The Common Rooms

In every home there are common rooms. These are the rooms where everyone congregates. They are like public rooms which the family enjoys for eating and recreation.  Each member of the household has a bedroom for their personal belongings.  The common rooms include items the entire family can use.

One way to keep a home tidy and inviting is to encourage the family to keep personal belongings (such as clothing, shoes and papers) in their own bedroom.  Most of us will bring things into the dining room and write or sort, or perhaps leave our shoes in the entryway for a time.  But we should be encouraged, after a reasonable time, to put those items away. This will help keep the main rooms nice and neat.

To enjoy the main rooms, they should be well dusted, swept and vacuumed.  The furniture should be polished and any curtains or linens should be regularly washed and cleaned.  This keeps the rooms fresh and pleasant.   Chairs should be kept in their places, or tucked in an orderly fashion. This is pleasing to the eye and brings peace as one enters a room.

If there is a cabinet, bookcase, or hutch, these can be stocked with games like chess, checkers, battleship, scrabble, monopoly and other fun items the family can use when they are gathered together. 

If at all possible, most of the main rooms should not contain a television set.  They should be rooms for visiting and talking and for enjoying fellowship within the home.  A television could be in another room - like a living room or family room. Today, many have TVs in their kitchens and dining rooms, or in every room in the house.  If the house can accommodate at least one common room - one main room - for just visiting and enjoying each other's company, without personal belongings or clutter scattered about - this would be a very pleasant place which helps make a house a home.

Blessings
Mrs. White


From the Archives -

Good manners and making the morning formal - Breakfast at Home.

Hard work - Homemaking Survival.

From my childhood - Manners Learned at The Finishing School.




Mrs. White's special book for Homemakers - "Mother's Book of Home Economics."




An Invitation - Subscribe to The Legacy of Home and have it delivered directly to your email.