Home Comforts the Art & Science of Keeping House

Home Comforts is something new. For the first time in nearly a century, a sole author has written a comprehensive book about housekeeping. This is not a dry how-to manual, nor a collection of odd tips and hints, a cleaning book, a history book, or an arid encyclopedia compiled by a committee or an institute. Home Comforts is a readable explanation for both beginners and experts of all the domestic arts — choosing fabrics, keeping the piano in tune, caring for books, making a good fire in the fireplace and avoiding chimney fires, ironing and folding, setting up a good reading light, keeping surfaces free of food pathogens, and everything else that modern people might want to do for themselves in their homes. But this reliable and thorough book on the practicalities of housekeeping is also an argument for the importance of private life and the comforts offered by housekeeping.

Cheryl Mendelson is a philosopher, lawyer, sometime professor, and a homemaker, wife, and mother. Home Comforts is based on her domestic education, which she acquired while growing up on a farm in the hills of Greene County, in southwestern Pennsylvania, from her grandmothers, aunts, and mother. Learning from the distinct domestic styles of her native Appalachian relatives and her Italian immigrant relatives, she appreciated early on how important domestic customs are to a sense of comfort and identity in life. She writes out of love and respect for her subject, and hopes to inspire others to develop the affection and respect for home life and housework she was fortunate to have learned.

Mendelson addresses the meanings as well as the methods of housekeeping with a keen sense of the history and values involved. The result is a warm, good-humored, engagingly written book with a message and a point of view, one that is overflowing with useful reflections and information. The clarity, breadth, and depth of the information collected here are unparalleled. You can read Home Comforts for thoughtful entertainment or use its ample index to help you find the answers to practical domestic questions. There is nothing quite like it.

Among this book's unique features:

· A skeptical discussion of the excessive use of disinfectants in the home. · How to iron a dress shirt and how to fold sheets. · How to make up a bed with hospital corners. · How to do all basic sewing stitches. · How to choose proper sizes for sheets, tablecloths, and other household linens. · How to set the table for informal and formal meals. · Expert recommendations for safe food storage. · The most exhaustive and reliable information on fabrics, textile fibers, and their laundering, drying, and other care that exists for nonprofessionals. · A thorough explanation of care labels and why and how you should often (carefully) disregard them. · Housekeeping guidelines for people with pets or with allergies. · What to do about dust mites. · How to clean and care for wood, china and crystal, jewelry, ceramic tile, metals, and more. · Guides to stain and spot removal. · Extensive recommendations for improving home safety. · A summary of laws applicable to the home, including privacy, accident liability, contracts, and domestic employees.·

· 200 Elegant, Clear Drawings ·

The classic bestselling resource for every American home. Choosing fabrics, cleaning china, keeping the piano in tune, making a good fire, folding a fitted sheet, setting the dining room table, keeping surfaces free of food pathogens, watering plants, removing stains — Home Comforts addresses the meanings as well as the methods of hands — on housekeeping to help you manage everyday chores, find creative solutions to modern domestic dilemmas, and enhance the experience of life at home.

Further topics include: Making up a bed with hospital corners, Expert recommendations for safe food storage, Reading care labels (and sometimes carefully disregarding them), Keeping your home free of dust mites and other allergens, Home safety and security, A summary of laws applicable to the home, including privacy, accident liability, contracts, and domestic employees and more in this practical, good-humored, historic, philosophical, even romantic, guidebook to the art of household management.

Mendelson addresses the meanings as well as the methods of housekeeping with a keen sense of the history and values involved. The result is a warm, good-humored, engagingly written book with a message and a point of view, one that is overflowing with useful reflections and information.

Cheryl Mendelson received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Rochester and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She has practiced law in New York City and has taught philosophy at Purdue and Columbia Universities. She lives in New York City with her husband and son.

Contents

Preface

BEGINNINGS

• My Secret Life
• Easing into a Routine
• Neatening

FOOD

• The Whys and Wherefores of Home Cooking
• Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
• Serving Meals
• Stimulating Beverages
• The Center of a Dwelling
• Kitchen Culture
• To Market, to Market
• Cold Comfort
• Bread and Honey
• Safe Food

CLOTH

• The Fabric of Your Home
• Transformations
• The Natural Fibers
• The Man-Made Fibers and Blends
• Fabrics That Work
• Carefully Disregarding Care Labels
• Gathering, Storing, and Sorting Laundry
• Laundering
• Drying the Laundry
• Ironing
• Folding Clothes and Linens
• How to Launder
• Tricky Items
• Common Laundry Mishaps and Problems
• Sanitizing the Laundry
• Removing Stains from Fabrics

CLEANLINESS

• The Air in Your Castle
• Peaceful Coexistence with Microbes
• The Chemistry of Household Cleaning
• Aprons, Rags, and Mops
• Dust and Dust Mites
• Vacuuming, Sweeping, and Dusting
• Textile Furnishings
• Floors and Furniture of Wood and Woodlike Materials
• Resilient Floors
• Ceramic Tile
• Stone
• Man-Made Solid Surfaces and Other Plastics
• Bathrooms
• Pipes and Drains
• Walls, Ceilings, Woodwork, and Windows
• China and Crystal
• Metals
• Caring for Jewelry

DAILY LIFE

• Kindly Light
• Fireplaces
• Some Quiet Occupations
• Sewing
• Caring for Books
• Music
• Images and Recordings
• Home Offices and Computers
• Pets

SLEEP

• The Cave of Nakedness
• Beds and Bedding
• Closets for Clothes and Linens

SAFE SHELTER

• Being Prepared
• Fire
• Electrical Safety
• Slips and Falls
• Further Miscellaneous Safety Rules
• Poisons, Hazardous Substances, and Proper Disposal of Hazardous Household Wastes
• Additional Safety Measures for Children

FORMALITIES

• Understanding Your Castle
• Too Late to Say You're Sorry
• Promises, Promises
• Domestic Employment Laws
• Working with Household Help
• Insurance
• Fond Records

Notes

Acknowledgments and Sources

Index