"Odds & Ends" Monthly Home Maintenance ~ Printable Checklist

Doing a monthly home maintenance once a month would be optimal. However, I realize it is not completely doable! Whatever system you choose to implement in your home, this would be a most helpful prelude to your spring cleaning routine. Remember, this is not necessarily a cleaning routine but a home organization routine. This maintenance will put everything into order prior to the deep scouring and scrubbing that many of us do in the spring and/or autumn. Following the Victorian Era advice of the Beecher sisters from the The New Housekeeper's Manual (circa 1873), we have also created a printable (shared below) to help you along on your homemaking journey to an orderly home.

"There are certain odds and ends where every housekeeper will gain much by having a regular time to attend them. Let this time be the last Saturday forenoon in every month, or any other time more agreeable; but let there be a regular fixed time once a month in which the housekeeper will attend to the following things..."

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

To begin this course on a monthly home maintenance, visit our introduction here.

• "First. Go around every room, drawer, and closet in the house, and see what is out of order, and what needs to be done, and make arrangements as to time and manner of doing it."

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

To be honest, I am one of those people who tend to get overwhelmed when the house is out of whack. By simply implementing the list-making in step #1, my mind can rest. Not that Rome will be tackled in a day but I know that I will eventually get to it. My list says so! It may take me 6 months to go through all the steps but at least there is constant order being implemented. Progress is a pleasant antidote!

To view our step #1 procedure, visit here: What Needs to Be Done in Your Home?

• Second. Examine the store-closet, and see if there is a proper supply of all articles needed there.

• Third. Go to the cellar, and see if the salted provision, vegetables, pickles, vinegar, and all other articles stored in the cellar are in proper order, and examine all the preserves and jellies.

• Fifth. See if there is a supply of dish-towels, dish-cloths, bags, holders, floor-cloths, dust-cloths, wrapping-paper, twine, lamp-wicks, and all other articles needed in kitchen work. 

• Sixth. Count over the spoons, knives, and forks, and examine all the various household utensils, to see what needs replacing and what should be repaired.

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

Please note that some steps were placed together and altered to make for modern day needs. In this case, we have grouped together steps #2, 3, 5 and 6. To view these procedures in practice, visit the following:

Step #2, 3, 5, 6 ~ Examine the Store-Closet, Pantry, Cellar and Such

Step #2 ~ Restocking the Cleaning Closet

• Fourth. Examine the trunk or closet of family linen, and see what needs to be repaired and renewed.

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

Regarding the linen, we have split these steps into two posts. One features the kitchen linen while the other features what we did for our bed linen. See the following for ideas and inspiration:

Step #4 ~ Examine the "Table Linens"

Step #4 ~ Examine the "Bed Linens"

• Seventh. Have in a box a hammer, tacks, pincers, gimlets, nails, screws, screw-driver, small saw, and two sizes of chisels for emergencies when no regular workman is at hand."

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

And the final step which is shared here: Step #7 Toolbox {or Junk Drawer} for the Homemaker.

To make this process convenient and fun to do, we have created a printable checklist of the steps required to perform a monthly home maintenance. This would make a perfect addition to your home management binder. I recommend viewing each individual step in our posts prior to commencing so that you have an idea of what you can do in a practical way and what you can do in a pretty way. Happy homemaking!

"A housekeeper who will have a regular time for attending to these particulars will find her whole family machinery moving easily and well; but one who does not, will constantly be finding something out of joint, and an unquiet, secret apprehension of duties left undone or forgotten, which no other method will so effectually remove."

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

 

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Roses of Inspiration, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, From the Farm Blog Hop, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these.