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'Desperate Housekeeping'

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Has anyone else read the articles in yesterday and today's Times 2 supplement? 'How to Run Your Home Without Help', a 1940s housekeeping manual, has just been re-published and has been selling like hot cakes. The Times challenged one of their journalists to follow the book's methods for a week. Modern labour-saving devices such as washing machines were banned and all meals had to be cooked from scratch. The articles are quite an interesting read: today's article begins with the comment:
"I don't know if you have ever.....rubbed your windows down with vinegar and old newspaper. But if you are considering doing so, take a little tip: Do it in the dark when no-one's watching. Otherwise, and I can vouch for this, you risk being viewed as a bit of a weirdo. Passers-by will gawp in that slightly nervous way usually reserved for mad old dears who......collect empty jam jars. Normal people don't do this kind of thing any more, you see.
We have Moved On"
Oh how I laughed!!! The journalist has clearly never had any contact with anyone who does anything OS. She said that the only place that she could get 'old fashioned' cleaning stuff such as white vinegar was in a tiny hardware shop run by an elderly woman, which amazed me as I can get hold of it in all of the local supermarkets. If you can get hold of a copy of the article it's well worth a read to see just how foreign aspects of our lifestyle are to our contemporaries. We are not Normal People :D
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Comments

  • catznine
    catznine Posts: 3,192 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    Just off to find it now! lol I collect jam jars!! :D
    Our days are happier when we give people a bit of our heart rather than a piece of our mind.

    Jan grocery challenge £35.77/£120
  • calleyw
    calleyw Posts: 9,896 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    "We are not Normal People"

    I have always know that about myself :rotfl:

    Do you think it will be on there website if so do you have direct link to the article.

    Here is the link you may well have to register first though.

    http://women.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17909-1879113,00.html
    http://women.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17909-1882224,00.html

    Yours

    Calley
    Hope for everything and expect nothing!!!

    Good enough is almost always good enough -Prof Barry Schwartz

    If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try -Seth Godin
  • Ticklemouse
    Ticklemouse Posts: 5,030 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    And I wonder what her idea of cooking from scratch is? :D

    Maybe Martin ought to put her at the top of the list for the new Old Style book. Sounds like she needs to know that we are all out here.

    (Or maybe we are all batty old dears, some of us just getting there mentally before our bodies were meant too :rotfl:) Now, where's me vinegar and newspaper.....
  • Ticklemouse
    Ticklemouse Posts: 5,030 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Oooh, Calley - do you think if there is a web-link, we could all then e-mail the paper and tell them what's what in the world of the frugal OSer? :D
  • calleyw
    calleyw Posts: 9,896 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    catznine wrote:
    Just off to find it now! lol I collect jam jars!! :D


    Well mine are more likely to be cofffe jars need them to save them for the pickled beetroot for next year. Yum.


    Yours


    Calley
    Hope for everything and expect nothing!!!

    Good enough is almost always good enough -Prof Barry Schwartz

    If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try -Seth Godin
  • I get my work colleagues to give me all their jam jars! I'm a batty old dear at 24! :D
    New year, no debt! Debt free date - 02/01/07 :j :j :j :D
  • catznine
    catznine Posts: 3,192 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    Just read it! there is an e mail address - [email="housework@thetimes.co.uk"]housework@thetimes.co.uk[/email] for you to contact them about what do you think about housework? Hope it's ok to put this in?

    Don't agree with her throwaway and buy new attitude rather than mend, our landfills are overflowing already!

    I do have to agree with her though that it would be hard to do all the housework the old way with a little child in tow and without the help of modern gadgets i.e. washing machine, slow cooker etc.
    Our days are happier when we give people a bit of our heart rather than a piece of our mind.

    Jan grocery challenge £35.77/£120
  • Yorkielass
    Yorkielass Posts: 2,235 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    That's great - loved the articles, so much of the OS stuff I do is just common sense that I don't really think I'm doing it - but it seems to people like this that it's a major major change of lifestyle :confused:
    Initial Mortgage January 2024 - £160,000
    Initial Mortgage free date - January 2058
    Mortgage as of 1st February 2024 - £159,134.98
    Overpayments to date - £79.62
    Current Mortgage free date - January 2058
  • calleyw
    calleyw Posts: 9,896 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    Yorkielass wrote:
    That's great - loved the articles, so much of the OS stuff I do is just common sense that I don't really think I'm doing it - but it seems to people like this that it's a major major change of lifestyle :confused:


    No it is what called work and people don't want to do it. I mean using vingear instead of conditioner takes no more time. But people see old style that way.

    I mean most of us here on the OS board use washing machines, Dishwashers etc.

    I mean meal planning/shopping lists etc only takes a few mins and can be done on a week by week basis and done while drinking a cup of tea.

    But people sit in front of there computer and TV's for hours on end and say they have no time things. Wonder why. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!


    Yours


    Calley
    Hope for everything and expect nothing!!!

    Good enough is almost always good enough -Prof Barry Schwartz

    If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try -Seth Godin
  • jaybee
    jaybee Posts: 1,569 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic
    I collect jam jars too! You'd be amazed at how many people come to me asking for them!

    Must say, though, that I do like my modern gizmos for helping - washing machine, microwave, bread maker, slow cooker, food processor etc. I prefer to use white vinegar now and must be saving loads by not buying all the other cleaning things that I used to get! Long live Old Style (with some New Style help)!!!
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