Season's Cleanings: the Index Card System

Today I've gotten my mother's permission to repost her index card cleaning system, a practical and easy way to maintain your homes cleanliness without having to put much thought into it.  This system allows you to utilize your few spare moments throughout the day to get some of those bothersome chores done and remember the less frequent monthly cleaning that helps a home stay in good condition.

Personally, this has been a major part of my learning curve since I've graduated college. I feel like the clutter piles up, and use to wait until it was a disaster zone until I made time to clean it (which usually took a while by that point).  I've implemented this index card system, and I think it's helped my husband and I a lot in making the most of our time.

To implement the index card system, you'll need:
- an index card box with two tabs
- index cards in four different colors  
(I've created the fun, retro-inspired printable cards and tabs you see in the picture for you guys!  Click here to download the chore cards and here for the dividers.)

First, label the divider tabs: Weekly, Monthly   

Next, on a separate sheet of paper write down every cleaning task you can imagine that needs to be done in your home.  For example:
Mop kitchen floor
Vacuum living room carpet
Dust furniture
Organize Food Pantry
Clean out closet
Organize "junk" drawer
Bleach counter tops
Clean under the refrigerator
Clean oven
Mop bathroom floor
Scour bathtub/shower
Clean bathroom
Sweep garage floor
Organize garage
Sort clothes (keep, store, give away)

Approximate how long each task will take you.  For example:

Sweep and mop kitchen floor-20 minutes
Vacuum living room carpet-30 minutes
Dust furniture-30 minutes
Organize Food Pantry-30 minutes
Clean out closet-1 hour
Organize "junk" drawer-10 minutes
Bleach counter tops-20 minutes
Clean under the refrigerator-10 minutes
Clean oven-20 minutes
Mop bathroom floor-20 minutes
Scour bathtub/shower-10 minutes
Clean bathroom-30 minutes
Sweep garage floor-10 minutes
Organize garage-1 hour
Sort clothes (keep, store, give away)-1 hour

Now divide your index cards based on color.  For example: green cards are 10 minutes, red cards are 20 minutes, yellow cards are 30 minutes and blue cards are 1 hour.

Write down all your 10 minute tasks, giving each task its own card.  Continue with the 20 minute tasks, 30 minute, etc.  For example:

Top right of card:  10 min.
Middle of card: Organize "junk drawer"

Now create two sections in your box by placing the "Weekly" tab at the front and the "Monthly" tab behind it.

Put all your "Weekly" tasks in time order starting with pink 10 minute cards, then blue 20 minute cards, etc. Do the same for the "Monthly" tasks.  For example:

WEEKLY: Scour bathtub/shower-10 minutes
WEEKLY: Sweep garage floor-10 minutes
WEEKLY: Sweep and mop kitchen floor-20 minutes
WEEKLY: Bleach counter tops-20 minutes
WEEKLY: Mop bathroom floor-20 minutes
WEEKLY: Vacuum living room carpet-30 minutes
WEEKLY: Dust furniture-30 minutes
WEEKLY: Clean bathroom-30 minutes

MONTHLY: Organize "junk" drawer-10 minutes

MONTHLY: Clean under the refrigerator-10 minutes
MONTHLY: Clean oven-20 minutes
MONTHLY: Organize Food Pantry-30 minutes
MONTHLY: Clean out closet-1 hour
MONTHLY: Organize garage-1 hour
MONTHLY: Sort clothes (keep, store, give away)-1 hour

Now as you are going through your day and you find yourself in between errands or the next event, check your watch.  Do I have 10 minutes?  Maybe 20?  If so, pull one of the cards and do the task on it.  When you have completed it, move it to the back of the section.

Work through the cards whenever you have small increments of time.  If you have children, add a section for them.  They can pull cards, too, which helps them focus on a specific task.

What do you guys think?  Would this be a potential strategy to help you with your routine home cleaning?  Do you have any other tips and tricks you use to keep your cleaning organized?

If you'd like, you can read my mother's original post on her blog here.

