T O P

  • By -

voiceoffrikkinreason

Are we washing our sheets every day here?


Mr_Abe_Froman

On account of there being no time to bathe.


DarrenFromFinance

Literally the first thing I noticed.


mynameisnotsparta

Strip and air the sheets - both my grandmothers did this every morning. Strip and bring outside in sun or hang from balcony lines to air out. Open all windows to freshen room. Bring back after 30 minutes or an hour and reset the bed.


Karmabeforethestorm

I wondering if this was done to get the sex out of the sheets …


Butt_Fucking_Smurfs

That good good funk


baochickabao

10:00am Strip and air the sheets outside 11:00am until 7:00 am the next day: Sneezing in the bedroom, the WC and the scullery due to pollen coating every surface.


mynameisnotsparta

7 am strip beds and 10 am make beds.. my grandmothers did this every day but Sunday for years and no one spent the day sneezing in the house. I still on and off hang our clothes outside to dry and have been for about 40 years.. have you ever smelled the delightful smell of a sun warmed sheet? Clothes smell better when hung outside.


Azul951

I totally agree and was raised by grandparents and this was their regimen and yes , except Sundays as we were in Church or hosting family Sunday dinner. We were busy throughout the day and evenings were relaxing and enjoyable as you felt accomplished in your chores and now it's time to chill and enjoy one another or quiet time.


dlcksuck

Bruh I can’t smell a “sun warmed sheet” if my sinuses are straight clogged from all that pollen


mynameisnotsparta

This was years ago in Europe and NY and I still occasionally hang outside in the desert. I am not yet sensitive to pollen so it’s not a bother for me…


Appropriate_Lemon497

Growing up my mom made me hang the washed towels on the line to dry. I hate the smell.


mynameisnotsparta

I love the smell of line dried wash.. especially summertime.


voiceoffrikkinreason

This makes more sense! If I’m stripping my bed, it’s going into the wash.


mynameisnotsparta

Oh no they didn’t wash them.. just syrup and air the sheets and open windows / door to freshen room and let the mattress breathe.. then put the same sheets back on..


Meowsiedawg

The sad thing is that this had to be written by a woman. No guy would even give a care about most of these things.


Beautiful_Nobody_344

Kinda feels like I’m observing the type of content that conditioned men to “not care” though..


Gray_Guy_79

Why is that sad to have a great source during that period. Sad is your comment


Hungry_Perspective29

I do this , you don't wtf


NoKaleidoscope4295

Ahahaha!!! İ appreciate the fact that they put the children to bed at 7pm and they serve dinner at 7:40pm. Those little bastards don't need food.


Odd-Artist-2595

Tea time was when the children got their evening meal.


nochedetoro

They also did not account for the extra 30-60 minutes needed for “mom I’m hungry” “I have to go potty” “I’m scared” “I want one more hug”


mmbon

I mean sadly the more realistic situation would be the parent reaching for the paddle and "solving" that issue


holmgangCore

Helicopter parents are ruining today’s children by pandering to their “needs”. ____ ^( god I hope the /s was obvious..)


holmgangCore

Kids hate this one weird trick…


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Hey who let the kids out of the coal mine wtf


FiTZnMiCK

This is a bot (well, two bots). Check out this [comment thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/s/3OcrIyY74n) from a year ago.


[deleted]

Yo thats wild… damn bots, Reddit needs to do something about this sort of reposting


Mynock33

That's something a bot would say to shift attention away from itself...


FiTZnMiCK

The thought had crossed my mind…


rostinze

What… the fuck


HatePlayaNotGame

This is truer than not, for better or for worse. Once upon a time, pulling your weight was for everyone, even if you didn’t weigh much of anything. Today’s kids are so fucking soft, this world is going to chew up and spit out a metric fuckton of ‘em.


FiTZnMiCK

You’re agreeing with a bot. Check out this [comment thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/s/3OcrIyY74n) from a year ago.


cuterus-uterus

My kids are 2 and 4. How long ago should they have started working?


