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Show Organized Housewife By DE.MFXE SCHOFIELD Famous in most home-management textbooks is a man by the name of Frederick Winslow Taylor. TAYLOR, an American engineer and efficiency expert who began working for the Midvale Steel Works in Philadelphia in 1 878, has done more to improve my homemaking skills than any other single person. Taylor conducted experiments to determine how men and machines could work more efficiently. He watched the workers' hands to see if they used both hands effectively. He noticed how a better arrangement arrange-ment of tools permitted the best sequence of motion. He was constantly on the lookout for shortcuts and ways to do things better and faster. THE BEST-KNOWN part of his system is called the time and motion study. You may know homemakers who spend hours doing a particular job. Another homemaker might be able to do the same job just as well, but in a shorter period of time. How is this possible? The efficient homemaker is motion-minded. While she is working, she is conscious of how she is working. THE MOTION-MINDED person uses both hands effectively. During the next week, notice how many times one hand is busy while the other one is inactive. inac-tive. What is your left hand doing while your right hand is brushing your teeth? You can easily be sticking stick-ing things away in a bathroom drawer or medicine chest. Become more aware of your hands. Watch the way other people work. Some people can prepare a whole meal without having to take many steps at all. Still others may walk back and forth across the kitchen many times just fixing a bowl of cereal! REMEMBER, when you stand in one spot to prepare pre-pare something, you're only messing up one spot! The more ground you cover, the more areas you are affecting. When you unwrap something do you ever place the wrappings on the counter, only to pick them up and throw them away later? Be aware of your motions. Try to handle things only once. DID YOU ever wonder why the kids don't put their clothes in the hamper? Usually, it takes two motions: open the lid, put the clothes in. The more motions something takes, the harder the process is to execute. ex-ecute. Simplify your storage program by eliminating extra motions. Motion-mindedness is not necessarily moving fast. It is moving smoothly, steadily and rhythmically. rhythmical-ly. Of course, moving quickly is the ideal we all seek. If you are a right-handed person, your most economical econo-mical pattern of movement is from left to right. If you are left-handed, the reverse is true. |