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Oh I have enjoyed Peek Week and will miss their calming and uplifting words. Thanks so much 

Thank you for the most WONDERFUL Peek Week, GDonna! 

You gave me so much to ponder, and more memories of growing up raised by Nana and Pop resurfaced. You are like the gardener of a homemakers heart; sprinkling seeds of the past for us to water and then watch grow in our own lives. 

I shall be re-reading all your Peek Week posts in the week ahead...bless you. 

Jennifer in Australia

Welll said Jennifer! I couldn’t agree more. And I will be doing the same with re-reading the posts.

GDonna, thank you for the time and energy you put in to this. Have a blessed Sunday!

Dear GDonna,

I don't often post to any blogs but I always enjoy reading yours. You are one of the ladies who inspired me to simplify and just go back to a time that I have always loved. My family and I live of life corresponding to the late 1700s to 1840s. We have three children 13, 10, and 8.  We do most everything by hand. We wear the clothing of the times; I cook only on a wood burning stove and fire. I have no oven but I have dutch ovens and bake just fine.  I even make crackers on my griddle. Life is not easy and I still am inspired to simplify even more when I read your posts. We have no electric or running water; no regular bills except property tax and this phone which has the minimum of everything it can have. We don't use the Internet as our primary source of info. We prefer good old fashion books. We made this change almost 5 years ago by starting to follow some of your advice in our modern house and moved to this land 4 years ago. What a blessing you are. May God continue to help Charles and yourself as you pursue the 1930s. 

Kindest regards, Beth

I was surprised to see one of the newspaper clippings you showed implying that even (or especially?) people with a maid to clean for them would have it done on Fridays.  If this was a full time maid who worked only for them, what was she doing the rest of the week?  And for a maid who worked for several clients, it would be very inconvenient if they all wanted the big cleaning done on the same day.  My sister is a house cleaner and I can't imagine how she would handle it if the four different households she cleans for all expected it to happen on a Friday.

I found the info about the ironing and electricity very interesting, but it seems like with the grid so fickle, it would have been easier to just use stovetop irons.

I felt a calmness come over me when I read this blog.  Thanks Donna.  It reminded me of my childhood in the 50's.  My mom always prepared a Sunday meal for us five with pies, vegetables, chicken, meat loaf or Swiss steak.   She worked hard during the week milking cows by hand every am and pm, (we sold milk to a cheese company) and everything else needed to run a farm and a home.   She felt it was important to have a special meal at least once a week.     
My parents worked hard during the 30's and 40's, buying U.S. Bonds to save for a farm.   My father still worked out for years till he could get the farm up and running, buying the first cattle, tractor, etc.  Working  both jobs.  We lived in an old wood house with wood stove to heat by, propane gas cylinders for the kitchen stove, no bathroom or running water, just a well with pump outside,  etc.  Firewood had to be cut and when older I would carry it in every night and pile it high behind the wood stove for the night.
My mom was similar to the lady in the book and movie, "The Egg and I" which shows  the hard work needed to keep a farm and home running.  Like washing clothes by hand, baking bread, etc.  It does make me thankful for the easier life now and this kind of hard work is fine when you're young  and healthy.  After years of working hard, they were able to build a new house themselves for retirement.  It's most often the ones who came before us that we have to be thankful to.  I live in that house now and am thankful for all I learned during those years.  Thanks Donna for being there to remind us.

Just a note of appreciation for Peek Week; I love getting the email that tells me I have a new post from you, and to have one every day this week has been extra special

It's been a great Peek Week!!! Thank you for the peace.  My mom always had a schedule and I just naturally have one.  She worked full time though.  Made dinner from scratch mostly every night; Saturdays were cleaning and laundry days, my Dad did the outside. Sunday was church, hit the store for a newspaper on the way home and my dad made breakfast.  Friday was grocery shopping days.  Funny how they'd have two full baskets of food for $75. and it would fit in our cupboards - no pantry.  I guess because the cupboards went to the ceiling. Funny how you look back and notice these things!

 Dear Donna, what a lovely week to be able to read an inspiring post from you every day! And the comments from everyone else too. That was really good for me. Sometimes you need a nudge to refocus on the essential and simple things. I was very surprised to read that in some places in the USA it is forbidden to hang laundry on the line outside. I didn't know that. What is the reason for such a ban?
I think your garden is beautiful. Because it's basically a real kitchen garden. I live in a small terraced house with a small garden, which I now want to gradually transform into a kitchen garden. The lawn is slowly being replaced by flower beds. I took advantage of the sunny day today and planted lots of tomatoes. Now there must be no more frost.

