Looking back, I realize that the long-gone great Lydia Abbott Macgregor, my husband’s nana, was a good judge of character for, among the many wedding gifts she lavished on her beloved first grandchild and his dubious bride was a volume of “Hints from Heloise.” Words to live by, maybe, if you weren’t me.

Back then, there were women’s pages in the daily newspapers and, inevitably, a column in which housekeeping professionals exchanged housekeeping hints – anthologized in my Heloise manual – that touted the fastidious and the frugal. In the latter category, I remember, was: Don’t throw away those margarine wrappers! Freeze them! Use as needed to grease cookie sheets!

My copy of “Hints” vanished shortly after our honeymoon. I have followed my Mississippi grandmother’s “housekeeping” practices, modified, of course, by inventions like the dishwasher. They are based on these simple rules. 1. Employ sensory distractions: Candlelight and flowers, of course. More important bake bread – cookies, pies, cakes are also effective, but bread is best – often. The aroma of freshly baked bread, brushed with butter, of course, says it all: You are domestic dynamite.

2. Be a perfectionist: If you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all. Need I say more?

3. Let the weather be your guide: If the day is fine, get out in it and forget about the gritty kitchen floor, the deep dust on every surface (variously breeze-born pollen or woodstove grit), iron-stained porcelain sinks, etc.

Brighten up those stormy days. Live up to the words “rainy day fun.”

Cleaning house on dark, wet days is not good for your mental health. Besides, the kitchen floor will take forever to dry.

It’s raining today. There’s a fire in the stove, and my novel near by.

Linda Farr Macgregor lives with her husband, Jim, in Rumford. She is a freelance writer and author of “Rumford Stories.”