Season's Cleanings: 1930s Closet Organization

Today I've got some fun tidbits from the 1938 book series on sewing from Mary Brooks Picken at the Women's Domestic Institute!  

I always oooo and aaaaah over fancy closets I see in home decor shows and on Pinterest, but I'm always put off by the prices required to build or install them.  Not to mention, I'm a renter! I can't just be putting holes in things and knocking down walls!  I want to be able to organize my closet, but to do it on a budget and to do it in a way that doesn't involve a lot of power tools.

Here's 1930s advice to the rescue!  What better decade to learn to do anything on a budget than the 1930s? When I saw these couple photos of closets, I was impressed by the fact that they looked awesome… and that I could make nearly everything myself!

Check out this first one: 

The main pieces can totally be made or bought cheaply.  There's a shoe pocket on the left door and a hanger on the right with larger pockets.  The garments are stored away in garment bags inside with curtains over the front to really dust-proof everything.  On top is a large hat box and what I think is a fabric hat cover (maybe?).  What a gorgeous closet!

Next up, here's closet #2:

Now I'm not exactly sure what everything on the top shelf is, but there are definitely a couple hat boxes like closet #1.  This also has a cute set of drawers in the closet, and that's a great way to save floor space in the room itself.  Next to this are garment bags in different sizes and shapes to accommodate various garments.  In this closet, the door storage is my favorite!  I love the pockets at the top and the small hamper bag at the bottom, but the shoe bar in the middle is BRILLIANT!  I'm already plotting a way to get my husband to work on one for me for my most commonly-worn shoes…

To help you in your own closet organizing this fall, I've also got a tutorial to make one of those handy-dandy garment bags!  It doesn't have pictures, but after a couple reads and some imagining it was clear to me how to do it.  HOWEVER, if you'd like to make this and have questions, feel free to ask!  I'd be glad to talk it over with you and make it happen!

Season's Cleanings: 7 Tips to Deep Clean, Rearrange, & Freshen Up

Sometimes I get antsy.  I'm tired of how parts of my home look, but I'm lacking in the budget and skills department to do an HGTV-worthy overhaul.  Luckily, this was the same predicament most average people faced in the earlier 20th century decades, and we can learn from their sweet skills!  

One of the best ways to bring a new look to a room is to rearrange it, and it's practical to deep clean it along the way.  Before I even thought to do this blog series, that's exactly what I did in my kitchen!  The layout had a giant 70s dropleaf table in the middle, and the way utilities had been built in has made for an awkward cabinet and fridge layout.  However, I was determined to make the most of the space.  

We found a vintage table, and that sealed the deal. We had been searching high and low for a new table because our 70s dropleaf wasn't in good condition (like, leaves falling off randomly not matter how many times you re-screw them in), and I was elated to discover this affordable table and chair set in a local flea market.  

However, that table purchase was the majority of the budget, so I didn't have many more resources to rework the kitchen.  Here are some of my tips I would suggest in revamping a room on a budget, based on things I've seen in vintage home layouts and in looking at my own home:

1. Start rearranging with the largest piece.
 Rearranging a room can be a daunting task. It seems like my rooms have so much STUFF in them, and I don't realize it until I try to move it all! Focusing on placing a few large items and moving down the size list helps avoid the "I must move everything in this room" overwhelming feeling to "First I'll move the couch, then the end tables..."
I was a bit stuck in rearranging my living room because every single wall has a door or a window in it, and the spaces in between aren't very big.  I started pondering my rearranging options by seeing where the biggest piece in the room, the couch, would fit without blocking anything.  There were only two walls that were options, so I put it on the wall I wasn't currently using!
This works well in nearly any room that has at least one large piece. By starting out with placing large pieces, you can then fill in the rest of the room with increasingly smaller items until you're left with the fun part: decorating!