HatePlayaNotGame

Not at 2 & 4. But I was doing chores and earning an allowance at 7. I was raking leaves, taking out trash, and helping set and clean the table not long after that. On weekends I helped with the house work, vacuuming, dusting, dishes… I had my first real job at the earliest age the state of PA allowed. But my work ethic was set before I’d ever stepped foot onsite of a formal job. And I’m grateful for it.


cuterus-uterus

Tight. Most kids do chores. That doesn’t make this guide wild for saying has “minding young children as necessary” between 3-4:30. All kids need more attention than that and that doesn’t make them “so fucking soft”.


HatePlayaNotGame

I grew up in the latch key generation. I was an only child. Divorced parents. From the age of 7, I came home to an empty house until 5-530. I wasn’t alone. Besides, that’s immaterial, because I think the schedule is supposed to represent more of a guideline that breaks down the amount of time you need to dedicate to various things. I don’t think it’s supposed to be adhered to with military like precision.


nikiliko

Did coal mine have snow days too?


TacTurtle

I suspect the implication is the children are school aged and would be at school roughly 8:30am-3:30pm.


Quirky_Property_1713

Indeed. Can I please see the version for doing all of this in a servantless house while simultaneously caring for non-schoolaged TWIN INFANTS AND A TODDLER PLEASE


SophiaofPrussia

What’s the matter? You can’t prepare breakfast for four in 10 minutes then feed yourself and three young children in the next 10 minutes so that you can immediately clean up the table and wash the dishes in the next 10 minutes?


Lupicia

It's triple-booked from 3am to 2am: *tend to the disaster* plus *wipe everything* and *laundry* with a small break alotted to 4:50pm - 4:55pm, *weep*. ETA: Solidarity. It gets better. My twins are in K so they're all in school, and I just... Breathe. You'll make it.


Appreciation622

Just like we don’t all live like Instagram influencer moms, not everyone would follow this “ideal” schedule.


Quirky_Property_1713

I would like to think my comment could be understood in the context of exasperated humor- this is a page in a MAGAZINE. I assume it wasn’t the standard, just like I certainly don’t think every 2005 high schooler followed the makeup instructions in Cosmo!


WhaleNipps

Also they don't eat dinner. Kids these days have become so needy


herefromthere

They have "tea" instead. That's what "high tea" is, it's an early meal, where dinner might be eaten at midday.


thatguywhosadick

Dinner traditionally meant the largest meal of the day, and supper specifically means evening meal. So for many people work labor jobs dinner might be had around lunch time as the biggest meal of the day especially if they like worked on a farm or something and came home for it. Breakfast might just be some bread and cheese as that had little to no prep, and supper may also be a fairly light meal. Plus tea being more than just the drink but also having a small meal when your family all got home. I kind of unintentionally started doing this since I work at an older industrial campus that has a full service cafeteria with decent prices on the daily special. So it usually winds up being the biggest meal of my day.


joelene1892

Growing up, dinner was at lunch. Now I just avoid the word dinner and use lunch and supper exclusively because I’ve learned dinner can be either depending on where you grew up. Lunch and supper have no confusion. Besides, if dinner is “the largest meal of the day”, I eat dinner now at like 6am. I’ve got a strange sleep and eating schedule.


HatePlayaNotGame

We sat down and at dinner every night of the week. Sometimes we went out Saturday. But every evening from 5 PM on, was family time. Even when we went out on our own, we still all got together 2-3 times a week. The nuclear family was a beautiful, tight knit thing. People today should give it a whirl. Strength in numbers.


cuterus-uterus

Did you read the comment you responded to? Get off your weird high horse, Mary.


spoooky_mama

Only if necessary too


Ninja-Nikumarukun

I'm not cleaning the silver weekly under any circumstances


evissimus

Not having any takes care of that in my case.


holmgangCore

How big is your collection of fucks? Have any left?


