19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Monday, April 27, 1914: Not worth the snap of your fingers.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Hmm. . . I don’t think I’ve ever heard that phrase. What does “not worth the snap of your finger” mean? Was Grandma feeling ill?. . depressed? . . . Was she bored? . . . Overworked?

19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Thursday, April 23, 1914: Ditto—Also went up to McEwensville this evening.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma–

Are you still doing the spring housecleaning? At least you got to go to town in the evening. Did you visit one of your friends?

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A hundred years ago people often made their own cleaning solutions rather than buying commercial products. Here are the directions in an old book:

Carpets, to Clean

Ingredients—1/2 pound of washing soda, 1 pound of yellow soap, 1 ounce of nitric acid, 1 gallon of water

Mode—Melt the soap and soda in the oven; then mix with the water and add the acid; with a clean scrubbing brush wash the carpet from seam to seam with this, doing only a small piece at a time, and rinsing and drying it as quickly as possible.

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Floor Cloth (Linoleum), to Clean

Ingredients- 1/2 ounce of beeswax, turpentine

Mode- Shred the beeswax into a saucer, pour ever enough turpentine to cover it, and set in the oven until melted. Wash the floor cloth in the ordinary way, wait till dry, and rub lightly over with the wax and turpentine, then with a dry cloth.

Another way in which linoleum or floor cloth may be cleaned is by rubbing it over with milk when dried after washing.

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Furniture, Polished, to Clean

Ingredients—1 ounce of white wax, 3 ounces of beeswax, 1 ounce of curd soap, 1 pint of turpentine, 1 pint of water boiled and allowed to get cold again.

Mode—Mix all the ingredients together, bottle, shake often, and do not use for two days. Dust the furniture well, rub the mixture on with a flannel, then polish with a duster and afterwards with an old silk handkerchief. A good furniture cream brought ready for use may be found to save trouble.

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 Looking-Glass, to Clean

First take off fly stains or any other soils with a sponge damped with spirits of wine, or any other spirit, then dust over the glass with fine sifted powder blue and polish with an old silk handkerchief or very soft dry cloth.

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Paint, to Clean

Dirty paint should have the dust removed first with the bellows, afterwards with a brush; it should never be wiped with a cloth, and the great secrets in cleaning paint are not to use much water and to dry quickly.

The water used should have a little soda or pearlash dissolved in it; and after dipping the flannel used in this, it should be wrung almost dry before being applied to the paint. Directly this is done (a small piece only being done at a time, unless two are at work, and one can rinse as the other washes) it must be rinsed with clean water and dried with a clean cloth.

Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery Book (1902)

19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Wednesday, April 22, 1914:  Spent part of the day on my knees. Now I don’t mean I was trying to be good. I was cleaning house.

For Wiping Up Wood or Tile Floors

This long handle has a row of rubber teeth on the crossbar at the end. When a wet cloth is laid on any floor this handle is used to push it, as the rubber teeth grip the cloth, and guide it over the surface. It makes the wiping up of many floors a very simple matter, as it is light, easily pushed and forces the cloth close to baseboards.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma-

Whew, spring housecleaning can be hard work. Maybe you need some of the new labor-saving cleaning equipment featured in the December, 1914 issue of Ladies Home Journal.

According to the article these are “the newest labor-savers for women—and not one of them costs more than fifty cents.”

A Dustpan that Saves Sweeping

No need for a housekeeper to stoop for every paper and match provided she has this long-handled sanitary dustpan. The pan opens as it is set down, and closes as it is lifted. The sweepings need not be emptied until the pan is full. It can be carried, full, on one arm while both hands carry other articles.

Washes the Windows Faster

In this device are combined water pail, sponge, and drying cloth. There is a shallow reservoir of metal, with a sponge on one side and a rubber “squee-gee” on the other. The whole is mounted on a convenient handle and is especially useful for outside window cleaning.