2. Deep Clean
There are places in my house that don't get cleaned as often as others. Under the couch, under the stove, behind the toilet, places like that. Take this opportunity to thoroughly clean those forgotten corners.  Stuff will get messy anyway with moving stuff around, so you might as well!
Flooring in particular could get some attention at this point since furniture will be moved.  Steam clean your carpets and beat your rugs outside.  (It does more than vacuuming AND relieves stress!)  Wash or steam your curtains, vacuum under the couch cushions, wipe down pantry counters, really get in there!

3. Reorganize
Some things in our homes just aren't as functional as they could be, but we put up with them every day because we haven't taken time to change them up.  Now is a great time to address them!  I rearranged the food storage in our Hoosier cabinet to prevent spices from falling on my head all the time.  It's a small thing, but it has hugely helped my kitchen efficiency!  I also took time to reorganize stuff that had piled in our laundry/storage room and find new places for stacked-up items. It may take some ingenuity, but these little reorganizations can do a lot for reducing daily frustration.

4. Do a project you've been putting off.
Deep cleaning and reorganizing aren't the most fun parts of a seasonal cleaning/refreshing, so take some time to do a craft project you've been putting off. Whether it's that thing that's been pinned to your Pinterest board for several years or a new idea you just discovered, take the time to actually do it!  Print out new pictures for the frames, paint that old mirror, finish that decorative pillow.
I finally made an earring holder and added a bottom curtain to my kitchen window.  I've wanted both for so long but just never gotten around to it, but they're officially done and I'm using them.  Not to mention, they were welcome cleaning breaks!

5. Change out lighting.
Now, here, I'm talking about a VERY budget-friendly lighting change: cleaning and light bulbs!  The fixtures in my home were very dim due to dust gathering on them.  I scrubbed the light fixtures to let more light through. That's step 1.
The next option you can try is a new kind of light bulb.  Surprisingly, it can make a huge difference in how a room feels!  If you'd like a brighter space, try out a daylight bulb.  If you'd like warmer, more intimate lighting in a room like a bedroom, try an incandescent, "yellowy"-colored bulb or experiment with Christmas lights.

6. See what furniture pieces you have that you can freshen up.
Compared to new furniture, paint is cheap!  Women of decades past made full use of paint and other make-do-and-mend tactics to update their old furniture.  One vintage pamphlet I read even suggested taking apart furniture pieces and putting them back together in new ways, such as creating a unique china cabinet by removing the legs off a curio cabinet and putting it on top of a buffet!  That's a bit more work, but if you're feeling DIY-ish it can be an cost-effective way to make a new statement piece for your room.  Easier options could include stenciling a motif on several items in the room, switching out hardware, or moving tchotchkes from their current room to a new one.

7. Open your windows and get some flowers.
To finish it all off, open your windows and air out your house.  Mine has been shut up in an effort to save on air conditioning bills over the summer, but a good airing out in the cooler fall weather has made a huge difference! Add some bright flowers in a vase to the mix and your home will look and feel noticeably fresher.

What rooms in your house could use some sprucing?  Are there any other easy ways you've found to freshen up your living space?

Vintage and Vintage-Inspired articles you may enjoy:
The Proper Arrangement of Furniture in a Room
8 Characteristics of Post-War 1940s Decor
 

Season's Cleanings: Safe, Homemade Cleaners

Today we have a practical guest post from Lisa of Retro Housewife Goes Green   Her blog has an interesting niche of vintage and sustainable, green living, so I knew she'd be the perfect person to contribute to the Season's Cleanings Series!

During the 1950’s America saw an increase in the use and purchase of consumer goods. This post-war period brought all kinds of new things to buy.  Housewives were being marketed to at a level that hadn't been seen before. Suddenly, we needed all kinds of gadgets and products to clean and care for our homes.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my dishwasher, but is all that progress really good? Women today are exposed to countless chemicals while caring for their homes, chemicals our ancestors did fine without. 

The cost to our health is not the only thing the increase use of these store-bought cleaners have. From just 1952 to 1956 consumer debt (excluding real estate loans) increased from $27.4 billion to $41.7 billion. We’ve largely forgotten the frugal ways of the wartime women of the 1940s. 

