Frontier Fridays: Interesting General Tips Around the House

Never Leave a Glass of Water or Medicine Uncovered in a Room:  Water will absorb the gases which a room is filled from respiration or sleeping in a room.  (this has to be a really old thought!)

To Remove the Odor of Onions from Pans:  Fill with cold water kettles and sauce pans in which they have been cooked adding a tablespoon of bread soda and the same of ammonia.  let stand on the stove until it boils.  Then wash in hot suds and rinse well.  A pudding or bean pot, treated in this way will wash easily.  Wood ashes in the water will have the same effect. 

Make Your Own Closet: If you have no closet in your room, get a board, nine inches wide, and three or four feet long.  Put it in the most convenient place in your room on two brackets.  Stain it the color of your woodwork.  Screw into the under side of the board wardrobe hooks.  Now get a pretty piece of cretonne or denim, hem top and bottom, and tack with brass headed tacks to the shelf, having it long enough to come to the floor, and around the ends of the board.  Use the top for a book shelf or hats.  (This is not a closet in my book! Closets, however, are a fairly modern invention.  Our ancestors used trunks or boxes to store clothes.)

To Wash Small Pieces of Lace:  Put in a horse radish bottle, and pour over them - strong soap suds, good and hot, and shake well.  Let stand awhile and shake again.  Rinse in clear, warm water by shaking.  Dry on a clean cloth in the sunshine.  (Probably used for doilies)

Next Friday some old fashioned recipes that you may or may not have heard of! 

Frontier Fridays: Dish Washing Made a Pleasure

I had to chuckle at the attempt to make a housewife love to wash dishes (by hand of course)

First of all remove all refuse from the dishes.  Place them near the sink, large plates at the bottom, then the smaller ones, then saucers.  Have a large pan full of very hot water.  Make good soap suds by using a soap shaker (?).  Wash the tumblers and all glassware first, and wipe at once.  Use a handle dish cloth (which can be bought for 5 cents or less) for these as the water will be to hot for the hands.

Wash the silver next.  Have a large pan in which to place the clean dishes, cups and bowls first.  When all are washed pour over them boiling or very hot water and wipe quickly.  Pans and kettles come last.  Always have a cake of sand soap or a can of cleaning powder (Before Brillo/SOS Pads!) for scouring the pie plates and bottom of kettles.  It is very little work to keep baking tins and kitchen utensils in good condition if washing perfectly clean each time they are used.

Wash the dish towels at least once every day and never use them for anything else.  With clean hot water, clean towels and plenty of soap, dishwashing is made easy. 

If you have a window above your sink, plant nasturiums, a bed of pansies, morning glories and fall flowers, salvia.  These bright blossoms will add to your pleasure while washing dishes.

(ha ha  a big pan of boiling water...sand soap, flowers outside the window, and best of all WASH the dish towel EVERY DAY! - don't you?)

Go make dishwashing a pleasure! ;)

Frontier Fridays: Helpful Repair Tips

Drawer Knobs wobbly?  Paint the screw with fingernail polish before inserting it.  When the polish dries it will hold the drawer screw tightly!

When Hammering a Nail, put the nail through the teeth of an old comb to hold the nail straight and prevent hammering a finger.

"Grease" the threads on the bottle of nail polish so that the tops never get stuck again.

Keep your scissors in good shape by cutting through a piece of sandpaper occasionally.

Can't fix a leaky faucet right away?  Tie an old sock around the faucet, reaching down into the sink.  The water will silently drip down into the sock until someone can fix the leak!

Creaking door hinges can be cured by rubbing the hinges with vaseline or a lead pencil. (also works for zippers)

If you find a crack in your treasured dishes, try boiling in a pan of milk for 45 minutes.  The crack will disappear like magic.

If you candle don't fit your candlestick, run very hot water over the end of the candle to soften it and then press into holder.

Paper stuck on the top of a wood table?  Soak the paper over night in liquid furniture oil (like Murphy's Oil Soap).  The next morning rub gently with a soft cloth and the paper will come right off.

The quickest way to clean the air in the bathroom is to strike a match! (This one is a tried and true method in our house)

Frontier Fridays: Gardening Tips from Our Ancestors

It's SPRING!  Perfect time for some gardening tips from those pioneers. 

