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And even if you’re looking for something very traditionally mechanical, you can find time-saving systems in Catharine Beecher’s 1841 housekeeping bible, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, well predating Frederick Winslow Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management. Beecher’s book was largely responsible for the rise of the fitted kitchen, envisioning both a living space and a mode of work that would be designed to reduce the time and effort women spent on housework. Yet the aims of this efficiency were clear: Beecher wasn’t seeking profit but, rather, “economy of labor, economy of money, economy
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