Etiquette of the Housekeeper’s Week

“In removing dishes the waitress should never pile one upon another and should not attempt to take more than two plates at a time. Perhaps it is unnecessary in this day and age to say that the silver should be placed in the center of the plate, the knife, fork and spoon side by side and not at varying and dangerous angles.” – From Marion Harland’s, “The Housekeeper’s Week” on the Laying of the Table

 At the turn of the 19th to 20th century, numerous magazines for housekeeper’s and for housewives were available to help guide the etiquette for how household’s could be run more efficiently. Both the Ladies’ Home Journal and The Housekeeper were two such popular publications.

“The Housekeeper's Week”

By Marion Harland, author of “Complete Cook Book.” “Complete Etiquette,” etc… Published by the Bobbs-Merrill company, Indianapolis. Price $1.50.

This is essentially an encyclopedia of household information. As the author's "Complete Cook Book" is an exhaustive manual for the kitchen, so this new volume covers the whole supplementary range of house keeping. It contains directions on a thousand and one matters of interest and importance to the housewife, compactly set forth, readily found, reasonable, moderate, scientific and satisfying.

The arrangement is one of the book’s best features. The plan of naming the chapters for the days of the week and giving instruction in each for the kind of work sacredly set aside by the housekeeper's unwritten law for that particular day is not only clever, but practical as well.

Thus in the six chapters devoted to Monday and Tuesday every phase of washing and ironing receives attention. Wednesday is devoted to baking, with recipes for making old fashioned yeast and instruction on mixing and the use of the oven. The Thursday section is devoted to methods of removing dirt from clothing, carpets and furniture, with an exhaustive discussion of dry cleaning. 

Under “Friday” is treated the extermination of household pests, and Saturday is devoted to the care of furniture and household utensils. That subject takes three long chapters, and no thinkable detail is omitted. Sunday, with the subhead “Works of Necessity and Mercy,” embraces information on domestic materia medica, home surgery,

The book is a fitting and valuable crown to Marion Harland's long life devoted to labor in behalf of the home. – San Francisco Call, 1908

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia