If tables are stained, and require any scrubbing, remember that to wash or scrub wood you must follow the grain, as rubbing across it rubs the dirt in instead of taking it off.

The same rule applies to floors.  A clean, coarse cloth, hot suds, and a good scrubbing-brush, will simplify the operation.  Wash off the table; then dip the brush in the suds, and scour with the grain of the wood.  Finally wash off all soapy water, and wipe dry.  To save strength, the table on which dishes are washed may be covered with kitchen oilcloth, which will merely require washing and wiping; with an occasional scrubbing for the table below.

The table must be cleaned as soon as the dishes are washed, because if dishes stand upon tables the fragments of food have time to harden, and the washing is made doubly hard.

Leaving the kitchen in order, the bedrooms will come next.  Turn the mattresses daily, and make the bed smoothly and carefully.  Put the under sheet with the wrong side next the bed, and the upper one with the marked end always at the top, to avoid the part where the feet lie, from being reversed and so reaching the face.  The sheets should be large enough to tuck in thoroughly, three yards long by two and a half wide being none too large for a double bed.  Pillows should be beaten and then smoothed with the hand, and the aim be to have an even, unwrinkled surface.  As to the use of shams, whether sheet or pillow, it is a matter of taste; but in all cases, covered or uncovered, let the bed-linen be daintily clean.

Empty all slops, and with hot water wash out all the bowls, pitchers, &c., using separate cloths for these purposes, and never toilet towels.  Dust the room, arrange every thing in place, and, if in summer, close the blinds, and darken till evening, that it may be as cool as possible.

Sweeping days for bedrooms need come but once a week, but all rooms used by many people require daily sweeping; halls, passages, and dining and sitting rooms coming under this head.  Careful dusting daily will often do away with the need of frequent sweeping, which wears out carpets unnecessarily.  A carpet-sweeper is a real economy, both in time and strength; but, if not obtainable, a light broom carefully handled, not with a long stroke which sends clouds of dust over every thing, but with a short quick one, which only experience can give, is next best.  For a thorough sweeping, remove as many articles from the room as possible, dusting each one thoroughly, and cover the larger ones which must remain with old sheets or large squares of common unbleached cotton cloth, kept for this purpose.  If the furniture is rep or woolen of any description, dust about each button, that no moth may find lodgment, and then cover closely.  A feather duster, long or short, as usually applied, is the enemy of cleanliness.  Its only legitimate use is for the tops of pictures or books and ornaments; and such dusting should be done before the room