| Good basic house cleaning equipment is not | | | | on the floor. (Have you seen the gaily colored ones |
| expensive and no one can do a really good job | | | | with pouring spouts, or the two-compartment type |
| without the proper tools. If you have been struggling | | | | for cleaning solutions and rinse water?) Dust brushes |
| along with beaten-up brooms and brushes and | | | | and dust pans should be hung up too, the edge of |
| old-fashioned mops and pails, take inventory. Then | | | | the dust pan facing the wall as a precaution against |
| investigate the prospects of new streamlined models. | | | | denting. Scrubbing brushes should be washed, dried, |
| STORAGE. Good equipment deserves proper care | | | | and aired before being stored. |
| and storage. On the shelf store your mothproofing | | | | SOLVENTS are agents which dissolve the materials |
| materials, insecticides, cleaning and polishing waxes, | | | | that cause soil and stains. Foremost of these and the |
| metal cleaners, and (in a special box) stain-removing | | | | most generally useful is water, which dissolves a little |
| supplies as you accumulate them. You will never have | | | | of almost any material it contacts long enough - even |
| to hunt for the things you need if you have a well | | | | metals and minerals. When water is pure, like rain |
| organized cleaning closet or special corner for your | | | | water, it is called soft. When its mineral content is |
| equipment. And if you duplicate essential equipment | | | | high it is known as hard water, and more soap is |
| upstairs you won't wear yourself out dashing up and | | | | needed to make it work well. Very hard water, used |
| down to get something you need and have | | | | with soap, forms small curds or soap scum; its |
| forgotten. | | | | cleaning ability is low unless a softener is added. |
| READ AND FILE YOUR INSTRUCTION BOOKLETS as | | | | SOFTENERS are of two types. One precipitates, or |
| you purchase equipment. The average woman | | | | settles, the minerals that make water hard; the other |
| cannot be expected to know exactly how her | | | | keeps the minerals in solution but in a form that |
| electrical gadgets work, but she must know a few | | | | cannot form soap scum. In the first category are |
| basic rules for their care. No housekeeper needs to | | | | washing soda (sal soda), trisodium phosphate, borax, |
| know the composition of the soaps and synthetic | | | | ammonia, and commercial products such as Raindrops |
| detergents she uses, but to make the best use of | | | | and Climelene. Type two softeners are often long, |
| them she should know how they differ and which | | | | unpronounceable soda-and-phosphate compounds, |
| job each one does best. | | | | which are available under such trade names as |
| CARE OF EQUIPMENT. Cleaning equipment includes | | | | Calgon, Hexaphos, NoctQ, New Oalrite, Phosphotex, |
| those elusive hand tools that are always disappearing; | | | | Quadrafos, and Tex. These are more expensive than |
| also dust mops and wet mops, brooms, and a score | | | | type one softeners, but are very effective and |
| of accessories. When you have finished using them | | | | better in the laundry. |
| put them away properly. Vaccuum cleaners and | | | | PLAIN COOL WATER will clean windows and many |
| carpet sweepers should be emptied and their brushes | | | | other surfaces. It will also remove many stains on |
| freed of hair and tangled bits of string. Dust mops, | | | | washable materials if the stains are fresh. Warm and |
| vacuumed clean, and wet mops, rinsed and dried, | | | | hot water extend the cleaning range; boiling water |
| should be suspended from hooks. Brooms will do a | | | | and steam also have their uses in removing certain |
| better job and last longer if they are given a | | | | stains from cloth. Water plus a softener will |
| thorough wetting now and then, or washed in suds | | | | accomplish efficiently many cleaning tasks around the |
| and rinsed. | | | | house, without the use of either soap or detergent, |
| If you use oiled mops on your floors, store the | | | | and you won't have to rinse if you keep changing the |
| heads in a tin can with a tight cover (oiled dusters, | | | | water as it gets dirty. |
| too) as a precaution against fire. Cleaning pails should | | | | With this equipment the householder is in a good |
| be washed before they are put away, upside down | | | | position to begin to organize and clean her house. |