Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning Retro Style!

Now that spring has FINALLY arrived in the Pacific Northwest, you may get the urge to throw open all your windows and clean your home until it's as fresh as that cool spring breeze. 

We all (hopefully) know how to clean, but a lot of people ask me specifically about the cleaning habits of 1950's housewives. So, since I love making you guys happy, I have compiled an easy to follow 50's housewife cleaning schedule, complete with their tips and tricks, that anyone can follow. I've also included a downloadable and printable cleaning schedule at the end, enjoy!

• Wake up in a good mood (seriously) before everyone else
• Freshen up 
• Begin breakfast for family
• Wash the breakfast dishes while kids get dressed and make their beds
• Prepare yourself for the day
• Move from bedroom to bedroom, make un-made beds, place dirty clothes in hampers, dust, open drapes and windows
• Carry a basket with you to carry stray items and bring them back to their proper place
• Wipe down bathroom sink, faucet and mirror
• Dust and straighten the living room
• Take out the trash
• Head out to do any errands or grocery shopping
• Return home and put groceries away
• Start preparing dessert for that evening
• Have some lunch! Then wash those dishes
• Sweep and mop the kitchen floor
• While floors are drying, sweep or vacuum the rest of the house
• Perform "big chore" for the day
• When kids get home have them do their chores
• Start preparing dinner, write down anything you're running low on
• Set the table
• Finish up dinner and place on table
• Freshen up for husband
• Wash dinner dishes
• Make next day lunches for kids and husband
• Wipe down counters, rinse dish rags and hang to dry
• Help kids with homework
• Send kids to bathe and get ready for bed while you lay out their clothes for the next day
• Put kids in bed
• Spend some relaxing time with husband
• Bed time!

Each day will have a scheduled big chore that gets done once or twice a week. Big chores include deep cleaning appliances, doing laundry, washing windows, scrubbing bathtubs, etc. Some women would deep clean one room a day, which means removing everything from shelves and drawers to scrub them down, scrubbing under furniture, cleaning out closets, you get the picture. 

Are you exhausted just thinking about this? Well don't worry, the housewives of the 50's have some tips to make it all go a bit more smoothly.

1. Enlist Help. You're not the only one living in your home and there's no reason for your children to be lounging around while you slave away. Choose age appropriate chores for your kids and have the older ones help the younger ones. Chores teach children responsibility, teamwork, and the importance of the family unit. 

2. Husband Can Help Too. This may come as a surprise, but husbands of the 50's helped out as well, usually by stopping by the market on the way home from work. Give him a list of staples that he will get once a week, the list never changes. Then you will only need to pick up the random item while running errands. 

    

    
3.Make Beds the Time Saving Way. Apparently in the 50's there were "time-study engineers" who devised a much quicker way to make a bed. You completely make the top left corner of the bed from bottom sheet to pillow and comforter. Throw loose portions of bedding across bed. Continue to left bottom corner and do the same, repeating with each corner. This ensures you only have go around the bed once. 
    
4.Choose Your Arsenal Wisely. Use no-rinse cleaners to speed things up. Invest in the proper products, such as a Venetian blinds brush, go get jobs done fast.

5.Dress to Impress. Wear an apron and cotton gloves to avoid ruining your clothes and drying out your hands. 

6.Divide and Conquer. Keep dark and light laundry in separate hampers, or place a divider in a single hamper, to cut down on sorting time on laundry day.

Additional Tips

• work your schedule around your family's needs
• plan a week's meals in advance so you're always prepared
• set the breakfast table the night before
• make more side dishes than you need so you can have leftovers the next night
• make double quantities of pie and cookie dough, freeze half
• use a cart to bring all the dishes and food to the table at once
• wrap baking sheets in tinfoil so you don't have to wash them after use
• do any chores you can sitting down to preserve energy

Here is a printable cleaning schedule that you can customize by writing in the times you'd like to perform each task, as well which big chores you'd like to do and which chores your kids will do. Enjoy!

Happy Cleaning!