I was re-reading Rainbow Valley sometime after the birth of the baby and got to the part where the minister's daughters stayed home to clean on a Sunday. They didn't know how to clean the windows and after they were through the windows were still embarrassingly streaky. This got me thinking. People used to clean without Windex and Comet (my 2 favorite cleaning solutions) and things were sparkly. Granted, as one friend pointed out, they used dangerous things like lye, but it got me on my research binge.

I looked up on the Internet on how to clean windows to make them sparkle and came up with the following tips.

• Wash one side of a window with horizontal strokes and the other with vertical so you can tell where the streaks are coming from
• Use a squeegee to prevent streaks on the larger windows
• Eliminate tiny scratches on the glass by polishing with toothpaste
• Wash windows on a cloudy day so the sun won't dry the water and streak the windows.Use a soft toothbrush or cotton swab to clean corners
• To shine the windows use a cloth or clean blackboard eraser
• Polish windows with crumpled newspaper.
• Window cleaners will harm the woodwork so wash from top to bottom to catch the drips

Homemade Glass Cleaner:

2 tablespoons of ammonia, 1/2 cup of rubbing alcohol, and 1/4 teaspoon of dish washing detergent. Add all ingredients in a small spray bottle and shake well. You can substitute 3 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice for the ammonia.

How I Really Clean the Windows from the Inside:

I spray the cleaner on the window and use a microfiber cloth to get the dirt off. Then I use dry crumbled newspaper to polish out the streaks. I make sure that the woodwork is dry and then I'm done. I would use all the tips, but I have fairly new windows. This makes them easier to clean and I don't have scratches in them.

I have to admit that this is the first time we've cleaned our windows. We are motivated by the fact that this is our first house and we are trying to keep up with it. Now I must go and disinfect the rest of the house because of the snot that keeps hanging around. It's a futile fight, but I'm giving it my best effort.

A Guest Post on Cleaning

It's a beautiful fall day and we washed the windows. The husband took the outside and I took the inside. Here's a guest post by the husband. I'll follow up later this week with the homemade cleaner and inside of the windows.

Cleaning the Outside of the Windows

--Guest post by The Husband

The first mistake beginning window-washers make is to start right in on washing the windows. You see, we build to that. Before you wash the windows, you need to wash the window frames. It's no good having clean glass surrounded by a frame of caked-on dirt. That's like getting out of the shower and putting on your sweaty work-out clothes. Or something else equally disgusting and counter-productive.

The first thing you do is remove all the screens. Put them over somewhere away from the windows (more on this later). Then take a bucket of warm water with just a tablespoon or so of laundry detergent in it (you don't want gobs of suds; you just want a little something to bring down the surface tension of the water so it moves dirt along better). Go over all your window frames with a coarse rag or a scrub brush. It's OK to work quickly; your goal at this point is just to remove any thick deposits of dirt that would otherwise foul your glass-cleaning water in a big hurry. Also don't worry about sloshing water on the glass itself--we'll get back to that.

At some point you'll need to wash the screens. The same mild detergent-water solution that you used on the window frames will do. In fact, it's probably better to wash the screens first, because they're less dirty. Then you can use the same bucket of water on the window frames. Just wipe the screens down gently (it helps to use lots of water) and clean off the frames. Then hose them down well. Be careful not to break anything--they don't make screens (or anything else) the way they used to. Further proof that everything is better the way it used to be. Lean the screens up against a fence or something to dry. Whether you wash the screens before or after the frames, the important thing not to do is wash the screens after you do the windows. Especially it is important not to do this right underneath the windows that you just finished buffing the streaks out of. Because then, hypothetically speaking, you'd probably be splashing water on your clean windows. This would require extra buffing. In theory.