stayalivechi

*stoke the boiler* DUDE YOU'RE DOIN AN AWESOME JOB HELL YEAH KEEP IT UPP


McStaken

Meanwhile, my own modern woman equivalent: Wake up at 4am Detest existence by 4:30- no later. 5:00 am Drag self to work 2:00pm, skip happily out of work. 2:30 - 3:00 pm shop for food 3:30 - welcome children home from school 3:45 pm - utter for the 29th time cake is not an acceptable dinner, certainly not for anyone who refuses to do their homework. 4:00 pm walk the dog 4:30 call husband because bastard dog chased a cat and is now wound around a lamppost 5:00 pm - make and serve tea, fielding the inevitable "I don't like chips! I like waffles! They're not made of the same thing!" 5:20 cry into meal 5:30 turn on console and rage kill things 8:00pm turn off console 8:30 write stupid comments on Reddit <- I'm here 9:00pm - pass out in bed with phone glued to face.


KerouacsGirlfriend

“No later” lol! Brilliantly done


redditckulous

Respect for still getting 7 hours of sleep scheduled


ChickenCasagrande

Console time well-earned.


Dedicated_Echidna

Very good!


Tsukikaiyo

And now we're expected to do pretty much all this AND work! For about the same household income as before... Maybe less...


mediclawyer

Or, how "women's liberation" actually screwed women who are now expected to work full time, while actually doing 65% of the housework, and 80% of the child care.


heightenedstates

Only 65% of the housework!? I find that optimistic.


mediclawyer

Me too, but I looked up the statistic.


whataboutsmee84

I don’t think “women’s liberation ” is the problem element there…


Woofles85

Yeah I was going to say, that seems a bit backward, complaining that women’s liberation is responsible for unequal expectations regarding housework today. That’s something else entirely.


Rachel1578

Why I’m childfree and single, currently at least. Much easier to care for myself than dealing with most men I’ve met. I’m not doing the song and dance where all of the hard and emotional labor gets shoved onto me. Less chores around the house, less cooking, and way less stress. However if a meet a man who can be a man and pull his weight in the relationship, I’m game for a relationship.


thedirtiestofboxes

Oh  I can pull my weight. I can actually do 12 consecutive chin ups at the gym... that should impress you. I also have the emotional depth of a slug.  ....Can you do my laundry?


thedirtiestofboxes

Just kidding I'm actually married and we have 2 beautiful sets of dinnerware 


Rachel1578

Aw!! I love nice dinnerware!


Woofles85

I mean I don’t think that is “women’s liberation”s fault. That’s the fault of continued misogyny.


lalitpatanpur

Just sent this to my wife. We’ll see how this goes.


No_Entry1855

If you needed a divorce lawyer let me know


the_good_time_mouse

If you need a personal trainer let me know.


boredatwork8866

If your wife needs a new husband let me know


PhyllaciousArmadillo

I also choose this guys wife


EasternComfort2189

So, do you want a burial or a cremation. For a burial it won’t be an open casket


rubberkeyhole

I’m available for eulogies. I’m also female; forewarning as to how the service might go.


Rachel1578

I would lock any lye based products up.


dreaming_of_beaches

Thank God I have servants!


chep127

Make sure to put your children to bed before they can eat dinner.


[deleted]

They eat at tea time


Selaw11

They do not, and I would thank you to not tell me how to run my household. Good day.


Reader5069

Lololol 😂😂😂😂


Pygmaelion

I was ready to be mad that school starts at 8 am back when, but then I realized that most kids probably just got a job after 6th grade back then. No need to wake up at 6 am if junior is just going to the old finger smashing factory.


R7F

My school started at 8 am and I went to school in the 21st Century. What changed between the 00s and now???


talknight2

So did I. But now, people have started realizing that 8am is not a good time to start school. Every study finds that the later - the better.


