It is too cold out to do any gardening, even pruning in this sub zero weather is unpleasant. So, the efficient housewife and house-husband’s thoughts turn to spring cleaning. This is the only time of the year I would rather be inside so I plan to make the most of it.
The first step in the cleaning process is to declutter. I have been making strides in this area since I found a teacher on YouTube who was just as bad at cleaning as I am. Her YouTube channel is titled,”A Slob Comes Clean.” I tend to get overwhelmed by clutter and I don’t know where it is supposed to go. I have always envied tidy people and wondered how they do it.
Years ago when we still had a railway, I took a train trip up Vancouver Island. All the way along the route, I found myself looking into backyards and marvelling at the junk and chaos. I asked myself why anyone would have an ancient, decaying motorboat with holes in the hull decorating their yard? I should have been asking myself why my office looked like these decrepit backyards.
The reason my house is so untidy is that I never learned how to house keep. My new Guru, Dana K. White, learned as an adult and she has also struggled with clutter. The worst thing about clutter, is that you can’t really clean a cluttered house.
Dana started to see her house as a container. She would keep only the things that fit in the container. Some strategies suggest you should go through your stuff and keep only that which gives you joy. Clutter people love their stuff and that is why it is heaped on their other stuff.
So, I take a bag for garbage and a box for donations and mercilessly go through a space until I am left with just what fits in the space or even to the point where I have room on bookshelves! I have trouble parting with books but really, if I have not read them in years, no matter how much I love them, it is time to let go.
Once the decluttering has been done, I start from the top down. I use a freshly-washed broom to sweep the ceiling and walls. Spiders love my house. Next I sweep the floors and finally go over the space with a mop. Windows get washed and we are done. A nearly bare space is so easy to clean.
For windows, Herman de Vries, may he rest in peace, taught me to use a bucket of hot water, a spash of white vinegar and a few drops of liquid dish detergent. No one cleaned windows better than Herman. If a house on Denman would not sell, realtors would get Herman to go in and clean the windows. His shiny windows made every house look worth $500,000 more. Then, the house would sell easily. Get a proper window-cleaning squeegee. They are worth the expense and you will never go back to trying to wipe windows.
For washing floors, I use a bucket of hot water with a 1/4 cup of borax and a little soap. Ivory soap grated and soaked in a jar of hot water is excellent for this. For cleaning tubs and sinks, I mix up baking soda with dish detergent and use that. It works great and will not set in your drains like the powdered cleaners that set in the pipes like concrete.
To wash clothes, I use a bar of Ivory soap on grease spots or heavily soiled areas and let the clothes sit overnight. The next morning, I add a couple of tablespoons of borax to the washing machine and a very little liquid laundry detergent. My machine is very old and I can turn it off after it has filled and agitated a bit. I soak the clothes in the hot water for an hour which lets the borax and detergent work on the dirt. Then, I turn the machine back on and end up with lovely clean clothes.
To unblock the drains in the kitchen sink, I pour a cup of baking soda in the drain and follow that with a cup of white vinegar. A bit later, I chase it all down with a kettle of boiling water and this method has never failed me.
All that is needed for cleaning supplies are white vinegar, real soap such as Ivory soap, borax which is just a simple salt, liquid dish detergent is convenient too. Any commercially-manufactured cleaner may contain dangerous, unhealthy chemicals such as scents which dis-regulate the human endocrine system and pollute the environment when you pour them down the drain.
