awer under it, to hold
the ironing-sheets, holders, &c. A lock and key should be put on the
closet. If the mistress of the family requests the washerwoman to notify
her, when she is through, and then ascertains if all these articles are
put in their places, it will prove useful. Tubs, pails, and all hooped
wooden ware, should be kept out of the sun, and in a cool place, or they
will fall to pieces.

_Common Mode of Washing._

Assort the clothes, and put them in soak, the night before. Never pour
hot water on them, as it sets the dirt. In assorting clothes, put the
flannels in one lot, the colored clothes in another, the coarse white
ones in a third, and the fine clothes in a fourth lot. Wash the fine
clothes in one tub of suds; and throw them, when wrung, into another.
Then wash them, in the second suds, turning them wrong side out. Put
them in the boiling-bag, and boil them in strong suds, for half an hour,
and not much more. Move them, while boiling, with the clothes-stick.
Take them out of the boiling-bag, and put them into a tub of water, and
rub the dirtiest places, again, if need be. Throw them into the
rinsing-water, and then wring them out, and put them into the
blueing-water. Put the articles to be stiffened, into a clothes-basket,
by themselves, and, just before hanging out, dip them in starch,
clapping it in, so as to have them equally stiff, in all parts. Hang
white clothes in the sun, and colored ones, (wrong side out,) in the
shade. Fasten them with clothes-pins. Then wash the coarser white
articles, in the same manner. Then wash the colored clothes. These must
not be soaked, nor have ley or soda put in the water, and they ought not
to lie wet long before hanging out, as it injures their colors.
Beef's-gall, one spoonful to two pailfuls of suds, improves calicoes.
Lastly, wash the flannels, in suds as hot as the hand can bear. Never
rub on soap, as this shrinks them in spots. Wring them out of the first
suds, and throw them into another tub of hot suds, turning them wrong
side out. Then throw them into hot blueing-water. Do not put blueing
into suds, as it makes specks in the flannel. Never leave flannels long
in water, nor put them in cold or lukewarm water. Before hanging them
out, shake and stretch them. Some housekeepers have a close closet, made
with slats across the top. On these slats, they put their flannels, when
ready to hang out, and then burn brimstone under them, for ten minutes.
It is but