After you've cleaned the screens and frames, you're ready to wash windows. I use two buckets; one for "dirty" water, and one for "clean" water. I fill both up with a a couple gallons of one gallon hot water to one cup ammonia. I put a squeegee in the "clean" bucket, and a coarse rag in the "dirty" bucket. Working one window at a time, first I scrub the glass down with the rag. You can use a sponge, but I believe you get better feedback from your fingertips on how cleanly a rag is moving over the surface of the glass. Feel free to use lots of water. The trick to avoiding streaks is to finish your work before the water air-dries on the glass. This is why it is generally recommended to wash windows on a cloudy day. Otherwise your wash-water evaporates too quickly.

After one pass with the rag, I go back over the window with the squeegee, using the bucket of cleaner water. My squeegee is a gas-station type with a scrubber on one side, so I use that first. Then I squeegee the water off. My dad taught me to do this in long passes, from top to bottom, to avoid drips. You can do whatever your dad taught you to do. After the squeegee, take a sheet of dry newspaper and buff out any drips, spots, or streaks. Newspaper works like gangbusters (kind of like mythbusters, but way tougher and with more tattoos) on glass. Don't be stingy with the newspaper--it's cheap. And once a sheet gets damp, it doesn't work as well. After your first window is clean, move on to the next one--just be careful not to splash water on any previously-cleaned windows in the process.

I am told that one should clean the outside of the windows with vertical strokes, and the inside with horizontal strokes (or vice-versa) to make it easier to tell which side of the glass any remaining streaks are on. Depending on how high your standards are, and how much free time you have, you can go back over the windows after the inside and outside have been washed, and police for stray streaks. Personally, if it's at all difficult to tell which side of the glass a teeny little streak is on, you can probably live with it the way it is. Just turn your back on the streaks, leave the room, get a good night's sleep, wake up early the next day, work hard at your job and be productive, come home, change diapers, feed stubborn children, bathe them, eat with one hand while holding a baby, put the kids to bed, enjoy a very large, very cold martini, and you will find the next time you pass by that window, the streaks will be much less troubling to you.

And that's how it's done. See SL's post for instructions on the inside half of the job.

TH

Our New Clothes Line

I've been the absent blogger lately. I've been spending my blogging time learning how to create new headers in Picasa. Priorities I know, but I've been having fun and will now be able to change out the blog more frequently.

In other news, the husband created a clothes line that I can put up and then take down when I'm done. It's great. I washed the sheets and hung them up on Saturday and they smell so wonderful. I'm going to try to this more frequently because there is just something about line dried clothes. Now I'm dreaming of fancy clothes pins. I can only find the spring loaded ones. Anyone know where I can get the old fashioned kind without springs?

I have always wanted to line dry my clothes, but we've always lived in apartments. I have a clothes rack and my sister-in-law made fun of us because this rack took up a lot of room in our small CA apartment and took forever to dry. Then we finally moved into a house with our very own yard.

I didn't put one up last year and then I found this article on reasons to line dry. It convinced me and the husband graciously created one for me.

Cleaning My Floors

(To start I would like to apologize for saying I would do a post on windows and instead am doing one on floors. We all have colds around here so I didn't actually clean my windows this week. I really wanted to take pictures of the process and then Post them, so instead I'm going to do a floor post for today. )

I love the fair. I know what your thinking, "What does that have to do with cleaning your floors?" Well I'll tell you.

Not only do I love the fair, but I adore walking around the Expo center and seeing all the products, cars, the butter sculpture, the exhibits, etc. I think I love it because: 1. I have such good memories of walking around as a kid and eating my funnel cake with my sister. 2. Its the the one chance a year I get to eat funnel cake 3. The fair here is always around my birthday 4. The fair is in the fall. My favorite season of all. (The fair began yesterday and we are planning on going this weekend if everyone is feeling better. I can hardly contain my excitement!)

This deep love of exhibits causes something in my brain to go off when a good salesperson does a demonstration. It makes me want to buy things that I don't need. Lucky for me, the husband is very level headed and helps tapers all of my far fetched desires for lemon juicers, pots, knives, and other items that we already have in our home.

Three years ago we were doing our usual rounds at the Expo and I stopped at a floor mop demonstration. I was entranced. The husband was skeptical. Then, the demonstrator let the husband come up on stage and use the mop. He was hooked. If he was hooked, we all know what happened next, now don't we? YES! I got to make a purchase at the fair.

