Like a good little housewife would
Last weekend, The Good Man and I were putting a clean to our home. We’d let it go for a couple weeks since I’d been traveling and he’s working a lot of extra hours.
We’d let it go too long and it was time to be grown ups and get to work. I started on the bathroom while he worked on the living room.
We generally attempt to be fairly conscious residents of the planet. We recycle, we keep our cars running right, and we try to use environment friendly housecleaners.
I say “try” because, well, dammit, we don’t always succeed.
There I was in the bathroom, cleaning the mirror over the sink. There were a few weeks of soap splashes and toothpaste flecks on the glass that needed tending to. I had an ammonia-free cleaner that promised “no streaks!” in one hand, and a wad of paper towels in the other.
Well, that label on that bottle lied. There were plenty of streaks. PLENTY.
I got fresh paper towels and rubbed at the glass harder. Just smeared everything around. I really put some elbow grease into it. It only slightly improved.
So, without much remorse, I dug around in the cabinet where we keep cleaners and extracted the good old ammonia based glass cleaner.
*spray spray, wipe, rub*
Done.
DONE!
No sore arms, no troubles, no streaks.
Clean mirror gleaming, I turned to the bathtub and the soap scummy mess waiting there.
Do you think I picked up the “safe and gentle” cleanser?
Nope! I grabbed the scrub with bleach and squired with reckless abandon!
Ok, yes, I do have at least a little remorse.
There has got to be a solvent/cleanser/scrub out there in the world that actually WORKS and is also earth friendly.
Doesn’t there?
And then I ask myself why I’m getting all bundled up over household cleansers.
It’s so…1950’s of me.
Comments
Elise
I have not found any that are/do both. I had high hopes for the ones made by Clorox, but alas, they suck, too.
Natalie
When I was a wee one, my mom used to clean the house after we went to bed. The smell of Comet, bleach, and Windex and the sound of the vacuum cleaner, to this day, are comforting.
I think we want to do/use whatever we grew up with and that's hard to change. Those two items can clean just about anything in no time.
Yeah, yeah… I'd like to be "green about it but I just can't bring myself to change. All that other stuff just doesn't seem like it cleans as well and it never smells clean to me, either.
I'll work on other ways to save the planet!