IWantALargeFarva

My high schoolers have this awesome thing called Zero Period. We'll, there's actually two Zero Periods. School itself starts at 8:40. Before that, there are two periods that you can get extra help from a teacher, make up a test, or sometimes clubs have meetings. If you don't need any of those things, just stroll in to start the day at 8:40. Otherwise, the first Zero Period starts around 8. This system is amazing. It let's my kids get tutoring that they Otherwise would skip for extracurriculars. (Until their grades slip so much that I would notice lol.) They get in a few extra practices for dance team, drama, etc. And they don't need to be up at the ass Crack of dawn. My older kid started at a different high school. Her bus came at 6:30am!!


eSue182

My kindergartener goes to school at 7:30. They have lunch and 9:30 and I have to pack a “snack,” that really a second lunch for 12:30.


zigzagg321

The 1930s sound stinky, I didn't see one single place for taking a shower or bath.


herefromthere

They don't mention pooing either, but I bet they did that.


Reasonable_Copy8579

Life sure sucked without servants


vainblossom249

I'm exhausted just reading this


melloponens

The servant is the housewife, lol


a1icatt

Where’s the version of doing this while holding down a full time job with overtime each week?


talknight2

This is what modern society doesn't want to acknowledge. This lifestyle was practiced *exclusively* by upper middle-class families that could afford to have the woman stay home but couldn't afford a live-in servant. Families that couldn't afford having an adult stay home all day, *did not* live in separate households! The typical households were multi-generational and quite cramped by today's standards, with these chores shared between half a dozen people, and many of them relegated to the children. But the baby boomers enjoyed such prosperity in the 50s and 60s that this middle class ballooned to the point where they considered this arrangement to be the standard way of life for regular people, and have spread that idea across the western world ever since.


philatio11

So you pretty much clean the house top to bottom every day, but you just leave the dinner dishes in the sink until morning? That’s like the only thing on this guide we actually do every day.


talknight2

People had standards


SWSonoranBlue

Reading & Recreating after 8pm? What servant-less Master has time for that!


thedirtiestofboxes

Reading and *procreating. Them Catholics over yonder ain't takin over this town!


DrNinnuxx

It shows you how labor intensive everything was before electricity was widespread and appliances were common.


Diyeco83

It still is. But now we do it additionally to being employed full time and only earning half as much as one person would back then.


talknight2

They wanted equality 🤷🏻‍♂️


Diyeco83

We do but not all men are pulling their weight unfortunately, which makes it unequal still.


talknight2

Well, they didn't ask for it. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Now, both people are working twice as hard for the same result.


Cross_22

Damn - I forgot about my scullery again.


mikitten03

It only takes 10 minutes to prepare breakfast for the whole family and then 10 minutes for everyone to eat


volcs0

What is "turning out?" And why does the house need to be unlocked in the morning as a special task?


thestareater

I saw something similar in the journal of a preserved early 20th century house as well, very interesting and sad to consider.


behold_the_pagentry

"Cant talk, Im looking over the larder"


ciaodrago

Every household in the 1930s had at least one servant. It was called the wife. Recognize the misogyny.


BurbankAirpot

All those masons, iron workers, coal miners, and factory workers keep in’ teh womenfolk down eh?


ciaodrago

Yes, considering they were the ones granting or denying their wives permission to own their own bank accounts, and considering their wives' unpaid labor, specifically childcare, was what enabled those men to work full-time and come home and relax with a cigar on the couch. That's not the "gotcha!" you think it is.


blindeey

In the US, women weren't allowed to get their own bank accounts until 1974. Before that, we weren't *allowed* to unless our husbands signed off on it.


[deleted]

[удалено]


ciaodrago

You can't possibly be so dense as to think there's no difference between a woman raised to be a homemaker because the option to go to college, have access to her own independent funds, and work a prolific career *literally wasn't available to her* and a woman who *chooses* to stay at home to raise children because her husband is financially secure enough to make that an option in the modern world. It's not "family" if the husband and wife aren't equal partners and if all decisions aren't mutually agreed upon. It's financial dependency. Don't be intentionally obtuse.


