Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping HouseThe classic bestselling resource for every American household, Home Comforts addresses the meanings as well as the methods of housekeeping to help you manage everyday chores, find creative solutions to modern domestic dilemmas, and enhance the experience of life at home. "Home Comforts is to the house what Joy of Cooking is to food." —USA TODAY For the first time in nearly a century, here is an engaging and comprehensive book about housekeeping. Far from a dry how-to manual, nor a collection of odd tips and hints, a history book, or an encyclopedia compiled by a committee or an institute, Home Comforts is a readable guide for both beginners and experts of all the domestic arts. Including 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 germs, watering plants, removing stains—this guide covers everything that modern people might want to do for themselves in their homes. 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, this is a practical, good-humored, philosophical, even romantic, guidebook to the art and science of household management. |
Contents
My Secret Life | 3 |
CLEANLINESS | 5 |
Easing into a Routine | 17 |
Neatening | 30 |
The Whys and Wherefores of Home Cooking | 37 |
Breakfast Lunch and Dinner | 49 |
Serving Meals | 58 |
Stimulating Beverages | 70 |
Textile Furnishings | 466 |
Floors and Furniture of Wood and Woodlike Materials | 487 |
Resilient Floors | 506 |
Ceramic Tile | 510 |
Stone | 516 |
ManMade Solid Surfaces and Other Plastics | 523 |
Bathrooms | 529 |
Pipes and Drains | 534 |
The Center of a Dwelling | 88 |
Kitchen Culture | 103 |
IO To Market to Market | 122 |
Cold Comfort | 142 |
Bread and Honey | 155 |
Safe Food | 161 |
The Fabric of Your Home | 193 |
Transformations | 221 |
The Natural Fibers | 232 |
The ManMade Fibers | 242 |
and Blends | 253 |
Fabrics That Work | 266 |
Carefully Disregarding | 270 |
Care Labels | 276 |
Gathering Storing and Sorting Laundry | 288 |
Laundering | 303 |
Drying the Laundry | 329 |
Ironing | 339 |
Folding Clothes and Linens | 351 |
How to Launder Tricky Items | 358 |
Common Laundry Mishaps | 363 |
and Problems | 367 |
Sanitizing the Laundry | 375 |
Removing Stains from Fabrics | 380 |
The Air in Your Castle | 393 |
Peaceful Coexistence | 401 |
with Microbes | 417 |
The Chemistry of Household Cleaning | 436 |
Aprons Rags and Mops | 446 |
Dust and Dust Mites | 450 |
Vacuuming Sweeping | 454 |
and Dusting | 458 |
Walls Ceilings Woodwork and Windows | 536 |
China and Crystal | 543 |
Metals | 553 |
Caring for Jewelry | 563 |
DAILY LIFE | 567 |
Kindly Light | 569 |
Fireplaces | 587 |
Some Quiet Occupations | 594 |
Sewing | 599 |
Caring for Books | 612 |
Music | 617 |
Images and Recordings | 622 |
Home Offices | 628 |
and Computers | 631 |
Pets | 637 |
SLEEP | 643 |
The Cave of Nakedness | 653 |
Beds and Bedding | 671 |
Closets for Clothes and Linens | 687 |
Being Prepared | 693 |
Electrical Safety | 715 |
Slips and Falls | 729 |
Poisons Hazardous Substances | 742 |
Additional Safety Measures | 752 |
Understanding Your Castle | 759 |
Too Late to Say Youre Sorry | 780 |
Promises Promises | 791 |
Domestic Employment Laws | 797 |
Insurance | 814 |
Fond Records | 828 |
857 | |
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Common terms and phrases
abrasion bacteria bacterium beans better blends bread breakfast cause chapter cheese chlorine bleach clean clothes coffee cold color colorfast comfort contain cooking cool cotton crêpe detergent dinner dishes dishwasher dry-cleaned dryer durable dyes eggs espresso fabrics feel fish flavor fold foodborne illness freeze freezer fresh frozen fruits garment glass heat household housekeeping iron keep kitchen knits knives labels laundering laundry less linen machine manufacturers meals meat milk modacrylic mold months nylon odors oils optical brighteners package pans pantry pasta Pima cotton plain weave plastic polyester polypropylene poultry produce rayon refrigerator resistance rib knit rinse safe salad sanitizing serving silk soak soap soil soup spandex stains storage stove sudsy sure synthetic fibers taste temperature tend things tion towels treatments usually utensils vegetables warm wash weave wine wool woven wrinkle yarns