Chapter 1. EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS

We hope you won't find it disconcerting to open this book and find that you have landed spang in the cleaning closet. But what better place is there to begin a discussion of easier and more effective home cleaning methods? The easy cleaning methods advocated today, the improved cleaning agents that are available and the efficient streamlined equipment we have are based on long scientific investigation in the nation's laboratories and the workshops of engineers. We have electric equipment that operates with push buttons and switches, and mechanical gadgets that are increasingly efficient and easy to manipulate. New materials for upholstery, floors, and counters can be cleaned with the swish of a damp cloth; minimum-care clothing textiles simplify the problem of laundering. Cleaning agents for specific tasks are offered in bewildering variety. But to take full advantage of the easy maintenance of modern materials women have to become a little scientific too. They must know what to use and what not to use in cleaning the many different materials in the home, and they must have a little mechanical knowledge if they are to use the new tools to best advantage.

GOOD BASIC HOUSECLEANING EQUIPMENT is not expensive and no one can do a really good job-whatever his profession-without the proper tools. If you have been struggling along with beaten-up brooms and brushes and old-fashioned mops and pails, take inventory. Then investigate the prospects of new streamlined models. On the page facing this you will find a checklist of cleaning equipment which map help you make your selections.

STORAGE. Good equipment deserves proper care and storage. If you have a wide shallow closet with a shelf, where you can keep these things, you are lucky. If you haven't it might not be as difficult as you think to provide one* or to adapt a corner somewhere for storage space. On the shelf store your mothproofing materials, insecticides, cleaning and polishing waxes, metal cleaners, and (in a special box) stain-removing supplies as you accumulate them. You will never have to hunt for the things you need if you have a well organized cleaning closet or special corner for your equipment. And if you duplicate essential equipment upstairs you won't wear yourself out dashing up and down to get something you need and have forgotten.

READ AND FILE YOUR INSTRUCTION BOOKLETS as you purchase equipment. The average woman cannot be expected to know exactly how her electrical gadgets work, but she must know a few basic rules for their care. The fundamental care of electrical equipment is outlined in a separate chapter. No housekeeper needs to know the composition of the soaps and synthetic detergents she uses, but to make the best use of them she should know how they differ and which job each one does best.

CARE OF EQUIPMENT. Cleaning equipment includes those elusive hand tools that are always disappearing; also dust mops and wet mops, brooms, and a score of accessories. When you have finished using them put them away properly. Vacuum cleaners and carpet sweepers should be emptied and their brushes freed of hair and tangled bits of string. Dust mops, vacuumed clean, and wet mops, rinsed and dried, should be suspended from hooks. Brooms will do a better job and last longer if they are given a thorough wetting now and then, or washed in suds and rinsed. If you use oiled mops on your floors, store the heads in a tin can with a tight cover (oiled dusters, too) as a precaution against fire. Cleaning pails should be washed before they are put away, upside down on the floor. (Have you seen the gaily colored ones with pouring spouts, or the two-compartment type for cleaning solutions and rinse water?) Dust brushes and dust pans should be hung up too, the edge of the dust pan facing the wall as a precaution against denting. Scrubbing brushes should be washed, dried, and aired before being stored.

THE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF CLEANING AGENTS which writers in this field refer to so blithely as solvents, absorbents, abrasives and bleaches should be understood. Such basic knowledge will enable a woman to make full use of her cleaning equipment and the great assortment of cleaners available today, and at the same time will forestall the errors that bring ruin to expensive equipment and materials. At this point we will consider some of the materials used for cleaning. First of all-solvents.

SOLVENTS are agents which dissolve the materials that cause soil and stains. Foremost of these and the most generally useful is water, which dissolves a little of almost any material it contacts long enough-even metals and minerals. When water is pure, like rain water, it is called soft When its mineral content is high it is known as hard water, and more soap is needed to make it work well. Very hard water, used with soap, forms small curds or soap scum; its cleaning ability is low unless a softener is added.

SOFTENERS are of two types. One precipitates, or settles, the minerals that make water hard; the other keeps the minerals in solution but in a form that cannot form soap scum. In the first category are washing soda (sal soda), trisodium phosphate, borax, ammonia, and commercial products such as Raindrops and Climelene. Type two softeners are often long, unpronounceable soda-and-phosphate compounds, which are available under such trade names as Calgon, Hexaphos, NoctQ, New Oalrite, Phosphotex, Quadraf os, and Tex. These are more expensive than type one softeners, but are very effective and better in the laundry.

A TEST SUGGESTED BY GOVERNMENT EXPERTS to determine how much softener is needed for the water you use with a particular kind of soap-especially in laundering: put a gallon of hot water (140^oF.) into a pan and add a half teaspoon of softener; stir until it has dissolved. Fill a quart jar half full of this water, add half a teaspoon of soap and shake it hard for ten seconds. If a good suds forms and holds for five minutes, the water is softened. Try again using less than half a teaspoon of softener to see if you can get a good suds with a smaller amount of softener.

If the half teaspoon of softener does not produce good suds with soap, repeat the test with fresh hot water, using one teaspoon of softener to one gallon of water. Continue until you have found the amount of softener needed to make good suds, and multiply it by the number of gallons your washing machine holds. If you change to a different soap or a different softener you will have to repeat the test.

