Wednesday 11 June 2008

Home Improvement

I love the idea of Spring Cleaning.

I have visions of myself
wearing a floral apron

and singing as I polish my delightful home
accompanied by little birds trilling.

The air will squeak with cleanliness
and the smell of beeswax.

Gillie has only to throw open her windows
to achieve Bright, Clean and Shiny.
I want to be like that.

If the truth be told
I am closer to the Moth Eaten Mattress
end of the spectrum.

I think I need FlyLady.

******

This book belonged to MrM's Great Great Aunt.
It was designed to help her manage
the servants effectively.
I am grateful to Thomas for lending it to me.

19 comments:

Unknown said...

what gorgeous notes. How simple life was then, but at the same time, complicated.

Mary said...

Oh that book and the handwriting - how gorgeous! I lasted one day with Flylady - the millions of emails did me head in.

Your description of being apron bedecked and little birds singing was like something out of a Disney movie!

Anonymous said...

I'd like spring cleaning too if it involved me writing notes in flourishing handwriting into a large book and the servants actually doing the cleaning.

kristina said...

What a wonderful book to have--wow!

Unknown said...

I never studied shorthand but it's interesting to note the single strokes which replace the little words like a and the - maybe she did. What a wonderful book - thank you so much for sharing - when I look at my chaotic house even with all its modern conveniences I know that the reason I never get completely on top of it is my quilting. Still you can't snuggle up under a sparkly clean sink can you? Well not very comfortably anyway!

carolyn said...

I too like the idea....

julie said...

Oh yes, if only spring cleaning was really all floral aprons and aromatic beeswax and I think we'd all do more of it. Mind you, overseeing the servants might be just as appealing! What a wonderful book for giving a glimpse at another world!

Anonymous said...

Cool Book. I love old things. What a neat thing to have :)

BreadBox said...

What a lovely record of family history --- did you photograph the whole book?

N.

Ali said...

What an amazing book.

Thant damn Flylady e-mails me constantly, but has never once turned up to clean my house. Hopeless.

driftwood said...

you spend so much time reading flyladies emails you never have time to clean, even methodical cleaning starting at the top of the house....

driftwood said...

of course what you really need is house fairy, to bribe your children into doing the cleaning for you!

blackbird said...

I have a set of diaries that belonged to a local lady in the 40's.
Each day she lists the things she tackled: the inside of her husband's closet, her desk, the silver, the garage floor...
BUT she had a maid and a nanny and went to a different dinner club and card party nearly every night.

blackbird said...

I don't like the Flylady website - it's ugly.

Allison said...

I have several little books like this from my mom's antique store--one of them was about how to be a newly married wife and talks about "wifely duties." HA!!!

Anonymous said...

Love the household diary. Makes you realize how the trivial becomes entertainment in later years...

dottycookie said...

Such a lovely notebook, and I may have to take her advice about moths :-(

And I realise I'm swimming against the tide here, but I like flylady's system - my house is cleaner than it has been in years. I delete most of the mail she sends though!

fifi said...

I still have the folder and the duster from my very brief encounter with the fly-psycho....they are well coverd in webs and dust. :-)

Anonymous said...

The trouble with flylady is that she's always bothering you to out your shoes on.
I should spring clean, too. Sigh. It is a problem when one is the only gardener AND the only cleaner. Impossible, actually.