How To Clean And Lay By Curtains

In summer it is usual to lay by curtains of rep, damask, or chintz, and replace them with lace or muslin curtains, which look much cooler, and the more expensive rep and chintz are preserved by it. Rep curtains should be well brushed and shaken; wrapped in linen cloths, and put away (protected by bags of pepper, cedar shavings, or camphor, from the chance of moths) in a dry closet or a deep drawer. Chintz should be spread on a long table and rubbed all over with clean bran and flannel, which cleans the glaze nicely. Then fold and lay them by. If chintz curtains have the dust blown off them once a week by a pair of bellows, and are taken down and well shaken once a quarter, they will last seven years without . requiring cleaning. The writer speaks from experience in this matter. It is wiser to have lace and muslin curtains cleaned than washed, and quite as cheap. Chintz should also be sent to be cleaned and re-glazed when dirty.

How To Clean Covers Which Are Not Silver

Put a piece of mottled soap (about 2 oz.) and about the same quantity of whiting into a jug and pour boiling water on it; mix till it becomes a thick paste, quite smooth. Then rub it on the covers, let it dry, and rub off with dry whiting and a leather. This preserves the covers from being scratched. The insides and outsides of covers should be carefully wiped the moment they are brought from the table.

There are also pastes sold for cleaning covers, about the best of which is Graham's paste; but the old fashioned mode of using soap and whiting for the purpose does very well and preserves the covers longer.

When they are plated, they are best cleaned like other plate, with gin and whiting mixed or with rouge powder.

How To Clean Tins

Clean tins as you would clean covers, with soap and whiting mixed to a cream in boiling water. Lay it on with a piece of leather; let it dry, and then rub it off with dry whiting and a clean leather.

How To Clean Copper And Brass

Mix oil and brickdust, or oil and finely powdered rotten-stone (sifted through muslin) together; rub it on with a piece of leather; let it rest a little on, and then rub off with a dry soft leather.

Many people use oil of turpentine and rotten-stone, but the copper very soon tarnishes after its use; others use oxalic acid, but this is so dangerous a poison, and so painful if it chances to get into the servant's eyes, that we strongly object to its use.

How To Clean Lacquered Brass

Wash with a stiff lather of soap and water; let the brass lie in it for three days, taking it out every day and brushing it with a hard brush; let it dry, and then rub it with a eather.

How To Clean Stair-Rods

Mix finely-powdered rotten-stone and sweet oil to a paste, then rub it on each rod with a piece of flannel or woollen. Polish with the dry powder of the rotten-stone and a nice leather.

The same mixture, carefully applied to inlaid brass or brass handles of furniture, answers very well; but care must be taken not to let it lodge in any network or hollows of the brass.