"A Standard of Every Day Living"

". . . the [housekeeping] standards that operated in the past were grounded in practical reality. They balanced mental and physical comfort with the amount of effort required to achieve it, and they existed in a social world that assumed that life would include leisure and domestic enjoyment. They provided something crucial that the contemporary household lacks, which is a sense of entitlement to a recognizable standard of every day living."

--Cheryl Mendelson's Home Comforts