AN IDEAL KITCHEN

Allowing that any room, regardless of how small and unwell located is ideal sufficient for a kitchen is mistaken. This is the room where housekeepers spend most of their time, and it should be one of the lightest and easiest to work in rooms that exists. Indeed on how well this 'household workshop' runs depends more than any other department upon whether or not a family will be healthy and comfortable.

Every kitchen should have windows on two sides of the room; through these pointing at each other, there must be no willful obstruction to allow and leave free passage for the sun.  The entrance door or window opening from top downward can change all the air in a closed apartment with ease enough. Light as well as freshness is one among housewives 'essential articles without which it cannot Good drainage too is necessary; and the ventilation of the kitchen should be even more carefully planned than that for a sleeping-room.  The ventilation of the kitchen must be large enough to carry off all gases and odors, which with steam from boiling or other cooking processes are conveyed into every part of the house in a greater or lesser degree. 

Tables, chairs, range; sink and cupboards should have ample space that is not so obtrusively large as to force a lot of steps from one place to another. Cliched as it may sound, much of the revulsion with which and neglect in which "housework" is so frequently denounced comes from unappealing surroundings.But if the kitchen is moderate and airy, tidy; its utensils colorful and clean well compounded are those articles of food which grace the table and satisfy human appetite.

From a sanitary point of view, the kitchen floor should be impervious to moisture. Therefore concrete or tile floors are preferable to wooden ones. The greatest desideratum is cleanliness; this can best be secured by polynoming all woodwork in and about the kitchen. Products which stain or cause grease spots do not impregnate polished woods, they can easily removed with a damp cloth.

The kitchen should not lack that which is beautiful. A few pots of easily grown flowers set on the window ledge or hung from brackets about the windows, and a jardiniere filled with blooming plants in summer will greatly lighten up such rooms.  By doing this we can remove some of that bitterness chain kitchens impose upon those whose daily efforts force them to work within their own four walls.

The kitchen furniture. 

Kitchen furniture should not be heavy and expensive. It must also have a simple design, so that it is easy to clean up quickly. There ought to be lots of cupboards, each for its own special branch. Sliding doors on cupboards are far better than closets. If placed upon casters for moving them about easily, these not only increase convenience but permit more thorough cleanliness.

Food storage cupboards should be well ventilated, or else they provide perfect living conditions for the development of mold and germs. Movable cupboards can be ventilated by having openings on top, and doors covered with very fine wire gauze to admit the air without letting in flies and dust.

Small zinc-topped tables of suitable heights on easy-rolling casters are probably the most convenient for ordinary kitchen uses, and also keep cleanest. It is just as well that they be manufactured without drawers, which by their nature tend to become repositories for a mountain of miscellaneous trash. If there is need for some handy place to stow articles frequently used, an arrangement like that in the accompanying cut can be made at very little cost. It may also be an advantage to add little shelves about and above the range, on which can store away various things needed for cooking.

A tank or sink is of course a necessary piece of furnishing for an aptly equipped kitchen, but if it's not made properly and isn't well cared for, then people will be in grave danger as regards their health.  Although if possible the sink should protrude from the wall, so as to enable free access all round for reasons of cleanliness. Pipes and fixtures are chosen and arranged by a qualified plumber.

Every effort must be made to keep the pipes clean and well disinfected. All types of refuse should be excluded. Careless domestics and thoughtless housekeepers will always, if given a chance to do so, dump greasy water down the foul pipe or even let scraps of table waste find their way in.  Water containing no sediment flows freely through drain pipes which usually have a bend, or trap; but the melted grease that often seeps into the pipes along with hot water cools on its downward journey and solidifies.  Gradually adhering to the sides of the pipe it builds up until eventually only drizzles pass slowly from tap to drains beneath sinks. A grease-lined pipe is a hotbed for disease germs.