The Keeping of the House, 1950s Style
Wow.
The 50s housewife was busy, to say the least. According to what I’ve read, she cleans certain things on a weekly basis that I haven’t cleaned once since moving into our condo in 2006. Kidding, mom. (Not kidding, everyone else.)
I’ve compiled the advice, and here’s the daily housekeeping schedule I’ll attempt to follow for the 50s Housewife Experiment:
- Throw back the covers
- Open up the blinds and windows
- Freshen up
- Make and serve breakfast
- Clean up breakfast
- Complete a 10-minute exercise regime
- Shower, do hair and make-up, get dressed
- Gather a basket for tidying. As the rooms of the home are tackled, pick up items that aren’t where they belong and place them in a basket. Redistribute them where they should be as you enter a new room
- Straighten up the living and dining room, including picking up potential clutter, light dusting, fluffing / straightening pillows, and watering plants or flowers
- Make the beds
- Tidy the bedroom, including light dusting
- Hang up any clothes that may be about or ensure dirty ones are in the hamper
- Do a light tidy of the bathroom including removing and replacing used towels, refilling toilet paper and soap (if needed) and cleaning the sink and basin area including soap dishes
- Review the menu for the current day and the next and compare it to what’s currently available in the home. Make note of anything that needs to be prepared ahead of time or marketing (shopping) that needs to get done
- Begin long-advance preparations for dinner (such as making dessert)
- Wipe down kitchen work surfaces and inside the fridge
- Dispose of garbage
- Rinse dish cloths and hang to dry
- Sweep or mop the kitchen floor
- Handle errands that might take you out of the home (such as marketing, volunteering, going to the post office, getting an item fixed, etc), bookkeeping, correspondence, or indulge in a hobby
- If returning from the grocery store, wash vegetables, wrap them and put them away. Place rest of groceries or purchases in their proper place
- Have a quick lunch <- Yoinks?
- Start advance food conditioning like crisping vegetables or thawing frozen foods
- Handle weekly chore for the day (more on that below!)
- Set the table for dinner
- Arrange the living room for evening enjoyment (such as “the Mister’s” newspaper, book, and cigarettes)
- Do a quick sweep of the floors and ensure entrance ways are clear
- Prepare a special dish for dinner
- Freshen up before the husband returns from work. Consider changing into something more festive if the day dress is plain
- Set out a tray with equipment for making cocktails, should “the Mister” want to serve drinks before dinner
- Greet husband “gayly”
- Serve dinner
- Clear table and wash dishes
- Pour boiling water down the sink to ensure pipes are flushed
- If necessary, pack the husband’s lunch for the next day. Set aside a lunch tray in the refrigerator for yourself if having leftovers
- Set table for breakfast
- Ensure breakfast foods are available and do any make-ahead preparations for it
Shoot yourself in the headEnjoy an evening of relaxation
- Use metal polish on bathroom fixtures
- Clean and disinfect all kitchen appliances
- Scald and disinfect bread boxes and garbage pails and bins
- Replace flowers with fresh bouquets
There is also a recommendation in there to try to squeeze a 10 – 30 minute nap in the afternoon (if not because you’re actually tired but to “look more refreshed” for he-who-wants-to-be-greeted-with-prettiness when he gets home).
While there were certainly brand name cleaning products available to her, the 50s housewife used a lot of simple household products as well – such as baking soda, vinegar, lemon, castile soap and borax – not to mention a good deal of elbow grease. She used things like cheese cloth, rags and old newspapers instead of paper towels. This actually all suits me fine as I figure these are all environmentally friendly options – and who knows – they might even work better than the contemporary products.
I’d also like to note - and will bold this so that a certain someone sees it - that all the guides indicate that a husband shouldn’t expect to be waited on hand and foot. He is fully capable of putting away his coat when he arrives home, fetching and putting away the objects he uses and properly hanging and / or putting his clothes away after undressing. Extras like helping with the dishes after dinner are also "courteous contributions."
Image Source: The Bride's Reference Book
47 comments:
That list looks insane!!!!
My chin hit the ground when I got to #22 - eat lunch. 1-21 were just morning activities. Aha! I'm so, so far behind.
You and me both, Punga. I totally have not been able to match her speed. Not only do I have to skip that nap she seems to squeeze into her day, I haven't left the bloody house yet! In two days! For reals. Ha.
Can you post what you had to do on a weekly basis? The deep cleaning stuff?
Wow! This is a little too close to what my normal day looks like! We have a large home with 5 college age guy boarders and 4 kids of our own. But yes I do agree with the gun to the head at the end of the day.
Another interesting aspect of the 50s housewife culture: Those "diet pills" that were actually amphetamines. No wonder they could get so much done!
Good lord. I have difficulty cleaning, so I thought "Hey! I'll take some tips from a 50's housewife". Then I read them. I don't mind my house being messy that much.
That sounds like some of my more productive days - you know, the ones where you START with a beer, rather than end with one.
