma on her knees, black smudges on her face(whether this was Zebo...or coal dust, I am not sure).
I can see her coming down the yard with a bucket full of cobs of coal.
I can see her making twists of newspaper to light the fire.
I can also see her sat at the table cutting newspaper into squares to put in the two holer long drop toilet. Threading them onto string to hang on the back of the lavvy door.
If you went somewhere that had proper toilet paper.....you knew they were posh.
What was the idea of having a two hole toilet?
Who would want to sit next to someone having their morning 'grunt'.
It doesn't matter how enamoured you were with someone, but that would be something you really would not want to be present for.
I also remember my grandma doing her ironing.
She was fastidious about it. She could have got a medal for it...she SHOULD have got a medal for it.
She had several irons that sat on the coals.....the stuff needing the hottest iron was done first.....oh yes and the iron, dirty from the coal was put into a slipper....this never saw the coals so stayed clean.
I used to wonder how she knew what the temperature of the iron was....it was determined by her spitting on it....if the iron was very very hot the spit bounced right off....that was cotton sheet ironing temperature.
Yes she ironed the sheets....in fact like Dorothy says...everything was ironed...even smalls (though MY recollection of 'smalls' was that they weren't really small at all....you could get a group of Boy Scouts into grandma's drawers) Grandma wore what were commonly known as 'harvest festivals'...all is safely gathered in....there was even a pocket in the leg.....makes a VPL seem inconsequential.
I have never really been a big fan of housework.
It seems to me to be a thankless task....a bit like threading beads with no knot in the end of the thread.
I know it needs to be done....but it is only ever noticed when it isn't done.
I could write a very passable sluts charter.
Why make the bed(though I do).....it was so comfy that you did not want to get out of it this morning....so surely it will be just as comfy to slide back into.
Washing up....well you can't get out of that....but you can leave it discreetly stacked until evening and get it over in one lump.
Ironing....well, like Dorothy....I iron less and less these days....and when I do iron...I only do the bits that will be visible.
I consider these things to be my contribution to using less resources, less energy, less water less detergent.
I wear my clothes to go out, but then get changed into something comfortable when I get home...this way there is less heavy stuff to wash and dry.
I do not have a dryer....I use the great outdoors....God's dryer, whenever possible.
I use wood ash to and newspaper to clean the lower windows....and I don't do them verify often.
So I am with Dorothy on her energy saving mode.
The blackleading of the grate using Zebo and a curved brush.
If I close my eyes I can easily see my grandma on her knees, black smudges on her face(whether this was Zebo...or coal dust, I am not sure).
I can see her coming down the yard with a bucket full of cobs of coal.
I can see her making twists of newspaper to light the fire.
I can also see her sat at the table cutting newspaper into squares to put in the two holer long drop toilet. Threading them onto string to hang on the back of the lavvy door.
If you went somewhere that had proper toilet paper.....you knew they were posh.
What was the idea of having a two hole toilet?
Who would want to sit next to someone having their morning 'grunt'.
It doesn't matter how enamoured you were with someone, but that would be something you really would not want to be present for.
I also remember my grandma doing her ironing.
She was fastidious about it. She could have got a medal for it...she SHOULD have got a medal for it.
She had several irons that sat on the coals.....the stuff needing the hottest iron was done first.....oh yes and the iron, dirty from the coal was put into a slipper....this never saw the coals so stayed clean.
I used to wonder how she knew what the temperature of the iron was....it was determined by her spitting on it....if the iron was very very hot the spit bounced right off....that was cotton sheet ironing temperature.
Yes she ironed the sheets....in fact like Dorothy says...everything was ironed...even smalls (though MY recollection of 'smalls' was that they weren't really small at all....you could get a group of Boy Scouts into grandma's drawers) Grandma wore what were commonly known as 'harvest festivals'...all is safely gathered in....there was even a pocket in the leg.....makes a VPL seem inconsequential.
I have never really been a big fan of housework.
It seems to me to be a thankless task....a bit like threading beads with no knot in the end of the thread.
I know it needs to be done....but it is only ever noticed when it isn't done.
I could write a very passable sluts charter.
Why make the bed(though I do).....it was so comfy that you did not want to get out of it this morning....so surely it will be just as comfy to slide back into.
Washing up....well you can't get out of that....but you can leave it discreetly stacked until evening and get it over in one lump.
Ironing....well, like Dorothy....I iron less and less these days....and when I do iron...I only do the bits that will be visible.
I consider these things to be my contribution to using less resources, less energy, less water less detergent.
I wear my clothes to go out, but then get changed into something comfortable when I get home...this way there is less heavy stuff to wash and dry.
I do not have a dryer....I use the great outdoors....God's dryer, whenever possible.
I use wood ash to and newspaper to clean the lower windows....and I don't do them verify often.
So I am with Dorothy on her energy saving mode.