Greetings from Germany from Alexandra

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

I always wonder how these women of the past could get their everyday work done in addition to the task of the day. Doing laundry (the old fashioned way) would make it hard to get dinner on the table that night. Perhaps they used Sunday leftovers? And Tuesday would be no easy day either- perhaps soup? I really wish I had been taught a housekeeping schedule when I was younger- now that I’m retired it seems kind of useless but I do try! My husband and I have lived in our Dutch Colonial house for 40 plus years. We have the original blueprint and were shocked to see that in 1917 there was a full upstairs bathroom and electricity as well. We live in a somewhat smaller rural village in Ohio. I know my mom lived 2 miles away from where I live and had no electricity until much later and had to heat water to bathe in the kitchen. No running water except an indoor pump. I struggle to come up with a daily meal and I have no good excuse- I am thinking most meals back then were much simpler than what we make. Also- anyone else think that baking on Saturday after cleaning house on Friday makes no sense? I would have to clean my whole kitchen again on Saturday! 

I have loved reading these daily posts! 

Melissa, I can’t speak for anyone but a couple of women I knew who were born in the very early 1900’s; they basically cleaned their kitchens every day. After meals all dishes were washed, dried and put away, all counters and stove wiped thoroughly, sink washed and dried and the floor was mopped at the end of each day. Maybe that’s the reason baking on Saturday after housework was done on Fridays made sense to them?  I am guessing here of course. 

I have really enjoyed Peek Week!  I know it was a lot of work to post all this. 

I recently got a Stanley thermal pot and I am using it like an old fashioned haybox with  passive cooking. The pots have been discontinued it looks like, but they were still for sale on Amazon. I could have built a haybox but storage is a problem.  I can use this Stanley to take food with me as well, more easily than a haybox. I’m eating vegetable soup now that cooked in the pot. 

Thanks for all the encouragement here and the wonderful posts. 

When I began homeschooling all those years ago now another older homeschooling mother gave me the best advice ever.

She told me to do a time management chart for each day so I could teach but also get all other homemaking things done as well.

At that time in my life I not only homeschooled but milked cows with my husband, fed calves and had many raised vegetables gardens. My daughter now says she doesn't know how I did it all and always had a clean and tidy home but it was all time management. I also only went to town once a week. Cell phones take up a lot of people's time these days.

I have gotten out of the habit of managing my time but really feel I need to pull myself up on that again just not so intense as it was when children were at home and it's ok to knit and sew during the day and not after dinner like in the old days.

Peek Week has been a total joy. I do love reading everyone's comments. We all are like a special family group. Blessings to you Donna.

Karen NZ

I find it's essential to have some sort of structure to the week or else days blur together and everything starts to pile up. My first few summers as a teacher I would slowly fall into a mental funk because I had too much unstructured time, despite working part time jobs. Since then, I've made sure to plan out my weeks... and now that I have a young child it's even more important for all of us to have a dependable schedule. I've always done my laundry on weekends, with fresh sheets and linens being put out on Sundays. Snuggling into line-dried sheets is a special treat on Sunday nights!

Thank you for your peek week! I've really enjoyed reading everyone's comments.

Tea, we have a house cleaner once per month, and she actually charges a bit less to get the house cleaned Monday through Thursday because so many people want her to come on Fridays! I think this is still a common constraint. 

Very interested in more detail on the time management chart if you feel like sharing. I am a homeschooling mom of three and then a six month old baby.

I started doing the index card system for staying on top of my housework. It’s helped me so much. I stopped for a few months after I had the baby, but it’s been easy to just start it back up (oh the dust!). Housework is so much easier if you can stay on top of it and have it scheduled/reminders of what needs to be done. I still have more cards to add…as I see things that need to be done I add them in.

Thank you for the weekly posts! I too will be re-reading then this next week.

I have enjoyed all of the comments, but I especially enjoyed this one from Beth D. Beth, do you have a blog? Your daily life sounds so interesting! 

I have thoroughly enjoyed peek week, thank you! I loved the comments as well—very edifying and interesting! 

Peek Week was wonderful. So motivating and at the same time relaxing, because of all the remembrances of a more satisfying time. Thank you so much for this. And the thirties! I got out one of my vintage tablecloths and put it on the kitchen table last night as a symbol of going to the thirties. 

It's Monday and my wash is hung, but mostly because it's one of the few days it won't rain this week. Wash Day will have to move with the weather for me. I've been thinking a lot about a routine. At this time of year, gardening takes priority because the garden feeds us. Today is weeding the strawberry bed and planting cream peas. I'm not one of those hardy women of old who can plant half a garden and then go wash walls and make three meals a day and sew and can vegetables all in the same day! Not yet anyway. :) But I'm going to try to put a routine to other tasks as I can. 

