Housekeeping

Scope and Contents

"Eccentric, very houseproud to the point of peculiarity, ?spiritualist, odd. A widow, no children. Keeps lodgers but they never stay long."

Scope and Contents

Mixture of press cuttings covering many subjects including articles on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr, Second World War, housekeeping tips and matters of general interest to Florence Jewel Baillie.

Scope and Contents INTVEE is married and lives with her husband and daughter in a four apartment flat in a three storey block bounded by the railway and Ainslie Park School. INTVER thinks the houses look well kept but a space of derelict ground gives an appearance of neglect. She and her husband are very friendly with all the neighbours but although they might gossip and help each other they never go into each other's houses. Biggest expenditure is rent at 26/3d a week and coal, using three bags costing 27/-....

Scope and Contents Topics discussed include: Neighbourhood; housing; finance; family roles; schools; health of children.Neighbourhood: INTVEE thinks the people on the whole are nice, quiet and respectable. Drylaw more respectable than Pilton and children better behaved.Housing: INTVEE lives with her husband and three children in a ground floor flat in a block of 12. They had their name on the housing list for four years. She finds the flat well designed, convenient, no noise, draughts...

Scope and Contents INTVEE lives with her husband and four grandchildren in a four apartment flat. INTVER describes the interior as "the furniture is pretty old-fashioned. The suite a dun-coloured, embossed velveteen affair, the table a square one covered in a chenille cloth, a china cabinet with tree tea-sets from very best to ordinary". She had previously lived in various rooms in Edinburgh including a single end in Robbs Entry, Canongate in the early 1930s where she says the buildings were pure slums, just...

Scope and Contents INTVEE lives with her two sons in a three apartment house on the first floor of a three storey tenement. They have been in the house for 18 years and previously lived in Wardieburn having been moved there from Leith under the slum clearance scheme. They had moved to Granton after her husband died and thought it was much more respectable, there had been a lot of fighting on the stairs in Wardieburn. Her neighbours here are all very pleasant. One of her sons was decorating the bedroom with a...

Scope and Contents Topics discussed include: Accommodation; neighbourhood; family; personal finance; weekly routine.Accommodation: INTVEE is a widow and lives alone in a ground floor, three apartment flat. Her and her husband were the very first tenants. INTVER comments that the flat is comfortable with no indication of straightened means and writes that it is all very chintzy and cushiony with lots of knick-knacks around. It is noted that she is enthusiastic about a young relative's decor which is...

Scope and Contents INTVEE has three young children and fears she may be pregnant again. Topics discussed include: Neighbourhood including behaviour of local children; Accommodation and family finance; gender roles; religion; health.Neighbourhood: INTVEE complains of behaviour of local children and believes mothers are not strict enough, children break windows and fences, her husband has dug over the garden as there was no point in doing anything with it. She thinks her street was the worst for...

Scope and Contents INTVEEs live in a four apartment house on the second storey of a tenement building with their five children ages. After they married they lived with both sets of parents for five years in various rooms in the same district. When INTVER arrived, male INTVEE was washing the dishes and INTVER thinks he generally takes over domestic chores in the evening. Female INTVEE says she is always tired. They think Pilton is friendlier than Drylaw and would like to move back there and be near relatives...

Scope and Contents Planned interview to discuss child birth and child rearing without children present. INTVEE's husband is helpful around the house and while she does the dressing, feeding and changing he can and will do all these things. The only thing he won’t do is the washing although he'll hang it up and take it in. She shops and cleans in the morning and leaves lunch for her husband, who works nights, before going to work in town. He will also do the shopping but will not carry the shopping basket and...