September 1953

How much is enough insurance?

How much life insurance should a family own? To find an answer, Better Homes & Gardens turned to authorities in the life-insurance field.

Here's a new way to organize storage

It probably seems you could never have enough storage. But often the smallest storage space can become more useful with the proper organization.

Their space does the job

Space-- and how to use it effectively-- is not a problem restricted to minimum homes.

Found-a new curb on tooth decay!

New, long-lasting, anti-acid substances added to tooth paste or mouthwash are being used in a mammoth experiment to determine their power to deliver a long-awaited K.O. to tooth decay. The substances are newly found enzyme inhibitors and, used only twice a day, promise to give a "round-the-clock" protection against the decay which causes so much loss in money and time in almost every family-- not to mention the discomfort of the drill.

Have you heard the Latest Garden News?

Recent tests show that Merion bluegrass germinates most rapidly when the temperatures are in the 80s. Seed germinated in 6 days when the temperature was at 82 to 85, but took 20 days at 62 degrees.

It's big news in home furnishings

Let room dividers do double duty

Yon helped plan a Five Star home

The usual way to find out what people want is to take a "poll." Hundreds of people are asked a couple of questions, then the answers are broken into percentages that show so many "for," "against," or "no opinion."

How safe are home and school athletics?

Sports provide youngsters with incomparable adventure and thrills. Athletic competition contributes to physical fitness, develops grace and poise, and teaches good sportsmanship and the art of leadership. As for the risks involved, almost every case of serious accident or injury can be traced to ignorance, negligence, or carelessness-- and grownups contribute!

Have more poppies next spring

Plant Oriental-poppy roots now, and you'll have plenty of their color-capped stalks in your garden next June.

There's news in medicine when doctors meet to catch up with medical progress

Sinus headaches do not necessarily mean that the sinuses are infected, Dr. Stewart G. Wolf of Oklahoma City has found. Typical sinus-headache patients had swollen nasal membranes and obstruction. Pain arose primarily from these membranes rather than from the sinuses themselves. Among the agents that provoked these changes in membranes of the nose, with accompanying pain, were chemical fumes, pollens, and stressful situations such as the news that one of your in-laws is going to move in with you.

This is the house you asked for

The house on these pages owes much to people like you-- people whose grasp of a house is human rather than professional, who draw from daily experience rather than textbooks, who are moved by the simple desire to live better.

Six ways to big-window beauty!

Your windows hold the magic key to your decorating scheme. Treat them right and they'll spark any room-- cover them without care and they'll ruin the looks of an entire room. But, luckily, you can do more to change the appearance of your windows-- and often at less cost-- than any other single feature of your house!

You'll enjoy a grand tour of WISCONSIN

Jean Nicolet, the first white man to set foot in Wisconsin, was in for a surprise when he landed on the Red Banks near Green Bay more than 300 years ago. He thought he had found Asia and came dressed in the elegant robes of a Chinese. You're in for surprises, too, if this is your first complete tour of Wisconsin.

The best hardy flowering vines

For you, the best hardy flowering vine may be one that gives you shade, or a green and flowery covering for an entire wall. Perhaps you want color to perk up the doorway of your home. Or you may want a vine to soften but not hide the stark corner of a new porch. For you, the best is the one that gives you what you want.

It's built into its setting

Many fine paintings use a background of nature to give perspective and framing to their center of interest. In this same way, a house should capitalize on its setting-- as does this home near Minneapolis, Minnesota.

What can you do about Your heating plant?

The Smiths live in a brand new, modern home, with the newest type of heating plant. Last winter, John Smith installed a radiant glass panel in the bathroom-- for that little extra boost of comfort on chilly mornings.

Lots of color in a small space

You see here what you can do with a small strip of land outside your back door. Or maybe along the side of your house. Once it's planned, planted, and the paving laid down, there's surprisingly little to do.

Start with your favorite colors

Your color scheme is the most important part of your decorating. It's the starting point. With color you can disguise bad architectural details, create the mood you want, unite furniture of different sizes, shapes, and periods, and accomplish all sorts of other decorating miracles.

Take it easy with wheel-arounds

Gain storage with a kitchen re-do

You have to stretch your imagination to believe this beautiful, efficient kitchen was once old-fashioned and bunglesome, a nuisance to work in. But the Joe Feldmans, Los Angeles, kept a "before" plan to prove it.

Want pounds OFF or ON?

Have you fitted on a new dress or suit recently? Was it hard to accept what the three-way mirror at the store stoutly insisted? If so, look across the page-- there you see meal plans designed to take off excess weight safely. They'll help you or anyone in your family who is troubled with the too-many-pounds problem. These are good-tasting, full-plate meals you can happily serve the whole family with only slight modifications for the nondieters.

Keep your silver dishes busy

Silver serving dishes are perfectly beautiful and most practical. Your investment in them is a wise one-- just consider their everlasting quality and their numerous uses.

Grow a tree in a flower bowl!

Yes, you can grow trees so tiny that they can live in flower bowls-- and for generations! Tree dwarfing is fast becoming a popular hobby.

To save on children's clothes

Looking for ways to ease the strain that children's clothing puts on the family budget? Here are ideas for making garments "grow" right along with your child.