*When planting carrot seeds which are so fine, mix with radish seeds.  The radish will be ready to pull before the carrots. 

*Plant radish and cucumbers seeds together to keep bugs off the cucumbers.

*Two tablespoons of Epsom Salts and 1 tablespoon soda to a gallon of water as a spray for the bean beetle.

*To keep worms off cabbages - 1 pint saltpeter and 3 pints of salt.  Dissolve in 6 gallons of water.  Sprinkle on cabbage as needed as a never fail proof against cabbage vermin.

*Before working in the garden or doing other rough work rub your finger nails over a piece of soap.  This will prevent earth getting in under your nails and the soap will help clean your hands more easily.

*If dogs prowl across your flower bed, stamp a few moth balls into the ground around your favorite bed and they will avoid it.

*Turn fruit jars oover earliest planted vegetables.  The will come up quicker.

Try some in your garden!  Happy Spring :)

Frontier Fridays: Economical Hints

One thing to be said for our ancestors - they wasted nothing.  Here are some old time hints on saving money.

Save small pieces of soap in the bathroom by placing a cup or small box and filling until you have a cupful.  Add a little water and boil a few minutes.  When nearly cool press with hands and you have a new cake of soap.

Do not throw the white papers around crackers.  They are good to clean irons and will save buying ironing wax.  If irons are dirty put a good layer of salt on newspaper and rub the irons back and forth.
Remember the irons they had back then were iron, not electric and care was different for them.
 
Save the strong string to wrap around packages going by parcel post.  Also fold nicely for further use your clean wrapping papers.  Make a bag of pretty cretonne hang it in the kitchen or cellar way to keep the string and wrapping paper in.  You will find it very convenient.

Do not throw away any small pieces of bread.  Save them for plum pudding, queen's pudding or dressing for fish or fowl.  If broken into small pieces and browned in the oven, it is nice to eat with soups.  Or dry well, roll find and keep in a glass jar to be used to bread pork chops, croquettes or oysters.

Frontier Fridays: Requirements of an 1869 Kitchen

Requirements of an 1869 Kitchen

If parent wish their daughters to grow up with good domestic habits, they should have, as one means of securing this result, a neat and cheerful kitchen.

A kitchen should always have, if possible, entirely above ground and well lighted.

A kitchen should have a large sink, and with a drain running underground so that all the premises may be kept sweet and clean.

If flowers and shrubs be cultivated around the kitchen door and window, and the yard near them is well turfed, it will add much to the kitchen's agreeable appearance.

The walls should be clean often and whitewashed to promote a neat look and pure air. The floor of a kitchen should be painted, or where it is better, covered with an oil cloth.

Every good pioneer woman had a apron!

Frontier Fridays: How to Keep Fresh Butter Sweet

How to Keep Fresh Butter Sweet

Take care that the butter is made in the best manner, and the buttermilk entirely worked out of it. Lay it in a white-oak firkin. Make a strong brine of salt and water, and put it into another and larger firkin, and set the one containing the butter into the one in which the brine is. Let the brine come up very near to the top of the butter firkin. Lay on top of the butter a white bag with fine salt in it, cover it close, and then put on the cover of the outside firkin.  (Firkin refers to: Small cask used for liquids, butter, salt, and sometimes fish)

If you have never made homemade butter - it's a treat.  Get a glass jar, fill with heavy cream and shake, shake and shake some more until butter forms.  It is a great project for kids in the winter months! 

 

Frontier Fridays: Uses for Hay in the Oven

To remove the iron taste from new kettle, boil a handful of hay in it  and repeat the process if necessary.

Hay-water is a great sweetener of tin, wooden and iron ware.

Who knew? :) 

Frontier Fridays: How to Whiten Wash with Frost

Night Frost Whitens Wash

When it cold enough to freeze clothes, clothes can be made very white by the night frost. Keep clothes out of wind to avoid damage and prevent clothing from being stolen.

Ha ha  - as a personal note that would be one heck of a way to whiten your shirts!

Frontier Fridays: Preventing Bedtime Cold Feet

Prevent Cold Feet at Bedtime - Draw off your stockings just before undressing, and rub ankles and feet well with your hands for 5 to 10 minutes as hard as you can bear the pressure. (How about leaving our socks on?)

Other old ideas for warm feet included placing baked potatoes at the foot of the bed, and placing a hot water bottle at the foot of the bed.

