Many housekeepers prefer to keep the refrigerator in the cellar, on account of the waste in the ice. This waste, to the mind of the writer, is a small matter. The time spent by either housekeeper or servant in going into the cellar could much better be occupied in doing something else which would save more than does keeping the refrigerator below. Then, again, when it is kept in the pantry it can readily be provided with a zinc drain to the outside, which saves some little labor. In the cellar such a drain would only be possible where sand could be reached. A refrigerator should never, under any circumstances, be drained into the sewer, as is sometimes done.
The utensils which properly belong to the kitchen are kept in an old-fashioned kitchen safe, rather than in a closet opening out from the kitchen. A safe is more readily cleaned than a closet, and the perforated metal doors render the upper part of it an excellent place for storing cold food, which it is not desirable to keep in the refrigerator. Then if, as may happen in any kitchen which is left to the care of servants, vermin should take possession, the safe can be moved from the room, and trouble from this source avoided.
The entrance to the cellar is near the table, as marked. At the head of the cellar are placed brooms, mops, and dust-pans, and above these, well away from the head when going below, is a shelf upon which two buckets can be placed.
Back of the range is a small wooden box, thirty inches long by twenty-two inches wide and twelve inches deep, which is provided with a door and shelves. These shelves, as well as the top and bottom, have holes bored through them in order to allow the passage of hot air. In this box scrubbing-rags and brushes dry at once, and never have a bad odor. The box is of the same wood as the other kitchen finish, and looks as if it were a part of it.
A soap-box, with construction similar to the above, may be provided. It should have a tin-pipe connection with flue or other ventilating apparatus. It will dry the soap and render its use less wasteful.
The ventilation of the kitchen is an important matter. The ideal kitchen has no rooms over it, and has ventilators in the ceiling. But this is not possible in most houses, and a substitute must be provided. An inverted sheet-iron hopper placed over the range, with an opening into either the flue or the outside of the house, will carry out the odors from cooking. An opening into the pipe-duct which holds the plumbing pipes will keep them from freezing in cold weather at the same time that it helps ventilate.