A simple way to save your family money and improve their health is by using simple, natural ingredients to clean your home. These are three easy cleaners that you can make today to get you started:

All-Purpose Cleaner

You can find many all-purpose cleaning spray recipes all over Pinterest, but the way your great-grandma cleaned most things is really one of the best. 

Good old hot, soapy water is a simple, yet very effective way to clean much of your home. Fill up your sink, a bucket, or a bowl with some hot water and your natural soap of choice. I’m a big fan of Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap. 

Simply use a clean rag to wipe the surfaces and you’re done!

Towel Bowl Cleaner

Again, you can go for the fancy recipes or keep it really simple. 

While cleaning your bathroom, spray the inside and outside of the toilet with white vinegar. Let this sit while you clean other things in your bathroom. 

Wipe down the outside of the toilet, working from the cleanest area to the dirtiest. Scrub the inside of the bowl with a toilet brush.

If you need extra scrubbing power, use some baking soda. Just remember vinegar is an acid and baking soda is a base, they are fun to mix but don’t clean well together. 

Cleaning Scrub

For tougher messes a scrub can be helpful. Take a little bit of baking soda, a few drops of castile soap and enough water to make a paste. Use this to scrub those stubborn messes.  This is my favorite way to clean soap scum from the bath and sink. 

With just three affordable ingredients you can clean most anything in your home. And no more nasty headaches from the cleaning fumes, just a fresh, clean-smelling home! 

What do you guys think of Lisa's cleaning tips?  Are there any you especially want to try out?  Do you have any homemade cleaner recipes?

Season's Cleanings: Seasonal Wardrobes & Laundry Tips

Granted, not all of us live in places with defined, markedly different seasons, but most of us will still have some items that are reserved for a certain time of year.  Whether it's a pair of snow boots, a long-sleeved dress or winter coat, it's crucial to prepare this clothing for storage by deciding what to put away and cleaning it thoroughly.

The first step, deciding what to put away, is one I've just started doing recently.  As I've transitioned from modern to vintage clothing I haven't had enough clothing to cycle in and out.  This year, however, I have a few pieces that I know I definitely won't be wearing until next season, which for me will be spring.

I also like the idea of storing garments that could work year-round for another reason: closet rotation fun!  By putting away some items I love for a few months and pulling them back out later, it will be like getting new clothing.  It also forces me to imagine new ways to style garments I already have and wear items I don't get to as often. By limiting my choices, I have to increase my creativity!

There are four things to look at when deciding which clothing to store:
- Which items do I absolutely need this season?
- Which basic garments will I need for mixing-and-matching?
- Which garments do I want for pizzazz?
- What special events will happen this season?

For me, I knew I absolutely needed warm clothing.  This means I'm keeping a few long-sleeved dresses, furs, stockings, warm hats, and enclosed shoes in my closet.
I also knew I would need office-appropriate basics for mixing and matching. I'm keeping my trousers, suits, and solid-colored blouses out for this purpose.  Lastly, I wanted some winter pizzazz!  I've decided to keep out a couple hats, some patterned blouses, and some poppin' shoes.  

I also know that this is the season for Christmas parties, and I may have a formal event or two.  With that in mind, I've kept a couple formals and my highest heels in my closet for the occasion!

All the rest of it will be stored in my closet and places around my home.  However, all of it needs to be properly laundered.  It's a good time to air out the items I'll be wearing this season, so I hung them outside in my yard to get some fresh air.  (I hung them in the shade to prevent fading from the sun, except my whites which could benefit from some sun-bleaching!)

As for items I'll be storing, I went over them and looked for spots, stains, weird smells, and deodorant residue. It's important to remove these things if at all possible before storing so they don't set permanently or cause discolorations or deterioration while in storage.

Here's a series of questions to help you decide how to wash your vintage pieces (or those not-as-vintage-savvy people in your household…). It's a basic overview, so if you have more detailed questions feel free to ask in the comments below! (You can get a printable version of this chart to hang in your laundry area here!)

