Takeaways From "The Efficient Kitchen of 1914" Book That I'm Incorporating in My Historic Kitchen Renovation
/I came across a charming book written in 1914 all about how to plan an efficient kitchen. The book has certainly inspired my renovation and I’ve incorporated some of the tips and tricks into my current design. From organizing to lighting, and cooking to materials, it’s got guidelines on all of it. Admittedly, some of the lessons are comical and antiquated, but that’s the fun of it! Beyond kitchen designing, though, this book aims to make our homes thoughtful spaces that are free of waste, that value women’s time, and are utilitarian spaces rather than storage units. It’s pretty forward-thinking for a century-old book!
Imagine the thrill I experienced when I found this book and felt like it was a perfect fit!
My house was constructed from 1914-1915. Could the timing BE any more perfect (read that in Chandler Bing’s voice).
I’ve been in the process of renovating my very own historic kitchen and always searching for inspiration.
I love efficiency! I’m such a sucker for finding smart ways to make things run smoother and easier.
I believe function should come before form, and I think we underestimate just how powerful those pre-war cooking spaces were.
It’s written by a smart lady. I like smart ladies and I like her support of women throughout the century-old book.
All this to say, I was a fan before even diving into it.
Georgie BoynTon Child
The full title is the wonderful mouthful of, The Efficient Kitchen: Definite Directions for the Planning, Arranging, and Equipping of the Modern Labor Saving Kitchen; A Practical Book for the Homemaker (1914) and written by female author, Georgie Boynton Child in 1914.
I’ve got a crush on Georgie, so I’m going to be giving her lots of shout outs. Get ready.
I found this little treat in the gift shop at The Marston House, a historic home that I volunteer at and also got married at. (I talked about its kitchen and butler’s pantry here). I’ve been reading it slowly over the past few years, gradually adding nuggets of info to my kitchen renovation plans.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kitchen
The book has a couple of photographs and several drawings, but it isn’t chock full of visuals. I highly recommend having companion resources handy for visualizing the kitchen spaces. I’ve rounded up some of my favorite old house books here. And I’ve included some photos of antique kitchens in the below Pinterest board (psst: follow me there!)
Below, I’ll share a bunch of quotes from the book as well as summarize a few key points. Enjoy!
The fundamental principle
The motivation of the book is to design a utilitarian space that respects the time and energy of women and values the resources available to the family. It’s pretty crazy how often I find myself forgetting this was written 106 years ago.
Keep in mind what life was like in 1914. Folks just lived through the Second Industrial Revolution. There was a rapid expansion of new technologies such as the telephone, railroads, electrical power, and automobiles. Women’s suffrage was gaining steam as the national right to vote was granted in 1920. Industry and cities were booming which was shifting the way of life. The author of this book was writing to readers that were looking to modify their existing homes, but she was mostly speaking to people starting construction on a new build in new developments. This was a time of change, and you can hear it in her words. Also, did I mention the book was written by a woman? *snaps*
On women:
“The greatest of all shifting of values has come about in the new estimate of the value of a woman’s work in the home. Fifty years ago the output of vitality and energy of even the most intelligent and highly organized women was a thing absolutely disregarded.”
“Fifty years ago…it seemed worth while to spend hours each week mending stockings…to-day all that has changed. For both men and women there are new standards of the worth of life and the value of human striving.”
“The pressure of life is now bearing very heavily upon us all. It is not only the tired little mother, striving to do all her work and care for two or three children on an insufficient income, who needs help; but the home-maker of abundant means, who has larger responsibilities and a larger social and professional demands upon her income and her time. In the former case, the pressure to be lightened is physical strain; in the latter, an equally excessive and sometimes overwhelming mental strain.”
“There will undoubtably come a time when the more ambitious home-maker will be able to write after her name titles as imposing as Master of Science or Doctor of Laws.”
On values and waste:
“Conservation is really the science of making the most of things. And to make the most of things, we must have a very complete and exact knowledge of values, we shall be continually sacrificing important things, and shall not be conserving at all, but wasting.”
