I love reading through 1800's cookbooks and housekeeping books, and learning more about how things used to be done around the home.
Throughout the 1800's it was very popular to publish housekeeping tips, with sage advice on how to do everything from making boots waterproof, to keeping mosquitoes out of the bedroom.
May of these tips are great ones to know today, and some are just wonderfully curious! I hope you enjoy these old-fashioned "hacks" that 1800's housekeeper used to swear by.
1. Keep Lamps From Smoking
"Dip the wick in strong and hot vinegar, and dry it, before putting it in your lamp."
Properly keeping it trimmed is a good idea as well!
2. To Keep Apples Good All Winter
"Put them in casks or bins, in layers well covered with dry sand, each layer being covered.
Instead of sand, you may layer them in grain of any kind...They will keep good all the year round, and the grain will not in any way the bat worse for it."
3. The Best Bait for Rat Traps
"Mix a paste of corn meal with raw eggs."
Rats were a real problem around homesteads, then, as now. If the cats didn't keep up with them, traps were needed, and advice about how best to bait them ranged widely. This was a popular one!
4. To Remove Flies From Rooms
"Take half a tea-spoonful of black pepper in powder, in tea-spoonful or brown sugar, and one table-spoonful of cream. Mis them well together, and place them in a room on a plate where the flies are troublesome, and they will soon disappear."
5. To Keep Young Cucumber Plants From Being Eaten By Bugs
"Break off the stocks of onions which have been set out in the spring, and stick down five or six of them in each hill of cucumbers, and the bug will immediately leave them."
I've actually used this in my own garden this spring, but with sprouted garlic instead of onions. It stopped my cucumbers from being eaten, and they'd really had a tough time of it until then!
6. To Take Ink Spots Out of Linen
"Dip the spotted part in pure melted tallow; then wash out the tallow, and the ink will come out with it. This is said to be unfailing."
7. To Remove Warts
"Dissolve as much common washing soda as the water will take up--then wash the hands or warts with this for a minute or two, and allow them to dry without being wiped. This, repeated for two or three days, will gradually destroy the most irritable wart."
8. To Keep Mosquitos Out of The Bedroom
"Attach a piece of flannel or sponge to a thread, bade fast to the top of the bedstead; wet the flannel or sponge with camphorated spirits, and the mosquitos will leave the room."
Interestingly, you can still buy "camphorated spirits" today. I might have to give this one a try!
9. To Clean Looking-Glasses
"Take a newspaper, fold it small, dip it in a basin of clean cold water. When thoroughly wet, squeeze it out as you do a sponge; then rub it pretty hard all over the surface of the glass...Let it rest a few minutes, then go over the glass with a piece of fresh dry newspaper, till it looks clear and bright."
10. To Prevent a Crust Forming on Tea Kettles
"Keep an oyster-shell in your tea-kettle. The crust that forms on copper kettles, where the tinning has melted off, is injurious to health."
11. To Make Rose Water
"When the roses are in full blossom, pick the leaves carefully off, and to every quart of water put a peck of them. Put them in a cold still over a slow fire, and distal very gradually; then bottle the water, let it stand in the bottle three days, and then cork it close."
12. "A Good Rule"
"Whenever you enter an apartment occupied by another individual, if the door is closed before you enter, close it after you. If, on the contrary, it stands invitingly open, let it remain so."
Where Did These Tips Come From?
All of these tips come courtesy of an 1845 volume called "The New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book". It's a lovely old cookbook I'm delighted to have in my collection, and is such an education in how things used to be done.
Happy housekeeping!
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Anna Chesley
Anna Chesley is a freelance writer living a homestead lifestyle, with a special love for family travel, old books, vintage skills, and seaside living. In addition to founding Salt In My Coffee, she runs the website, New England Family Life, as well as The 1800's Housewife, a website devoted to re-creating authentic 1800's recipes.
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