Art of Homemaking
Everything you need to know to run your home with ease and style
Habeeb
1973
Prior to the magic of the Internet, homemaking reference books were pretty standard in every household. I even got one along with my basic Betty Crocker cookbook when I got married back in the early 1980s. Even though there are a disproportionate number of pages devoted to laundry, I am going to give the author props for acknowledging that one can drop their standards on housekeeping perfection.
I also got a kick out of the inside flap that reminds the ladies that regardless of your “liberated” status, you will have to keep house on some level. It also recognizes that even MEN (gasp!) might have to do some housework. Not everyone will be able to afford a maid, so you might need these skills!
This book is a bit better than most by suggesting that women dial back the perfection goals and that shiny floors are not the end all be all. It still does spend a disproportionate amount of pages on ironing and laundry, but unlike similar books of the period, they include basic electrical and plumbing repairs and some other chores that aren’t often associated with “women’s work.”
Mary
Kind of funny that the backing-off from perfection is demonstrated on the back-flap copy, in which the sentence drawing attention to the author’s own Editorial Services company ends without a period. Not the best advertisement for one’s Editorial Services.
Having just spent the workday catching things like that, you made my smile.
Contents page 2: “6 million ways to die, choose one”
Joke aside, the definition of the word economy in Greek is ‘oikonomia’ which derives from the ancient Greek words oikos = house and nomos= rule, essentially meaning housekeeping.