Yikes! I also thought, hey, this sounds interesting! Indeed, it was interesting, but just reading the list wore me out! lol. I'll stick to my manageable Flylady lists! lol
You don't really believe that the 50's were anything like this, do you? I raised five children, worked part-time as a nurse, traveled with the family, fixed wholesome meals (no Campbell's soup recipes), and yes, I kept the house clean. My husband helped in every way from changing diapers to cooking to taking the kids on outings. The magazines, McCall's and the like, were not all about housekeeping. There were short stories by well-known authors that you won't find in any magazine today and news items about people other than the Justin Bieber sort. And there's nothing wrong with a household routine, even a bit of dusting. It keeps the germs at bay.
i think everyone should keep this cleaning regimine. it works just fine for me, and i have a 9 month old sone to look after and to mess up everything i clean. lol. but yes the diet pills with amphetamines help get stuff done and stay skinny. although i get shakey if i dont eat properly. so i munch on small cheese sticks and crackers through out the day.
Have just stumbled upon your blog. what a brilliant idea.
I am a real life stay at home mum/ homemaker in the year 2012
How times have changed :)
will be reading with interest.
http://flyonthewalljamyd.wordpress.com/
Decided to try this the other day,I got to number twelve. I was sweaty and exhausted by then,kicked of the heels and pantyhose,flipped on the tv,and gave up. Kudos to you!
-16 year old obsessed with the 50's
You said this was a compilation, right? What are the sources for this list? I too am interested in knowing what was the typical deep-cleaning chore schedule for a housewife in the 1950s. I'm sorta doing a 50s housewife thing right now; I find this very interesting. I read an article a few days ago that said housewives from the 50s were six inches thinner than women today. I bet this schedule had something to do with it. :)
A woman would have had to get up at 5 a.m. and go to bed at midnight or later to get all this done. The "morning" routine alone would take about six hours.
To be honest, my day is a lot like this. The morning time before lunch is more about tidying than scrubbing. Most of these are five-10 minute jobs. Swish and swipe the bathroom, 2 minutes. Put on some eggs and bacon while the coffee is doing its thing. It sounds like a lot, but it's really a lot of tiny jobs. The only things I don't do on here is putting on makeup before breakfast and the 10 minute exercise. I need to add that. I do walk the dog, though, before breakfast because if you don't you'll pay. LOL. My grandmothers both did this routine through the day, very different women, they didn't slave or rush, it was more like home caring than drudgery. I don't know how to describe the difference in mindset, but it was more about enjoying your home and living in it instead of using it as a pit stop to sleep and change clothes, like most of us live now.
Other than dishes, laundry & making dinner, which I do almost every day,(and making the bed, which I do NEVER), I do a day like this about 2-3 days a week. Clear as much of the clutter as our tiny apartment will allow. Sweep, vacuum, mop if necessary (I love swiffer!) Wipe counters, sinks & mirrors. Dust with antibacterial wipes. Straighten couch covers & change the cases on the throw pillows. Wash throw blankets. And I have a 5 month old, special needs infant with a seizure disorder on a strict medication & meal schedule at home. I'malso an avid papercrafter (cards & scrapbooking) which I try to find time for a few days a week too. It seems like a lot, but if you just do it, its not so bad. I wouldn't bother to do it every day, personally, but a few days a week is actually really doable (I get up between 7:30 & 8 most days & am usually done well before my husband gets home at 7).
Just beginning to read your experiment. Thank you for researching all this! I'm interested in digging deeper about life in the 50s beyond fashion. I dream of vintage household bliss, which sounds oddly connected to a minimalist lifestyle I also aspire to. It seems like minimising TV and internet time, decluttering, planning and implementing routines will make life systematic and will only need (hopefully light) maintenance. Thanks again! Have a good week :)
This is a good post and it is interesting seeing the amount of work which was needed to be finished. At least now we have companies like Maid Complete House Cleaning to get some of the jobs done.
Loved it.. But what if your husband works nights with a baby lol
This is probably the most "it actually makes sense" kind of post I've seen on on this subject. Best part... I didn't have to go digging through some weird web design to find it. Awesome! PLEASE keep posting new material! http://ceomaids.com
This is probably the most "it actually makes sense" kind of post I've seen on on this subject. Best part... I didn't have to go digging through some weird web design to find it. Awesome! PLEASE keep posting new material! http://ceomaids.com
Is this still relevant for today? Or have things changed? What I'm curious about is how this will carry out, like what will the trend be for this type of stuff?
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Wel... consider yourself added to my blogroll. I have like six other blogs I read on a weekly basis, guess that number just increased to seven! Keep writing!
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Fascinating. Definitely bookmarking this page. Really valuable info, thanks for posting.
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Well, that was a pretty fascinating read, not going to lie. I really hope you continue to write. Probably one of the more informative pieces I've read on this subject. Thanks!
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So weird. I was just searching for information about this stuff and you popped up. You must be doing something right. Thanks by the way, this really answered some questions I was throwing around in the back of my mind.
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Nice post, Thanks for sharing this information with us.Keep updating your post.
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I actually do most of this already. But I need to keep up better so it's not so overwhelming.
