Could you take on the housekeeping duties of a 1950’s Housewife?
At McCreery Contract Cleaning we have a huge interest in housekeeping and cleaning. Recently we came across an article about a day in the life of a 1950s Housewife.
In the fifties, young women were given lessons on how to become a ‘good housewife’ at school! They were advised to prepare for their husbands’ return from work with a delicious meal.
To clear away the clutter and run a dust cloth over the tables and to wash the children, comb their hair and eliminate all noise from the house for their husbands!
The article described a typical housewife’s schedule as outlined in ‘The Americas Housekeeping Book’ which consisted of no less than seventy-seven daily housekeeping tasks to be complete solely by the lady of the house.
Her daily chores included serving breakfast, clearing the dishes, shopping at the butchers and green grocers, hanging out washing, brush upholstery, straighten linens and cloths, plumping pillows and doing a quick light clean again before her husband got home. The list goes on, and on and on! Her day started at 6am to dress and do her hair and make-up, and ended by fixing her curlers at 9pm. That’s a fifteen hour day!
A modern day housekeeper
Farcical as this may seem compared to today’s standards; would it surprise you to learn that according to the latest research, Irish women do more than double the amount of housework than that of Irish men! What is more, Irish women do more housework than their European counterparts clocking up, up to five hours of unpaid housework per day on top of their paid employment.
As time is an increasingly scarce resource, and with greater demand on what little time we do have, the time devoted to housekeeping, means less leisure time which can have real consequences on well-being, evident in Ireland where women ranked poorly in terms of personal care.
Maybe it is time that Irish women rethink their approach to housework, to reclaim some ‘me-time’ and to see home time as free time. What could your family do with five extra hours each day? Put your housework in the hands of our highly skilled professional team; who will dust, brush and plump, leaving your home spick-and-span!
Could you keep the schedule of a 1950’s housewife?
