Hussif

'Hussif' - OED definition: case for needles, thread etc. standard issue to British servicemen until sometime around the 1950s, after which time economies resulted in them having to provide their own. Roughly sewn from a rectangle of fabric, with one pocket, a needle-rest, and calico tape ties, it was nevertheless obviously ideal for its purpose and very long-lived.

When I was in Switzerland, I was hugely impressed by the cleanliness of everything. From farmhouses to therapists houses, they were spotless. No one had servants, and everyone had jobs and pets.

All jokes of late about cleaning like a Dutch housewife made me ponder the habits which full time work has caused me to drop. When I was growing up, dishes were washed immediately after dinner, the floor was swept and bins emptied, before anyone played cards, read a book or did needlework or a jigsaw puzzle. When I was a young mother of three small children under five, I followed the Hints from Heloise (cribbed from Karen Pryor's Nursing Your Baby) about keeping things tidy with little ones: When everyone has gone to work, school or down for a nap, take a paper bag and clear up all the rubbish take; take all items that go into one room into that room; put the breakfast dishes into soak. Take a wad of toilet paper and douse it in alcohol, wiping down the bathroon fixtures. Wash the dishes. sweep the floor.

Sanity. Tidiness - it being necessary to sanity to me, given that my ancestral home was always orderly and spotless, even my mother's sewing room.

So I timed all this, just now: washing up the dishes, tidying, dusting sweeping: for four rooms, it took half and hour. That's less than eight minutes per room. Adjust for your own number of rooms or mounds of dishes accordingly. An Irish friend of mine (wife of Nobel prizewinner) used to add a damp mop of the kitchen to this - another five minutes.

You too can be a Dutch Housewife in less than an hour a day, even while working full time. I'm not saying the place will stay this way (and don't even enter the teenagers' rooms!) but at least you have a lovely house for a few minutes.