No Central heat in those days!

How to Burn Candles Safely

How to Burn a Candle Safely

Candle safety is mostly about common sense. If you keep in mind that a candle is an open flame and take the proper precautions, then your candle burning experience will be pleasurable and safe. Here are some important safety tips:

• Never leave a burning candle unattended. Extinguish candles when leaving a room or before going to sleep.
• Burn candles within a one foot "circle of safety", free of anything that can burn. Be certain that drapes or curtains cannot be blown into the candle flame.
• Keep burning candles out of the reach of children or pets.
• Do not move a candle while it is burning or if the wax is still hot and liquid.
• Burn candles on a flat, stable, heat-resistant surface.
• Place candles at least three inches apart so they don't melt one another.
• Candles are a safe product when used properly. Burn them responsibly, and your candles will bring you hours of serenity and pleasure.

Frontier Fridays: Removing Wine Stains

Well the Turkey dinner is over and Uncle Ray spilled wine over your brand new tablecloth?  Here is the pioneer's remedy for removing wine stains...

Fresh Wine Stains on TableCloths

Cover stain with table salt and dampen with hot water at once. As soon as possible, pour boiling water on the stain at a height of 2 to 3 feet from a teakettle.

Probably not best to do this while the tablecloth is on the table!  ha!

Frontier Fridays: Keeping the Parlor Tidy

Keeping the Parlour Tidy

The parlour should be swept once a week using a whisk broom and a dust pan. You should cover the sofa, piano, chairs, table, and mantel with old cotton kept for this purpose. Remove rugs and shake them, dust the walls, window sills, and doors. Move every article as you sweep, and dust the furniture with a dust-brush and old piece of silk if available. Use a small brush to dust the crevices and ledges. Shake dust cloths often. Also desirable is a feather duster for books and ornaments.

Note:  The parlor later became the "formal living room" (as many of us remember from childhood) which were rarely used.  

Frontier Fridays: How to Stop Squeaking Doors and Drawers

To Stop a Squeaking Door and Sticking Drawers

Both can be made to function silently and normally by rubbing the door hinges with dry soap, same goes for the drawers, rub with soap where wood contacts wood as they slide in and out.


Do you have an old household remedy to share?  Add as a comment below...

Frontier Fridays: How to Dry Out a House of Mildew

How to Dry Out a House Against Mildew

"After protracted rains, especially in the spring, conditions for the spread of mildew are too favorable for comfort. Best method is to light every stove, fireplace, and range in the house. Open doors to every closet and cellar, open dresser drawers and boxes used for storage of clothes and linens, but close all windows and outside doors. When the house has the dry heat of the Great African Desert, mildew spores will, like the Arab, fold their tents and steal away."
Remember this was an 1800s hint and not at all practical for today's homes!  AND no offense was intended to any person, as this was copied word for word from an old book of household hints! 

Frontier Friday: Tooth Powders

Tooth Powders

Take any quantity of pulverized chalk, and twice as much finely pulverized charcoal, make very fine then add a very little suds made from castile soap and sufficient spirits of camphor to wet all into a thick paste. Apply with the finger, rubbing thoroughly, and it will whiten the teeth better than any tooth powder you can buy.

Frontier Friday - Spring Cleaning

Welcome to Frontier Fridays - Each Friday will feature a "Household Hint" from the pioneer days...recipes, ideas, tips and old time remedies from the 1800s.  

For the 1st Friday - here are some tips for getting your home in shape for summer.  Spring Cleaning Pioneer Style.

To Polish Windows - Never put soap upon glass unless it can be thoroughly washed off which can not be done with window glass. Wash off specks with warm tea, and rub the panes dry, then make a paste of whiting and water, and put a little in the center of each pane. Take a dry cloth and rub it over the glass, then rub it off with a chamois-skin or flannel, and your glass will shine like crystal.

Sweeping Under Beds - In doing this work, a damp cloth will be more effective than a broom. Old housewives are in favor of a special beating and airing during the month of March as they believe that if insects and their eggs are disposed of at this time, they will trouble you for the rest of the year.

Sweeping Carpets - Using tea leaves to sweep carpets can leave stains. Instead try using fresh cut grass as it prevents dust better and gives carpets a fresh bright look. (Hmmmm!)


Next Time ...Yosemite from a White Man's View