Season's Cleanings

As the seasons are changing, now is the time of year when I do some deep home and wardrobe cleaning and organizing.  I'm making a point to be very intentional and thorough about it this round because I feel more established in my adult routines than I was last autumn, so I'm actually excited to get to work!  

I do my deep seasonal cleaning in spring and fall, so no matter which hemisphere you live in, now is the time to get at it!  Temperatures tend to be milder and, for many, the weather changes mean there needs to be a bit of a wardrobe shift.  As I go through my techniques for home and wardrobe cleaning and organizing, I'm going to post about each step with practical advice and tutorials to help you along in your own seasonal cleaning.

Here are the things I'll be covering:
- Dignity in homemaking
- 7 tips for deep cleaning, rearranging, and freshening up a room
- Safe, homemade cleaners
- The Index Card System: my mother's tried & true technique of regularly maintaining a home
- Dividing a wardrobe into seasons and laundering tips
- Mending and repairing clothing
- A 1930s hanging storage bags tutorial
- Storing seasonal clothing properly

I'll be sprinkling each post with interesting info from vintage sources, personal thoughts about caring for a home, and some handy-dandy printable guides you can use for quick reference.

Are any of you starting seasonal cleaning or wardrobe organizing?  Do you find it refreshing, a necessarily evil, or a bit of both?

Season's Cleanings: Mending & Altering Clothes & Shoes

Mending and repairing clothing is an important, unavoidable part of wearing vintage.  Since our clothing is older, it sometimes needs a pick-me-up to get back into wearable condition and to help preserve it for longer.  However, I've learned that there are a lot of things I could do for my wardrobe that I overlooked in the beginning!

First, there are alterations.  This is a touchy subject I've touched on in previous posts, but it's an option ladies in previous generations went to all the time.  If you've noticed there's a garment you like but it doesn't quite fit you right, take it to be altered!  I've found that when a couple little fit issues have been addressed I'll wear a garment far more often, such as my 1950s power suit.

Next, there's clothing repair.  If you aren't handy with a needle and thread, this is often an easy job that can be done by dry cleaners, tailors, and sewing friends.  It's important to catch rips and holes when they're small and repair them ASAP to prevent them from getting bigger.  In my experience, vintage pieces often need repairs on underarms, waist seams, and hems.  Before storing your clothing or putting it back into your closet to wear this season, take an evening to address the mending issues of each garment.  Carefully look over the whole thing inside and out and do what needs to be done to make it sturdy again.

Lastly, it's time to take care of shoes!  I didn't realize all the things that can be done to preserve vintage shoes until recently.  If your shoe has an issue, take it to a cobbler or shoe repair person.  You'll never know what can be done unless you ask the pros!  I would recommend having these things done by a professional for it to be done right.  Shoe pros have machinery, tools, and skills that aren't commonplace, so it's good to let them do these things.

Here are some of your shoe maintenance options to keep them looking better longer:
- Conditioning leather: Sometimes leather gets dry, and if it starts to crack it may never be fixable. Conditioning your leather will keep it soft, supple, and wearable.
- Weatherproofing:  Wet conditions can stain leather or ruin certain types like suede.  Taking your shoes to be weatherproofed will help be more water-resistant and look better.
- Heel repair: Oftentimes shoes, especially heels, will begin to wear down on the back of the sole and round off. To prevent the heel part from eroding further, get the heel tips replaced from time to time.
- Metal taps: This is an old trick you'll often see on vintage shoes and even on modern-day work and military shoes.  You can get metal taps installed on certain places on the soles of your shoes that get the most wear.  These taps won't erode like rubber soles and will help your shoes last longer.
- Leather repair: Brittle or worn-out ankle straps are common on vintage shoes since they've often been well-loved, especially when the wearer tended to buckle them at a certain hole every time. Take these shoes in and get a reinforcement strip of leather sewn on the back of the strap.  It will prevent the strap from snapping when you walk!
- Redyeing: Not every shoe repair person will do this, but re-dyeing shoes is also an option.  Redyeing can restore leather shoes to their original, vivid color.  You can also dye shoes made of other materials to brighten their color or even change the color completely.
- Sewing repairs: Cobblers have special sewing machines that allow them to repair seams in shoes we home sewists generally can't fix.  Catch tears in the upper parts of shoes early to keep the tear from spreading!