“[The book’s] object is to awaken interest in a constructive solution of such problems, which will result in freedom and independence'; and indirectly in a new spirit of joy and peace.”
On shifting economies and industry:
“To-day nearly all the old-time industries have been banished from the home and put on a commercial footing. We buy our clothing and our canned fruit. Instead of making candles we switch on the electric light. The kitchen is a place where food is prepared, and where practically nothing else is done.”
“Eggs, butter, milk, chickens, pigs, and fruit were all formerly produced by every house-holder, and were abundant and low-prices. All these commodities now have new values, and present new problems in relation to their use for food.” “Wood is much less abundant and is also subject to trust control. The coal supply is governed by a monopoly.”
You get the picture. She’s advocating for saving time, respecting labor, valuing women, and conserving resources - all through designing a house. I love it. I’m here for it. So cool.
What I particularly appreciate about the sentiment is that while similar to modern 2020 ideas, it’s rooted differently. Today we want our coffee-making to be efficient by going to a drive-through to pick up a cheap cup of coffee - all in our gas-powered cars, from a minimum-wage paid worker, from an unethical farmer, in a plastic cup. Sure, it’s efficient, but it’s outsourcing our energy onto others at a sacrifice of their labor and environmental resources. This book advocates for mindful ways to make coffee at home efficiently - by having all of the necessary items in one place, under a well-positioned window, with nice cross ventilation. I mean, yes please.
“Efficiency must be the keynote. Efficient work. Efficient rest. Elimination of all unnecessary work.”
Pleasant House in Chicago
Planning the Kitchen
Small kitchens, no open concepts:
“No single change has proved so helpful as the passing of the old-fashioned “roomy” kitchen of fond memory, and the adoption of the very modern and utilitarian small kitchen.”
“We recommend limiting a remodeled kitchen to the smallest possible dimensions.”
“Kitchen work is not a series of isolated tasks.” “Therefore our supplies, our work table, our stove, and our sink must be near enough together so that we can ‘keep an eye’ on one thing while we are doing other things.”
Hah! This goes so against modern ideas of big kitchens and open floor plans. While I do like a “roomy” kitchen, I appreciate her passion for a small space. There’s less to clean, keeping items close saves time walking around, it saves money in construction with fewer items, and less kitchen space allows more space in other rooms where “extra space means added health, comfort, and opportunity for the entire family.”
Windows and lighting:
“We must have plenty of light, both day-times and evenings. The light must fall on our work and not shine in our eyes.”
“Windows ought to be placed as to make a cross draft possible.”
“Where electricity is used, one kitchen bulb centrally located and equipped with a Tungsten globe of sixty watts, will give ample light for a small kitchen. For a larger room, two will be needed.”
Yes to light, yes to breezes, yes to natural sunshine!
The idea that one bulb is enough for a kitchen is comical today. Any website about kitchen design today will recommend you place an overhead recessed light every few feet. Even a 10x10 kitchen could have ten recessed bulbs. Georgie (the author) recommending only one is oh so very charming.
For our kitchen, we’ve opted to not do recessed lighting. Not a popular opinion in 2020! But, we’ll have plenty of sconces and pendants - far more than Georgie would recommend.
Walls and Ceilings:
She recommends plaster walls either leaving the natural finish, or painted.
“[The walls] need wiping over occasionally with a damp flannel cloth fastened around a broom; and should have a thorough washing once a year to remove more permanent stains.”
When is the last time you deep cleaned your walls? I honestly haven’t cleaned my walls like this since we moved in and had to scrub everything. She continues that cleaning walls is tricky, so you might want to have a two-tone kitchen and just wipe the bottom once a month, then re-finish the walls annually.
Better yet, she recommends glazed tile for its clean-ability, but notes that it’s pricey, so she says to just go halfway up the wall. It’s valuable to remember that design is often rooted in economics. Our modern-day and yesteryear homes are a reflection of what folks could afford. Not all old-houses are the same, not all used subway tile, not all had butler’s pantries. Economics played a huge part in design.
