Even in the ’50s, many families only came together at the table. (Now, it seems, many families don’t even do that — but they should!) The atmosphere created at the family table sets the standard for family relationships, conduct, and comradeship. And if the homemaker is going to put all that energy into preparing the …
Mid-Century May Baby Step 12: How to Set the Table, 50s Style Read More »
If you have other things that you’d like to do with your life than housework — especially when you have small children — you probably have looked for ways to cut down on the time it takes to get your everyday, routine work done. Marion Hurst, in addition to her list for avoiding fatigue, provided …
Mid-Century May Baby Step 11: Vintage Housekeeping Shortcuts Read More »
If you are going to follow a ’50s housewife schedule, you need to prepare for a lot of work. Tiring work! And while there were shortcuts (hello, amphetamines!), those shortcuts could burn out your health QUITE fast. Fortunately, some experts had better ideas for conserving both energy and health. Here are some mid-century tips for …
Saturday is a family-time-and-baking day. And tomorrow is Mother’s Day and my birthday! Anyway, I made an icebox cake for my birthday. And I looked at vintage patterns — again — over on The Ugly Dame. I love those patterns! One of these days, I will get my hands on some of those vintage Lutterloh …
We’ve covered baby’s layette, and the housewife wardrobe, so now we are going to talk about older children’s clothes! Here is a basic vintage school wardrobe for children, which you can use to form a capsule wardrobe to simplify laundry. A capsule wardrobe is also an excellent way to teach your children about style and …
Mid-Century May Baby Step 9: Vintage School Clothes Read More »
Today was living-rooms-and-dining-room day. I also did the kitchen, even though we aren’t going shopping this week. We’ve been extending the time between shopping trips to 2-3 weeks, rather than every week during the stay-at-home order. Going to the store so rarely makes me wish for daily milk deliveries! It’s the only thing I keep …
Before you can start cleaning your house properly, you need a cleaning basket. Now, obviously, the cleaning basket is just part of the vintage cleaning closet. The closet also contains other essential equipment and materials. But the cleaning basket is a real timesaver, and one of those vintage housekeeping secrets that helps the ’50s housewife …
Mid-Century May Baby Step 8: The Cleaning Basket Read More »
Today is bedrooms-and-bathrooms day! I have to do a serious cleaning of the bathrooms every day. 10 of us using 1 bathroom is . . . a lot. I am so glad that I found the vintage cleaning routines. Every day I follow the routines and my bathroom never gets out of hand. I don’t …
In most homes, you only have to wash dishes from a proper dinner for 10 at Thanksgiving. I have to do it every single day. Believe me, I have learned the shortcuts for how to wash dishes by hand! Since I like a properly set table, I have serving dishes and pots and pans to …
Mid-Century May Baby Step 7: How to Wash Dishes by Hand Read More »
Today was an odd-jobs sort of day. I spent the day scaling patterns to the correct size, so that I can cut out and sew some clothes from vintage patterns. Sewing makes me happy! I tried to make a cheese souffle for the first time today. Not a success. I need an oven thermometer. And …