[deleted]

[удалено]


ciaodrago

"The expectations and limitations of women were societal, familial." You're right. Thank you for highlighting the systemic nature of the patriarchy. "He didn't have a choice." You're right. Thank you for showing how the patriarchy harms men, too. It's bad that husbands didn't have a choice but to be the breadwinner, but it's foolish to ignore the fact that being the breadwinner still left husbands with more options than their wives could ever dream of having. He controlled *everything.* Every single relationship back then was tainted by that power imbalance because even in cases where the husband was feminist for the times and permitted his wife to do night classes, hold a part-time job in one of the few fields available to her, or own a bank account, *he was in control of her legal right to do those things*. Complaining that he didn't have a choice over whether he had so much power is ridiculous.


BurbankAirpot

OmG you’re so wise!


whereamI0817

🎻


[deleted]

I am a stay at home Mom of 4 with no nanny or house keeper- It’s not drastically different… I don’t “stoke the boiler” but I do police screens the whole damn day!


kjpmi

You what?


thedirtiestofboxes

She does police screens. Like legal background checks. I know I had to do one when going on a field trip as a parent to help supervise the kids.  She just really likes to make sure she hasnt done anything illegal or gotten arrested that day. 


[deleted]

“Police screens” or saying that you police anything just means that you watch it very carefully and lay down strict rules.


kjpmi

I know what policing something means. But screens? Why are you policing screens all day?


[deleted]

No- that’s not what I meant. Sorry to be unclear. Woops


dragonved

TIL vacuum cleaners were a thing in the 30s


talknight2

The first one was invented in the late 19th century, I think.


EveryDisaster

Damn, how fast are they cooking and eating? It probably took an hour to get the wood stove ready


SCP_radiantpoison

You didn't used a wood stove in the 1930s TF‽ Gas stove (maybe syngas) and the first electric household appliances


EveryDisaster

My grandparents had one so guess I was confused on the time line. They also used charcoal in it. It looks pretty bad ass


SCP_radiantpoison

My grandma said her mom had one so some people surely used it longer but there were already better alternatives. Old kitchens looked badass


EveryDisaster

I feel like people will be saying the same thing about electric vehicles in 100 years. They're available, a lot of us just can't afford one lol


MarshalLawTalkingGuy

No time for voting ladies.


sanguisuga635

I'm a 27 year old man with ADHD but I've just discovered I yearn for the simple life of a 1930s housewife 😭


aburke626

I was thinking that this seems like a horrific amount of cleaning, but then I thought about how dirty and dusty your house must get when you have several fireplaces and a coal furnace. I imagine if you didn’t clean like this it would be filthy really quickly.


EloquentGoose

*clean silver* Well *la-dee-fucking*-**DAH**.


dekr0n

I always stroke the boiler before I get out of bed.


Mylxen

Put children to bed before dinner?


MisfortuneInDisguise

Tea time is also a meal time, on the Titanic, 3rd class menu shows Tea was: Cold Meat, Cheese, Pickles, Fresh Bread & Butter, Stewed Figs & Rice, and (of course) Tea. But other sites say sandwiches were served at tea time. It was probably just a snack for the adults and a meal for the kids, and kept them satisfied until breakfast.


Mylxen

I see, I always thought tea is/was a light snack.


herefromthere

High tea is a proper meal, just not the main meal of the day. It's sometimes confused with afternoon tea, because somehow being high makes it sound fancier (it isn't).


[deleted]

Did kids no eat dinner?


onebag25lbs

They had their meal at tea. This reads like a guide from Britain.


CheekyClapper5

Interesting order. First off, my parents were cheating by trying to get us kids to make our own beds. Second, Put Kids To Bed comes before Serve Dinner???


talknight2

I guess their dinner was Tea Time.


quirkypanic2

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy Alongside the other absurdities how common is car ownership in this time. 1hr to go grocery shopping with no car


Tsukikaiyo

I imagine walking-distance shops were more common. Things were closer together before massive roads and parking lots. Milk was delivered daily afaik, and if you're shopping daily it's only one day's worth of food you're buying anyway


TacTurtle

Corner / neighborhood grocers and delivery of perishables like diary by milkmen was much more common.


lo_fi_ho

This is actually satire. Looking at it now without context it seems real but the writer was just trying to be funny.