“Wall paper should never be put on kitchen walls.”
Sorry Georgie, I happen to really love a good wallpaper in a kitchen. But I get where you’re coming from!
Flooring:
“For the average home, a well-laid kitchen floor covered with inlaid linoleum will give the most satisfactory result for the amount of money spent.”
“Painted floors with two coats of good floor paint in tan or grey are attractive in appearance and wear fairly well.”
“An inexpensive hard-wood that can be treated with a turpentine stain and then waxed, makes an excellent finish”
“Tile flooring makes a very attractive looking floor but it is hard on the feet, “death to china” and costs about forty cents a square foot.”
I love “death to china” as a descriptor for tile! Linoleum is certainly not as popular nowadays as it was a century ago, but I do dig an antique lino floor. For our kitchen, we’re going to go with hardwoods for an “attractive finish.”
Scientific Grouping
Georgie dedicated a whole chapter to scientific grouping, which essentially is just storing items in relation to how we use them. Not just like-items with like-items. I’ll explain.
“If we are to conserve labor and energy, we must adopt a plan of grouping that will coordinate utensils and materials as they are needed for the actual work to be done.”
She goes on to describe the act of making tea. She lists all the steps of taking the kettle off the stove, walking to the sink, filling it, walking back to the stove, turning it on, walking to get the tea, walking to the dining room to get the cups and saucers, walking to get the teapot, coming back to the stove to turn it off, walking to get the mitt to take the pot off the stove, pouring the water into the teapot and adding the tea, then walking all of the china back to the dining room to serve it.
She argues instead that we should store everything at the sink, and have the stove positioned nearby so that we only need to take a couple of steps to make tea. Rather than putting tea cups with china, maybe have them near the kettle? So smart.
Above she’s listed her recommendations of all of the items and where they should live.
The items we use in our kitchen certainly differ, but you can bet that I’m going to work on making sure that I store things efficiently! It may seem weird to not store the bread knife with other knives, but it definitely makes sense to keep that knife near the cutting board. Less steps, more efficiency, I’m down.
These pages are perhaps my favorite in the book. Save me from typing everything by reading the list in the image above.
Narrow shelves, yes please! Open shelves, yes please! Nothing on the floor, yes please! Easy-to-clean items only, yes please! Pleasant flooring, yes please! Dedicated space for things, yes please!
The Marston House in San Diego
Open shelves
“Wall space can be used to best advantage by having a system of narrow open shelves, rather than the deep-shelf closet or the cupboard with closed-in shelves and doors.”
“There is room for but one row of articles. Not having to reach behind the first row to get something at the back which we cannot see without standing on a chair, we are saved loss of time and energy due to awkward motions and the danger of knocking things off the shelf.”
“Hang everything from the wall that can be hung, leaving the shelf-room for supplies and equipment without handles.”
HGTV has made us think that open shelves are a modern concept and such a trendy thing to do to update a kitchen. Yet open shelves have been around for ages! The difference in the older kitchens is the open shelves were designed to store cooking items and dishware for easy access. They weren’t used for storing plants, letterboards, and artwork.
Following the HGTV trend, many folks today are now rejecting open shelves because they get so dusty, but it’s because we use them for decor. I’m of the camp that if we stocked the open shelves with our daily cups and plates, they’d be washed so frequently that they wouldn’t become dusty.
Georgie goes on in the book about where we should put open shelves and dimensions for each and why. She’s so smart! Snag yourself your own copy and turn to page 50 for all those details that I don’t care to type.
Closet for cleaning outfit
“The kitchen cleaning outfit usually includes all the implements, cloths and materials for cleaning the lower floor of the house, and the size of the outfit depends on the general style of the house, how much woodwork or brass there is, and other details of finish.”
