What Is Bluing?

If you open any cookbook or other domestic book for house keepers you will usually find instructions on how to do laundry. Inevitably you will come upon the rinsing of clothes to be done by putting into bluing. This is what was commonly used to brighten whites. In it's earliest forms it was used by having indigo tied in a thin muslin bag and...Continue Reading

How Blue Monday was Named

An Advertisement for Pearline washing Soap - 1892 The custom of having wash-day on Monday has probably caused more inconvenience to the housekeeper's servants, in fact to the whole household, than they dream of, thereby making it a day to be dreaded, and causing it to be called "blue Monday." Every member of a household feels it, from the darling babe to the pater...Continue Reading

To Clean Kid Gloves

Item for the Ladies. To clean kid gloves, have ready a little new milk in one saucer, a piece of white soap in another, and a clean cloth folded two or three times. On the cloth spread out the glove smooth and neat. Take a piece of flannel, dip it in the milk, then rub off a good quantity of soap on the wetted flannel,...Continue Reading