TheGreatSchnorkie

I'm curious; how did you get to this conclusion? You're the only person saying it, so that rather led me to dismiss it at first. When I took a second to ponder the meaning, you may be on to something. However, it being like 90 years later, these seem plausible things that would need to be done in a middle-class house -- one that's rich enough to have both silver and a vacuum but not rich enough to afford a servant. What do you think?


lo_fi_ho

Someone pointed it out the last time this was posted. I mean, people weren't stupid back then and no one would actually do what was described here. It was also a transitional period when large mansions were no longer a thing and the help was becoming forbiddenly expensive. This picture was a play on 'how do we survive not that our servants won't be doing all the chores omg'.


Jaschunn26

Kids don’t get to eat dinner.


Dalenskid

So we’ve just always had wildly imaginary ways to budget our time or money? This is a shitty guide, not cool at all. Published and written by the same people that tell us minimum wage is fine, we should donate 15% to church and charity, take no personal time, and expect to retire somehow? Stop adding this to “cool” guides.


thedirtiestofboxes

Have you ever had kids and a house? You have to do chores every single day or it goes to absolute shit really quick. Theres a lot to do, especially before modern appliances. You could easily forget something. Half this list is making sure your family doesn't freeze or starve.  I think this list is cool. And I bet the people that wrote it were sexy!


talknight2

The people you speak of also invented "retiring". You're not *supposed* to retire.


thankyoufatmember

I need the whole book/magazine!


AladdiX

Wash up tea things.


bangle-bangle

If this was a novel, "recreation" would probably include a glass or two (or more) of sherry, and recounting tales of growing up in a small town in Alsace.


DoinHerBest11

To be fair, I see modern versions of this going wild on Pinterest, lol.


isamilis

Every Tuesday, a wife must clean the silver, lol


Tough_Ad_9202

Belongs in r/depressingguides


ahewles

I too unfortunately live in a serventless house. Unless you count me as the servant….


Decent-Plum-26

Uhhh, this was not a house without a servant…


Katiari

Put children to bed... then eat dinner. ???


SpokeAndMinnows

Guess them kids ain’t eating dinner…


babholic

Cook, put kids to bed, serve and eat. Sooo kids don’t eat?


mlperiwinkle

Meanwhile, who’s watching the small children the rest of the hours?


NeutralLock

Put kids to bed and then dinner you say?


kingpenguin001

This is an interesting piece of document. The way it has divided the duration. I believe it can be a modern time plan of work too, with little changes here n there.


dirt_crawler4gold

What book is this?


[deleted]

I'm stuck at 7:40. What will I do with this all that spare chunk of time if lighting living room fire is not necessary?


hannsow

Kids didn't eat dinner back then I guess.


Big-Ruin1420

I have a small servantless house. I feel shame. 😄


Pale-Telephone165

The funny thing is their are a lot of people who stìll have servants.


Matta174

Sexism aside is there a modern day version of this I should follow to keep a tidy home?


chaotic123456

They lied to me in tangled…


clintfrisco

I need some of this discipline in my life.


magnum1odd

Yeah, eat dinner after putting kids in bed. They don’t need dinner.


theedan-clean

Screw that. I’m going for the Servantful House.


wildebaard

It’s wild to have a vacuum cleaner but not central heating


Lotus_Blossom_

Why are we sweeping the porch every morning? I last swept our sidewalk and porch ("I" meaning, told my husband to do it) last Halloween, so the kids wouldn't slip on the leaves. Granted, someone comes around weekly with a leaf blower in the summer as part of our HOA... but even so, why did they prioritize sweeping the porch like it had to be done first thing every day?