I felt so tickled to read this section of the book after already designing a cleaning closet in the kitchen. Our home doesn’t have a dedicated laundry room (just a closet) nor do we have an attached garage for storing cleaning supplies. I’ve designed a wall of floor-to-ceiling cabinets that will fit brooms, the vacuum, and cleaning supplies. Much like the drawing in the photo above!
I’m detailing a lot of this book, but not quoting it all. Read that last paragraph in the photo above to see just how detailed Georgie gets in this book. She talks dimensions, ergonomics, and economics. I love her. A lady after my own heart.
Heating, Fuel, and Cooking
“The pipe from the kitchen stove went up through the ceiling and heated the chamber above. The door from the kitchen to the dining room was left open, so that the heat might pass through and make the latter room comfortable.”
Genius! I love passive heating and cooling like this. I shared a “cool” passive heating technique in my tour of the Marston House kitchen (check out the California Cooler) as well as in my very own kitchen here.
I digress from the kitchen talk to give a shout out to old houses for their passive energy use. Nowadays, we just put an AC vent in every room and run HVAC around. But before that, houses were built in order to regulate their temperature. Here are some examples.
Double hung windows designed to let cool air in on the bottom and hot air out the top by opening both sashes
Installing passive refrigeration on the north walls so they don’t get direct sunshine
Extending deep eaves to shade windows
Planting deciduous trees that shade in the summer when they have leaves, but then let light through in the winter when they drop leaves and sunshine makes its way onto the house
California coolers that use convection to pull in cool air from the crawl space and out where heat rises
Doors and windows oriented for cross breezes
Stoves that had shelves built in or installed above to keep food warm
and on and on!
Georgie talks a lot about coal and wood stoves, heating homes, drying kitchen-ware, boilers, and more. I won’t go into it here but it is fun to read and see her cost breakdown for things. Spoiler, the costs are pennies. (Psst: here’s a website for calculating relative value of things over they years - not just using inflation)
The Marston House Butler’s Pantry in San Diego, BUilt 1905
Sinks
“The sink should have open plumbing so that it is always possible to get at the pipes and so that the light and air can keep everything clean”
“It is important to protect the enameled-ware or crockery sink from scratches, by a wooden rack or rubber mat which may rest in the sink through the day. At night the rack may be removed and aired.”
“It is a great convenience in a kitchen to have ample drain-boards, preferably at both left hand and right”
All sounds good to me! The sink pictured in the butler’s pantry above has the most charming cutout for ventilation. The family and the architect Irving Gill were keen on keeping the area free of leaks and inevitable mold. The health-consciousness paid off because (nearly) everyone in the family lived to be 100-years-old or more! Learn more about the Marston House kitchen here.
I’m planning a drain board, and I ordered a rack to sit in the bottom of my sink, too. Good tips, Georgie, I hear you and I’ll listen to ya!
family home of the Charles Shultz family in Montclair
Work Table
Work tables were very common in old kitchens. They were a perfect place to prepare the meals before cooking items. Often they floated in the middle of rooms like the picture above, but Georgie was a big fan of having them up against the wall so that supplies mounted on the wall would be handy.
“A pastry table with two narrow shelves above it, can be used in almost any kitchen. It is a good investment for the home-maker who must live in rented houses, because both the table and shelves can be easily carried about and adapted to different conditions.”
“The cheapest kitchen table is one measuring 36 inches and selling for about $2.50”
I have plans to add an antique table in our kitchen, in fact just like Georgie encourages - up against a wall with access to supplies. I just wish I only paid $2.50 for it. I’ve shared what this will look like here and I’ve been collecting inspiration for this design from modern homes on a Pinterest board here.
Wheel carts and serving tables
“Some form of serving table on wheels is an indispensable adjunct to the efficient home.”
“As a means of conserving time and energy [the cart] almost ranks with the business man’s automobile.”
Georgie advocates for a wheeled cart to move around dishware, cutlery, china, glassware, and food from the kitchen to the dining room. It’s also helpful for clearing dishes. Georgie isn’t a big fan of walking back and forth, so I can see why she adores this kind of invention. However, I don’t have plans to add it to my kitchen design. I like the idea, but I just don’t know that I want a cart sitting around. Who knows, maybe she can convince me one day!
