On Washing Dishes
No item of domestic labor is so frequently done in a negligent manner, by domestics as this. A full supply of conveniences, will do much toward a remedy of this evil. A swab made of strips of linen, tied to a stick, is useful to wash nice dishes, especially small, deep articles. Two or three towels and three dish cloths should be used. Two large tin tubs painted on the outside should be provided, one for washing and one for rinsing, also a large old waiter on which to drain the dishes. A soap dish with hard soap and a fork with which to use it, a slop pail and two pails for water should also be furnished. Then if there be danger of neglect, the following rules for washing dishes, legibly written, may be hung up by the sink and it will aid in promoting the desired care and neatness.
Rules for Washing Dishes
1. Scrape the dishes putting away any food which may remain on them and which it may be proper to save for future use. Put grease into the grease pot and whatever else may be on the plates into the slop pail. Save tea leaves for sweeping Set all the dishes when scraped in regular piles the smallest at the top. 2. Put the nicest articles in the wash dish and wash them in hot suds with the swab or nicest dish cloth. Wipe all metal articles as soon as they are washed. Put all the rest into the rinsing dish which should be filled with hot water. When they are taken out lay them to drain on the waiter. Then rinse the dishcloth and hang it up wipe the articles washed and put them in their places.
3. Pour in more hot water wash the greasy dishes with the dish cloth made for them rinse them and set them to drain. Wipe them and set them away. Wash the knives and forks being careful that the handles are never put in water wipe them and then lay them in a knife dish to be scoured.
4. Take a fresh supply of clean suds in which wash the milk pans buckets and tins. Then rinse and hang up this dish cloth and take the other with which wash the roaster gridiron pots and kettles. Then wash and rinse the dish cloth and hang it up. Empty the slop bucket and scald it. Dry metal teapots and tins before the fire. Then put the fireplace in order and sweep and dust the kitchen.
Some persons keep a deep and narrow vessel in which to wash knives with a swab so that a careless domestic cannot lay them in the water while washing them. This article can be carried into the eating room to receive the knives and forks when they are taken from the table.
