Keeping House

To the Bride and Groom!
Grandma Goes Online

how to keep house book

The New How to Keep House

Since it is 1968, I doubt this can be considered “new”. This is pretty comprehensive covering budgeting, cleaning, entertaining, and a host of other housewife duties. The cartoon illustrations are on par for the time. I have a feeling that the cartoons are there to distract you from the fact you are reading a book about housework. The generation ahead of me, always had some type of housekeeping reference book. We have featured quite a few on this site.

I can understand that back in the day, having a household problem solver book would be a necessity. In the days of the Internet, these books are just quaint. The tone in these types of books is somewhat judgmental, and anything less than perfect is an indication you are a bad wife/mother.


mortgages ironing finances entertaining decorating


  1. “Is it because your group doesn’t seem to entertain much and you would feel queer if you did ?”: Geez, when was the last time anyone used “queer” in a context other than “GLBT/non-binary” ??

    1. I think it must mean a laundromat — although attendants have never been part of any that I went to. Nor was there any camaraderie to speak of. You hung around to make sure nobody stole your stuff or threw it on the floor when they wanted your machine.

  2. If I need help with something householdish I’ll go online and see if there’s a youtube tutorial for it, not a book and much less a book from the sixties. I also love how “Entertaining is an important and facet part of family life. You can’t slough off your responsibities” Ummm yes I can! After a long day of work and household stuff the last thing I want to do is have the Smiths over!j

  3. My goodness, it has been a very long time since I saw a reference to Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch! I would venture to suggest that this is meaningless to today’s readers.

    1. I’d never heard of it…but thanks to your comment I recognized the book when I came across it in a ‘little free Library’ box a few days ago .For light entertainment from 1902, I thought it was pretty good 🙂

  4. No. A book by Alice Hegan Rice in which a family endures poverty in a humorous way. As to the humor, your mileage may vary.

    1. Given that it was written at the turn of the 20th century, the humor is going to be rated super-G. I read that book years ago, and I remember one episode where a neighbor’s son breaks his wooden leg and his mom is distraught b/c wooden legs cost money, so Mrs. Wiggs sets out to help.

Comments are closed.