Necessary equipment
“We advise every housekeeper to have the full list of labor-saving equipment of good grade bought of a reliable firm.”
You got it Georgie! High quality, long lasting, well maintained stuff is my middle name.
Zero waste before it was cool
“Newspapers, brown paper, paper bags, wrapping paper twine, and oiled paper have many uses in the kitchen and should all be saved.”
“Salt and flour bags, ripped and washed, make good dish cloths, and lettuce bags. Narrow strips of white muslin stitched together end for end, make convenient bands to wrap around the edge of berry pies to prevent juice from overflowing.”
She goes on to talk about all the things you can save and how you can repurpose them. I really like this gal.
Kitchen waste
“It is a good plan to discourage keeping a garbage pail in the kitchen. This plan is often far from sanitary, and the garbage itself draws flies. It is better to make an iron-clad rule that no garbage be kept in the kitchen, and that it be taken out after each meal.”
“Special garbage bags have been made which fit the ordinary garbage can. The bag is placed in the empty can and the garbage put into it. When the can is ready to empty, the bag is removed with the garbage and the can is left clean.”
I had to read that last quote twice because I was like, “what’s so special? what did I miss?” Then I realized, oooohhh this is before trash bags were a thing!
Georgie went on to describe how to burn trash and how to manage garbage storage depending on your region. Composting clearly wasn’t on her radar.
As for us, we will have a medium recycling can, a small trash can, and a small compost bin. Composting is a great way to prevent flies and issues Georgie experienced since it doesn’t sit in the bin for a long time. We even store our compost in the freezer so it never gets stinky.
Dishwashing
“Any operation that has to be repeated three times a day is an important one to reduce to its simplest elements so that it can be done in the least time, without haste or sense of weariness in its accomplishment”
Georgie continued on for several pages about how dishwashing is a pain and there’s no possible way to make it more efficient. I feel bad for the poor lady that never got to see electronic dishwashing machines! She died in 1945 so she saw hand-crank machines and other savvy inventions, but she had yet to experience loading dirty wares into a metal box, pressing a button, then coming back an hour later to a bunch of clean and dry plates. Let’s all dedicate our next dishwasher load to Georgie who certainly would have loved the efficiency!
The business side of the kitchen
“The business management of the kitchen will serve as a guide in administering the family budget, and finally in achieving the results which are the object and goal of all effort toward real home-making”
Georgie dedicated a chapter to the economics of record-keeping, balancing finances, and keeping good maintenance files. I’m not going to get into her detailed budget planning here, but know that the lady likes a budget and being efficient. She’s my idol. Maybe I’ll dress as her for Halloween this year.
“The Quiet Corner corresponds to the business man’s office. It should be a separate little room away from noise and interruptions, and should be conveniently fitted up with writing table, book-shelves and files.”
Homemaking takes energy and time to plan the meals and manage the home. I appreciate that Georgie encourages the women to have a dedicated space in the home to do her homemaking planning as well as personal and professional readings. I hate the terms “man cave” and “she shed”, but, let’s give Georgie the credit of giving women a dedicated space in the home, shall we?
“She must not only remember the details that properly fall to her own work, but she must make good the shortcomings caused by the carelessness of other members of the family.”
Hahaha! That’s quite a dig at the husband that can’t find his flannel! (a specific example she described later)
Oof! I wrote a lot more about that book than I thought I would! Even though I called out a lot of quotes, there’s so much more to dig into. I recommend you pick up a copy if you’re into learning more. There are so many fun nitty-gritty details I didn’t even mention. Georgie detailed how much she pays for products all the way down to the long-handled floor brush, oils, and boiler jackets. Reading all of these tidbits really ads to the charm of the book and her message.
Psst! A reader just gave me a heads up that the book is available digitally for free! You can read it here.
“If a family is fond of cake and cookies, always keep plenty of these on hand.”
Georgie! You spoil me!
