GOOD BASIC HOUSECLEANING EQUIPMENT is not expensive and no one can do a really good job whatever his profession without the proper tools. If you have been struggling along with beaten-up brooms and brushes and old-fashioned mops and pails, take inventory. Then investigate the prospects of new streamlined models. On the page facing this you will find a checklist of cleaning equipment which map help you make your selections.

STORAGE. Good equipment deserves proper care and storage. If you have a wide shallow closet with a shelf, where you can keep these things, you are lucky. If you haven't it might not be as difficult as you think to provide one or to adapt a corner somewhere for storage space. On the shelf store your mothproofing materials, insecticides, cleaning and polishing waxes, metal cleaners, and (in a special box) stain-removing supplies as you accumulate them. You will never have to hunt for the things you need if you have a well organized cleaning closet or special corner for your equipment. And if you duplicate essential equipment upstairs you won't wear yourself out dashing up and down to get something you need and have forgotten.

READ AND FILE YOUR INSTRUCTION BOOKLETS as you purchase equipment. The average woman cannot be expected to know exactly how her electrical gadgets work, but she must know a few basic rules for their care. The fundamental care of electrical equipment is outlined in a separate chapter. No housekeeper needs to know the composition of the soaps and synthetic detergents she uses, but to make the best use of them she should know how they differ and which job each one does best.

CARE OF EQUIPMENT. Cleaning equipment includes those elusive hand tools that are always disappearing; also dust mops and wet mops, brooms, and a score of accessories. When you have finished using them put them away properly. Vacuum cleaners and carpet sweepers should be emptied and their brushes freed of hair and tangled bits of string. Dust mops, vacuumed clean, and wet mops, rinsed and dried, should be suspended from hooks. Brooms will do a better job and last longer if they are given a thorough wetting now and then, or washed in suds and rinsed. If you use oiled mops on your floors, store the heads in a tin can with a tight cover (oiled dusters, too) as a precaution against fire. Cleaning pails should be washed before they are put away, upside down on the floor. (Have you seen the gaily colored ones with pouring spouts, or the two-compartment type for cleaning solutions and rinse water?) Dust brushes and dust pans should be hung up too, the edge of the dust pan facing the wall as a precaution against denting. Scrubbing brushes should be washed, dried, and aired before being stored.

We need good housecleaning equipment, it's not expensive, but is really a great help when we clean the home. And the cleaning equipment also deserves a proper care and storage. Keep them as per their function. Keep your instruction booklet whenever you purchase the equipment, this will help you on basic rules for their care.