It was the best purchase ever. It is a sturdy mop with microfiber pads that you can wash in the washing machine. There are many reasons I love it and will never go back to a bucket and mop or swifter again.

Why I love my Micro-powered broom/mop:

1. It's cheaper. The microfiber cloths have lasted 3 years. I'm just now thinking that I need to replace them. Very thrifty.
2. It is better for the environment. I'm not a hard core "green" person, but I do believe we are supposed to take care of the planet that God gave us. This mop keeps me from buying disposable things that aren't really necessary for cleaning.
3. They clean better. I've never had such shiny floors and these cloths get up all the scuff marks. They also are gentle enough on the wood floors.
4. It is a multipurpose tool. I use them for my wood floors and they get up all the dust. I can then change the pads to mop the floors. I also have an attachment to the mop with a dust cloth to clean the ceiling fans (The fans go in my every 3 month cleaning cycle, though I'm sure some would argue it needs to be done once a month. I have a pre-schooler and a baby. I can only do so much with my obsessive powers. Eventually, I'll post my "cleaning schedule." It turns out to be more suggestions than anything.)

How I Clean the Floors: I use the microfiber cloths to sweep the wood floors first. Then I use the same cloth to sweep the tile in the house (consists basically of the bathrooms). Then I change out the microfiber cloth. I use Bono Cleaner in a spray form for the wood floors and then the All Purpose Witches Brew for the tile. I then stick the floor cloths in the washing machine with the bathroom cloths.

What do you guys do? I love cleaning suggestions....almost too much.

All Purpose Cleaner

A little known fact about me is that I cleaned houses in undergraduate. I still can't believe someone paid my college self to clean their house. At that time it was more of a neat freak thing and a desire to make things sparkle. Now, I'm still a neat freak, but am more organized and know a bit more on how to make things clean.

Through the years I have discovered what works to clean and what doesn't. I also use a book called Home Comforts to help organize my cleaning. I'm still learning how to do things and what needs to be done around the house so this book helps.

I'm a fairly organized person and love to know the science behind things. I've decided to blog about my cleaning research.

The first thing I've found is an all purpose cleaner that I love. Here's the recipe if you are so inclined:

Basic All Purpose Witch's Brew
This makes about 2 cups of formula. It cleans dirt and grime very well.

1/2 teaspoon baking soda or washing soda
2 teaspoons Borax
1/2 teaspoon liquid soap or detergent (I use free and clear detergent)
2 cups hot water

Combine all the ingredients and the water into a spray bottle. Shake well.
The washing soda or baking soda makes this formula a great grease cutter.
{Also great for turning whiny children into piglets for an hour or two. Place child on a waterproof surface and mist lightly. Do not exceed 3 applications in any 24-hour period.)

Why I started using this:
About a year ago my son started to lick things. I started to worry about all the chemicals that he was getting in his mouth. Naturally this led to some research on cleaners.

What I found: Vinegar is a natural anti-bacterial agent. You can use vinegar mixed with water for cleaner. I like that, but decided I needed something that would also cut grease and really clean. I discovered that Borax is a natural cleaner and helps get the "funky" smell out of laundry. It doesn't have chlorine or phosphates and is a natural cleaner. Here's a link if you are interested. You still shouldn't ingest it, but at least if someone licks the sink I won't worry.

How I clean: I bought a spray bottle and spray my cleaner on the sinks and bathtubs. I use a damp microfiber cloth and scrub until the gunk is clean. I then use a dry microfiber cloth to shine the sinks. Then I throw all of the floor cloths and sink cloths in the washer. This makes everything clean and I don't have to re-use a gunky bacterial infested sponge.

Next time...Homemade glass cleaner with tricks on cleaning your windows to make them shine.

*I do have someone come in once a month now to help me with the weekly cleaning. She's great and uses my cleaner
*Don't really spray your children with this stuff. The husband added that, but it doesn't really work.