Thank you for all the comments. I love hearing everyone's experiences. 

I love the topic of keeping a household schedule. My grandmother always kept to this schedule and later years it loosened a bit, she didn't  have much mending to do or ironing so she might combine the tasks. I remember though one story she told me about Tuesday ironing day when my dad and uncle were in elementary school. They lived in a very hot part of South Africa (where we are from) and she was tired from working in her vegetable garden and the stifling heat. Homes don't have air-conditioning there so you are just hot! Anyway, she decided to sit on a  stool and iron and then something "mortifying" happened; the pastor dropped by unannounced and saw her sitting down doing the ironing! She said she felt so guilty. I was a teenager in the 1980s when she told me that story and thought to myself ,how could that bother her?, but they were a different and much more proper generation :) 

She also did the Saturday baking and I remember she would bake about 4 piecrusts, from scratch, and bake them. She then froze them in the pie plates so they would be ready short notice if she needs to have something for company visiting or to take to church. She then would normally just make a filling to go in the pie crust that could be refrigerated to "set". The one I love the most and have her recipe is one  using orange juice and custard powder cooked together. When it thickens you take it off the stove and pour it into the pie shell. When cold you top it with whipped cream! 

Thanks for this post and prodding me to dust off these memories :) 

I loved this week. Learned a lot and need to get better organized.  Monday is Home Blessing.  I try to not plan anything that day.  Today I had a meeting so Sunday I worked on most important projects.  One of them was filling feeders. To my surprise this afternoon I saw first 2 hummingbirds on feeder and a huge redheaded woodpecker!  Well worth the time spent.  Tomorrow will be my Monday Blessing.  
I found the letter interesting and personal about times to iron.  We take so much for granted

Donna,

             Thanks so much for the Peek Week and this post about doing things on certain days of the week. My wash is out on the line now. I love the smell of fresh clothes and bedding!

              I am starting a garden this year. I haven't had one for several years, but I feel a real need to have one this year. I made a trellis out of an old swing set, so it is very sturdy. I also got an IBC tote cut in half to make two raised beds. My daughter gave me some starts, so at least I have some things flourishing right now. Having a garden certainly would have been a 1930s priority. I am glad that you are going back to doing a study. I read something interesting about the 1930s. On average, they slept 8.5 - 9 hours a night. In winter, they often slept as much as 10 hours. Now people average 6 - 6.5 hours nightly.

           I am reading an interesting book. It isn't about the 1930s, but it has good ideas and recipes for being frugal. It is "Thrifty Tips From The War Years." You can read it for free at Archive.org. A book I enjoy that is about the depression years is "We Had Everything But Money." It is really good. It tells about the ingenuity and resourcefulness of people back then.

          Becky Sue

thanks for sharing, I will look up books

I'm so inspired by everyone's comments!

My schedule tended to be dictated by the children's homeschool needs and after school activities.  Now that it's just husband and me I'm thinking I may just adopt an old fashioned schedule of days gone by.

I enjoyed Peek Week as I always do your posts!

I read somewhere that Monday was wash day because women would cook a big meal on Sunday, so there were leftovers for Monday which meant the whole day could be devoted to washing and not cooking. I don't know if it's true or not though. Supposedly Monday has been wash day in the US ever since the Pilgrims got here.

I LOVED your peek week, and this is very interesting.
I wash when the weather report predicts nice weather the next day, so I can line dry. I live in Denmark, and fortunately we can line dry. It sounds SO absurd that you cannot line dry in the US.
I iron almost everything, because I wear vintage which is most often made of cotton. And I like the feel of ironed bedlinen. A few years ago I got an ironing machine (rolling iron, don't know what such a thing is called in English) - and I LOVE it! All flat things like table cloths, tea towels, and bedlinen go right into it and looks lovely within a fourth of the time spend with an iron. I listen to vintage music while doing so. I iron dear husbands shirts, then he repairs my cars, ha.

And I love your thirties project, I can feel your enthusiasm and energy, and I love to learn about vintage living.

I'm always late to the party, but better late than never, and I wish you all a lovely day. :)

Sanne G,

Just to clarify, in most of the US we can absolutely line dry.  

It's just something certain neighborhoods that are wealthier (or trying to appear wealthy) have banned based on a false association of frugalness with poverty, and a snobby attitude about the latter.  

When people speak about only some US states having "right to dry" laws, it means that in those states, even if a neighborhood HOA tries to ban it the residents there still have a right to use a clothesline, and the HOA can't stop them.