Thinking about Bilbo's domestic arrangements again: in The Hobbit he appears to do all his own housework. When the dwarves turn up for tea, he has to serve the food (and he's baked the cakes himself too) as well as washing up next day (lighting fires and boiling water in the process), and then he cleans the dining-room into the bargain.

Doesn't he keep any servants? Or were Wednesday and Thursday their days off? In the days before washing machines and vacuum cleaners, housework was a serious business. With a huge hole like Bag End to keep in order, it's a wonder Bilbo had time to go off for walks in the Country Round at all.

Of course, Holman Greenhand (and his apprentice Hamfast Gamgee) did the garden for him. And perhaps Frodo was displeased to find, when Bilbo adopted him as his heir and brought him to Bag End, that he had to pitch in with the housework; certainly when he moved to Crickhollow, Sam went with him 'to do for him', ie to keep house as well as just looking after the garden.