PLAIN COOL WATER will clean windows and many other surfaces. It will also remove many stains on washable materials if the stains are fresh. Warm and hot water extend the cleaning range; boiling water and steam also have their uses in removing certain stains from cloth. Water plus a softener will accomplish efficiently many cleaning tasks around the house, without the use of either soap or detergent, and you won't have to rinse if you keep changing the water as it gets dirty. Solvents other than water, useful in house cleaning, include cleaning fluids and spot removers, alcohol, and other materials which are listed and discussed in the chapter Spots and Stains.

SOAPS AND DETERGENTS. For washing clothes and cleaning surfaces the grocery stores offer soaps and detergents in a bewildering array, and the label seldom gives complete details about what each type does best. To assemble this very greatly needed information, home economics research experts of the United States Department of Agriculture recently made long and exhaustive tests, upon which the information that follows is based. First we must note that soaps and detergents are entirely different in composition and in the way they work. Soaps are most effective with a soft water; detergents will work in either hard or soft water.

SOAPS are made from fat and lye. When they are dissolved in water the solution produced is alkaline, ranging from weak to strong. Any acid present in the material washed reacts with the alkali in the soap to make the soap less effective. To counteract the effect of the acids and minerals found in hard water, alkaline products are often added to soap, which is then referred to as built or heavy duty soap. Soap products without these added materials are mild and are intended for laundering fine fabrics and lightly soiled garments (lingerie, blouses, stockings). They are recommended for delicate cottons, linens and synthetics. White soap flakes are almost pure soap. The heavy duty or "built soaps" on the retail shelves contain alkaline softeners that increase their sudsing ability. These are for the family wash and for laundering heavily soiled clothing. They are not good for washing wool and silk.

SOME MILD AND HEAVY DUTY SOAPS, compiled by government textile experts are listed below. Since new trade names appear constantly, the list is not complete.

SYNTHETIC DETERGENTS are made by complex chemical processes from materials such as petroleum, and animal and vegetable fats and oils. They do not depend for their cleaning ability upon alkaline softeners. Synthetic detergents dissolve easily in either hot or cold water, regardless of its hardness or softness, and they do not form scum. They are especially effective in removing oil and grease stains from washable materials. Some synthetic detergents form suds and others accomplish their cleaning with little or no suds. Some are powders, others liquids. Like the soaps, synthetic detergents are of two main types, unbuilt (mild) and built (heavy duty). Mild detergents are intended for washing fine and lightly soiled fabrics. They are better for wool and silk than the mildest of soaps. Heavy duty detergents contain alkaline softeners that increase their cleaning ability, but disqualify them for silk and wool. They are general purpose detergents for washing heavily-soiled clothes and surfaces.

SOME MILD AND HEAVY DUTY DETERGENTS appear in the following government-compiled list. Since new brands are constantly appearing, the list cannot be considered complete.

To this list we might add some of the detergents made especially for fine woolens, such as Woolfoam and Tern. There are also detergents made especially for heavy cleaning jobs.

Less synthetic detergent is required in hot water than in cold. Read the directions on the brand you select for the proper amount to use since you cannot always tell by the amount of suds.

ABSORBENTS are powders such as talc, fuller's earth, magnesium carbonate, and French chalk-all to be had at drugstores-and also cornstarch and cornmeal, available on grocery shelves. They are often very effective for light stains and are easy to use and completely harmless to all materials. Absorbents are either sprinkled onto stains and allowed to remain overnight, or worked gently into certain stains, shaken out, and the process repeated. Sometimes they are mixed with a cleaning fluid to form a paste which is allowed to dry on the stain, then brushed off. Uses for absorbents will be discussed later.

ABRASIVES are materials that clean by scouring off accumulated grime and stains. Care must be taken that they do not damage the surface being cleaned. Rottenstone, whiting, powdered pumice, volcanic ash, powdered tin oxide, and jeweler's rouge are some of the abrasives. They can sometimes be obtained at paint and hardware stores, but you may have to get them from a wholesale chemical house yourself or have your druggist order them for you. All of these abrasives have valuable and time-saving uses. Some are good for cleaning furniture, others for polishing metals, and many of them are available in varying degrees of fineness. Scouring powders sold under trade names are abrasives too, differing in what they contain and in their degree of harshness. Many contain strong alkalies which are effective for some purposes but damaging for others. Whiting (powdered chalk) is a fine mild abrasive. It can be bought at paint stores in various degrees of fineness and has many uses around the home. A fine grade (gilder's whiting) is used as a silver polish.

FURNITURE AND FLOOR POLISHES are presented to the homemaker in great variety. Some are waxes and some are oils. Make a point of reading the label so that you will know what you are buying and how it is meant to be used.

OIL POLISHES contain Unseed oil or paraffin oil, with other ingredients.

WAX POLISHES may contain a variety of waxes, some, like camauba, very hard. The wax polishes that require buffing contain naphtha or a similar dry cleaning agent. Self-polishing waxes contain water instead of naphtha and do not require buffing. Other waxes are made for specific cleaning purposes.

TURPENTINE AND LINSEED OIL, ingredients of many polishes, have uses in their own right in cleaning furniture and treating blemishes. They can be bought in paint and hardware stores. Boiled linseed oil is ordinary linseed oil that has gone through a complicated industrial heating process.

You buy linseed oil either "raw" or "boiled," depending upon the use for which it is intended. You cannot boil it yourself.

OILS FOR LEATHER. Linseed oil and paraffin oil are fine for wood, but bad for leather. If you want an oil to protect leather from the damage that results from excessive drying, select neat's foot oil (shoe repair shop), castor oil, white vaseline, or saddle soap.

This will give you a general picture of some of the materials that aid in cleaning. Their proper use is given in the chapters which follow. We hope the information will greatly simplify your cleaning problems.