Very interesting information, may be useful for everything
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It looks like the last several "comments" are those "one size fits all" blogs comments designed to get into a list of real blog comments in order to sneak in their spam posts, for which they likely get some kind of compensation. Pity - I hate to see this, because it turns your hard work and other's legitimate comments into fodder for a "Spam Farm!" Consider perhaps a little bit of "Blog Tidying" by removing them, and closing the comments? It's been plenty of time, and it's not unusual to see posts closed to further comments after a year or two.
Otherwise, I am enjoying reading the posts and the legitimate comments, and imagining being able to actually do them again! But, being totally disabled now removes that from my list of "possibilities" for all time. It's a shame really, as I used to manage a very busy home and work life without problems. Ah well.
Yep, that's exactly what they were...
Good article. I am two years married with a 10 month old and wanting to get pregnant next spring. I have been thinking a lot about this topic. Both my grandmothers were 1950s house wives. One raised a family of five and the other a family of six. I been wondering how they did it. Interestingly they both worked at different times while they raised kids. One worked at a chemical manufacture plant and another as a home economics teacher. They both prepared family meals, a big Sunday diner, and kept tidy homes. I remember dad's mom living this way when we visited. Her routine was so ingrained she did it even while battling Alzheimer's. Some things to add. My grandfathers helped and all my aunts and uncles were assigned tasks and expected to contribute. If this routine is followed at least 3-4 times a week it amounts to small task that take the same amount of time as checking social media. ;) Planning and discipline to carry out the plan seems to be the key. Both these areas I am trying to improve in. In general families of the 50s seemed more inter dependent and operated as a unit. It would seem to me that the motivation behind this list is love and the necessity living as a unit working together for each other and for success of the group, the family. Overal families now don't tend to think of themselves as a unit working together but as a collection of individuals that happen to have the same last name all doing our separate things. This slight shift in mindset makes a big difference in the burden or joy of house keeping. It's the difference between pride in OUR home that we upkeep for each other verses mom cleaning the boarding house. :)
Wife and new mom: I think if you take your thinking back another 20 years, and then move forward to the 50's, you'll find some of your answers. In order to be a 1950's housewife, mother, employee, etc., it was necessary to have been born and raised in the previous 20-30 years. Look at the kinds of social and economic upheavals under which they were raised.
The Great Depression of the 30's, followed by World War II of the 40's, were both times of extraordinary personal sacrifice, calling all members of the family old enough to walk and talk to contributing toward the family survival, and the nation's survival. Both your grandmothers no doubt knew those times intimately from growing up in them. Keeping a roof over the family's heads, food in the pantry and ice box, clothes on everyone's backs, even time to allow education to be acquired, required a great deal of ingenuity and labor, which in turn required the contribution of all family members in order to survive intact. If this is what you grow up with, and come of age with, then there isn't much that can change those basic principals in running your own home and filling the roles you've grown up believing in. Even the economic and technological booms of the 1950's couldn't change the basic tenets of family life in most of those adults who had come of age during times of national strife. Children were expected to be contributing members of the family, as a matter of course, and most weren't allowed to do otherwise. It's just what you do. Period. Children without chores to do regularly were eyed with suspicion by other children, and seen as spoiled by adults.
The returning GI's from WWII were mostly anxious and ready to start their own families, if they hadn't already. Or to continue those they had left behind during the War. But, war being what war is, it changed many if not most of those veterans by the very experience of sharing bloody battle with their comrades. They had been far away from anything they ever knew as home, seen many new and different places and things and had many experiences they otherwise would never have, without the war. They came home to find that home and the people in it had also changed, due to their own experiences, and it took time and effort on everyone's part to make the adjustments needed to continue with a new life.
Some weren't up to it. Statistics show that along with a marriage boom, a baby boom, and a post-war housing boom, there was also a divorce "boom" of couples who never had the chance to try and build a marriage and a family together, and couldnt build one apart. Many war marriages, which began quickly, and frequently impulsively, didn't survive those long periods of estrangement, with the husbands far away, and the wives left at home to work and wait through what seemed like unending periods of loneliness and fear, frequently with no more than wedding rings, allotment checks, pictures and very infrequent letters between them. And others produced children who the fathers didn't see for years, except in snapshots, and the mothers were suddenly required to be both mother and father in addition to breadwinner for them. Many children never met their fathers, because the fathers ended up buried in some far-away grave, or just lost forever to the horrors of war. Remarriage was common, and many children had the only father they ever knew from it. And photographs of one they were too young to remember when he left, and couldn't come home again.
These are the experiences which tempered the growth of young women, teenagers and small children, who were to become the adults, families and leaders of a new world, a new kind of society that had never been seen before.
Hi. I loved this as I love this (and the 40's) eras. I am a mum of two and this looks like my day (when i dont slack off). My fiance works mainly from home, and does help but i do most of the work. If he were away at work, this is just normal life for a mum who stays at home, plus you have young kids. My 9 year old son goes to school and my 2 year old is home. It is funny that people say this is crazy because really, unless uou are super slack, sont have kids, or have a cleaner come in, rhis is just adulting. And believe me, i am all about men helping with parenting and house work too.
Sorry for typos lol
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