Need more privacy outdoors?

Check up on your child's feet

Ever think, when you look at your youngster's feet, how very far he is going to have to walk on them in his lifetime? Even in this automobile age, if he takes no more than 1,000 steps a day (not a great number-- an average city block is about 450 feet long), in 50 years he will have tramped more than 18 million steps!

Get the edge on a piece of wood

Ideas are plentiful on methods of smoothing and finishing the top surfaces of most homecrafters' projects, but a lot of us run short of ideas, time, and patience trying to make the edges of things look right. Not only does an edge often call for some sort of design, but the end grains of regular lumber (as well as all four edges of plywood) are hard to get smooth enough for a good-looking finish.

Moldings dress up your jop

A hobby decorate this small room

Six activity areas in two rooms!

You can count six activity areas in this living room and remodeled porch. But with all these accommodations, the two rooms manage to keep serene. The reason? There's an open floor area with no furniture obstructions to detour traffic.

HOW-TO for the homemaker

See what you can do with draperies!

Garden clinic

More space within old walls

It took a lot of inventive thinking to change this typical story-and-a-half farmhouse (more than 100 years old) into a home with many features of today's best planning.

Should we allow children to skip grades?

Skipping, long out of fashion, is again a possibility for the bright child. There are several reasons for this. Prof. Lewis Terman, author of the Stanford-Binet intelligence test, has followed the careers of 1,500 gifted individuals for 25 years.

How to make your Rancho birthday-cake board

Which to use--Knife, fork, fingers?

When you're eating an unpeeled banana, do you-- A peel down the skin gradually and eat it bite by bite? B peel the skin off, lay fruit on plate, slice it and eat it with a fork?

Dramatize your doorway with glass

Use pattern as seasoning

When living and dining rooms join, as they do in so many homes nowadays, it's important to play up their close relationship in your furnishings. One highly successful way is to use matching chintz and wallpaper.

Here are two ideas to help you Make a small shop act big

If you are plagued by the all-too-frequent problem of allowable workshop space which denies you the room it takes to swing a board of soul-satisfying dimensions, here are two basic shop ideas that will help make every square inch count. In fact, with them you can add not inches, but feet to the useful size of your shop-- and end up working more efficiently, too.

Planned for October

With cooler weather on the way, and summer's dizzy schedule slowing down a little, you and your family will have more time to devote to your home. You'll find a lot of good, practical ideas in the October issue.

Beauty with Berried branch bouquets

Handsome accents for your table

Know your car's electrical system

There is approximately 400 feet of electrical wiring in the average car. When you lift the hood, you find a maze of wires running in every direction. To understand the wiring in your car, you must first understand the principle of the "single-wire system."

Hinges, handles, and catches

Does your handyman project have doors, legs, drawers, shelves, or a lid? Should it be locked? If so, this second in a Better Homes & Gardens series on how to shop in a hardware store is for you (see April issue, page 166).

Don't let a problem spot stop you, there's Extra living space in your attic

Wish you had an extra bedroom? Or a special spot where you can get off by yourself and putter with your hobby? Or maybe a family funroom to pack in the young crowd on a Saturday night?

Your pet and mine

There are many kinds and colors of cats. Mainly there are six recognized, popular breeds: Manx (tailless), Siamese, Abyssinian, Domestic shorthair, Persian, and Angora. The short-haired varieties are the Abyssinian, Siamese, Manx, and Domestic. The long-coated types are Persian and Angora.

Grass restorers banish the bald spots

Give your lawn a boost now to banish the bald spots next spring. Those thin, weedy patches can be eliminated while the cool fall temperatures are coaxing your grass into vigorous new growth. Grass started now will thicken up early next spring, before the weeds begin to grow, and give them little room for a place in the sun.

How to plant a peony

More lilies at no expense

The diary of a Plain dirt gardener

Sept. 1 Hot sun, up around 90. Did go down to visit Neighbor Landry. Found him busy building a new rock wall, to use as a background for spring bulbs-- a most useful garden chore.

SEPTEMBER GARDEN REMINDERS: Now's the time to ...

Order your spring-flowering bulbs for fall planting Set new narcissus bulbs as soon as they arrive. Spray crabgrass in lawn with potassium cyanate for late-season control. Reseed spots as soon as crabgrass turns brown.

For spots that take wear--Try garden paving with wood

Wood-- treated before use-- can be durable, inexpensive paving. Its warm textures suit most gardens. You can make a walk or terrace with it as easily as with any other materials.

Garden clinic Check your lawn for buried trash

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Begonias will bloom this winter!

Would you like to brighten your winter windows with summer-warm flowers of tuberous begonias? You can. Just give them extra light, and they'll reward you with blooms all winter.

Big ideas for small entries

Personal help in home building, remodeling, and decorating

When you're looking for ways to make your home more comfortable and attractive, look for this seal. It identifies the Better Homes & Gardens Home Planning Center, where you can get personal counsel on your own special home-planning problems.

Eyecatching picture arrangements

HOW-TO for the home gardener

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

You won't have to worry about old age if you do too much worrying while you are young.