Spring House Cleaning
As I was growing up in North Missouri one of the annual spring rituals was cleaning the house from top to bottom and inside out. The house didn't look dirty to me, but Mom said there was winter dirt everywhere, the floors and woodwork needed to be renewed and there was smoke on the curtains from the wood stove.
Action started in the bedrooms. Every closet was emptied of clothes and "junk." All the clothes were hung on the clothesline outdoors, reportedly to kill the moths that might be lingering in them. The junk was sorted through in order to eliminate as much as possible. The mattresses and coil springs were removed from the bed, taken outside where the mattresses were beaten on both sides to remove the dust and the coil springs washed one spring at a time. With all the furniture out, if wiping it down could not clean the wallpaper, new paper was put on over the old.
Mother and her sister always worked together in these cleaning endeavors and were expert paperhangers. Saw horses were brought in and long boards put across them so the workers could reach the ceilings. Paste used to stick the paper to the walls was made from flour and water. Newspapers were laid down on the floor in another room where the wallpaper rolls were cut to the right lengths and then pasted. After the new paper was in place, the woodwork was attacked. Sometimes soap and water did the job while in other years it was necessary to apply new varnish. Occasionally the floors also needed a new coat of varnish. That meant different sleeping arrangements had to be made until the varnish dried. Make shift beds were set up in the living or dining room. If it was very warm outside we sometimes slept on the front porch. I thought that was the most fun.
After the bedrooms were spotless, the living room and dining room were tackled. Down came the curtains to be washed, starched and hung on the curtain stretchers to dry. The windows were washed inside and out. The screens were taken down and scrubbed on both sides to remove dust and cobwebs and from time to time a new coat of black paint was applied. How those windows did shine after all that work. The lace curtains looked so beautiful and fresh when hung over those sparkling panes. The carpets were taken outside, flung over the clothesline and strenuously beaten with a wire rug beater to remove all the dust and grime.
No room was left untouched. In the kitchen the cabinets were emptied, new shelf paper applied to the shelves, all the dishes washed, dried and put back. The linoleum was scrubbed and waxed. If it was badly worn a new one was purchased to replace it. Back in the early depression days I remember when there was no money to buy a new floor covering for the kitchen. Mother and her sister bought some gray paint and applied it to the old floor. To brighten it up, a couple of sponges were dipped alternately in red and blue paint and dabbed over the gray paint. Voila! A new floor.
This spring cleaning ritual took from a week to ten days to complete depending on how much wallpaper and paint had to be applied. When our house was finished, for the next week we went every day to my aunt's house where the same steps were taken to make her house bright and shiny.
I have often wondered why spring house cleaning has gone from modern housekeeping. It was a lot of work but it was such a good feeling to smell all that fresh paint and to know that everything was sparkling for another year.