Do you have items in your closet that need to mended or repaired? What's your favorite mending or maintenance trick you've learned when dealing with vintage?

Season's Cleanings: Dignity in Homemaking

Home-keeping is a science, and but who profess it really possess it?  The more we accomplish with the least of money, and the smallest amount of work, the more science we exhibit. The woman who keeps her house so that it is home to the tired and weary husband and little ones, so that any and all the time they spend at home, until the very idea of at home is a happy thought, is a scientific home keeper.
~Western Garden and Poultry Journal, source

While I don't necessarily love all aspects of taking care of a home (I'd rather do other things like, say, knitting), I do think it's an extremely important and overlooked skill these days.  I've realized what an art it is, a science even.  There is so much to learn in order to do things better, faster, and cheaper in regards to cleaning, maintaining, and organizing a house.  Women of previous decades were oftentimes the sole caretakers of their home (with husbands working outside of it), and this knowledge was considered essential for them.  It was taught in schools and even college-level courses by women such as Mary Brooks Picken, and these courses had thousands of enrollees!  During the Depression, these skills were put to the test as women scrimped and saved to help their families make it through. During WWII, domestic arts and savvy homemaking were seen as a patriotic duty and survival skill for families on the home front.

These days, as women have received more opportunities, this knowledge isn't necessarily considered essential for us any more.  We have the ability to work outside our homes and build careers outside of traditional "women's jobs."  This is fantastic!  However, it also means that sometimes skills traditionally associated with women have been deemed old fashioned or sub-par in comparison to skills used outside a home in a career field.  Or, viewing it from another angle, these skills are only seen as truly useful and worthy of developing if you can make money off of them in some sort of small business endeavor.

To me, this unintended consequence of the women's lib movement is a bit sad.  Taking care of a home is no longer a point of pride for women; it's a necessary evil they sheepishly admit to doing or don't consider a "worthy" effort until it makes money.  Men who take care of their homes often encounter social stigmas as well, as if that role was a womanly and, therefore, less important one.

This is crazy to me!  While it is great that women are able to work outside of the home, a welcoming, comfy home is something everyone wants.  However, society doesn't respect the work it takes to create such a home.  Apparently, magical elves are just supposed make it happen while we all go off to our "more-important" outside jobs every day!

I think many women would agree that taking care of a home can be hard work.  As I go through the rest of the series, I want to communicate dignity in the hard work of homemaking.  This work, obviously, can be done by both men and women, but I recognize that the vast majority of my audience is women, so posts may be geared that way in language and content.

We should be proud of being competent in careers and homemaking alike, for one is not better than the other.  Both are necessary, both are valid job choices, and both are unique skills.  The amount we dabble in either one will depend greatly on personality and circumstance, but we can take pride in both!  Domestic arts require perseverance, trial and error, ingenuity, invention, and elbow grease.  The benefits to be reaped by these skills cannot often be measured in monetary value, but they help create the memories and feelings we carry with us throughout our lives: the clean, safe kitchen where delicious food was made, the Christmas candle that will always be the "official" smell of the holidays, the patches on our play clothes that made them last longer.  Homemaking isn't something we should view as a cliche relic of the sexist past.  We can take pride in the heritage of skills our mothers and grandmothers have passed down to us and honor their strength by being intentional and effective in our own homemaking today.

Here are a couple bonus vintage articles I enjoyed on the subject:
Housekeeping vs. Homemaking
Homemaker's Creed of the Home Legion

How do you view house work and skills traditionally associated with women? Have you felt like this kind of work isn't valued or considered as important as career skills, or have you found the opposite to be true?