Wipe the ceiling, walls, woodwork, light fixtures and pictures.
Wipe the floor, not forgetting the baseboards, or sweep the carpet.
Whatever is done to the floor is the climax of the cleaning. After that we restore the room to order. This is the period when everything should be done by wiping.
Clean rugs and furniture which have been put outdoors.
Wipe furniture, mirrors, picture-glasses, windows and tiles.
Restore the rugs, furniture and ornaments to their places.
Bits of special cleaning like polishing brasses, washing windows, caring for lamps, and the like are best done at some other time than that appointed for cleaning the room. If these jobs are included, they make the regular cleaning too heavy and too long.
This process has been written out as if the work were to be done by one person, which frequently is not the case. It is the logical order of the work, however, whatever the number of workers. The outline of the process is this:
First all brushing and dusting--everything which gets dust off other things on to the floor.
Then wiping away all dust made by the cleaning and restoring order.
One cannot effectually do this or any housework with one's mind on something else. The processes are intricate and logical and require thoughtful organization beforehand, and intense attention at the moment. If we can think about our neighbours, or brood over our grievances while we are cleaning, we can be quite sure that we have not done the work as well nor as quickly as we could.
"UPSTAIRS work" is, I believe a colloquialism for making beds, tidying bedrooms, and caring for washstands and bathrooms.
_The Sequence._--A reasonable order for this work is the following:
Shut the door of the room unless the weather is warm.
Roll the shades to the top of the windows.
Take the bedclothes from the bed and spread them across two chairs set far enough apart to keep the clothes from lying on the floor. Spread the lower sheet in a place by itself and remember which it is. Turn the mattress over the foot of the bed, or turn it up on edge.
Do these things in all the rooms which are to be cared for, carefully shutting the doors of each.
If there are washstands in the rooms, now remove the waste water and put the stands in order.