When we successfully launched our three sons into adulthood
I suddenly lost my labor force. And unlike my previous and hopeful assumptions,
the house still got dirty even after they all moved out. Not only did I still
have to clean but I had to do it on my own.
Before I get a ton of
comments, of “what about your husband?” I should explain that he works two
full-time jobs, does tons of stuff around
the house and is our official dish washer. I HATE washing dishes! It’s how we’ve
done it for nearly 27 years now and it works just fine for us. Thanks for your
concern though.
Back to my original point of needing something easy and
chemical free…
In 2008 I decided to make some changes to our house cleaning
to make it more earth and people conscious. (You can read my original post
about it HERE.) Our boys had been helping me with chores around the house since
they were 3 or 4 years old. But I became concerned about all those chemicals we
were using. All of a sudden I was more aware of that lightheaded “high” you
feel when trapped in a bathroom with a cocktail of Windex, Comet and 409 fumes.
So I started making my own cleaners and using washable rags. (Posts about that and recipes are HERE & HERE) And they worked
just fine, but it wasn’t ideal. After
the boys were gone I was no longer doing laundry all the time for washing rags and,
to be perfectly honest, I just got sick of making stuff. Ok, I’ll just say it… I got lazy.
To be really honest, I got so lazy that I started buying those
Lysol cleaning wipes. Eventually I started noticing that “cleaner high” again. I
had to find an alternative. But then life got crazy busy. My husband got a new
job and we had to move. I forgot how
much work it is to sell and buy a house at the same time. After all it had been
17 years since that last time we’d done it. Now it wasn’t simply about being
lazy, I needed something FAST!
Once we got all unpacked in the new place, I decided to try
purchasing more eco-friendly cleaning products. Those things either don’t work
that great, you still have to wash and store a whole lot of rags and are just
darn spendy.
Then I did some unbiased, real-life women, blog/YouTube research
on those microfiber rags that only needed water. I figured they were just too good to be true.
Getting rid of dirt, grease and germs only using water?
Confession time: I am a bit of a germ freak. My children and
husband would argue the “bit” part. So I did my due diligence on their claims. Turns
out, as far as I could tell, I could be wrong. But since I am pretty paranoid, I still use Lysol wipes on the
toilets and to clean up raw meat spills. I know… I know…
I ordered a starter pack of E-cloths and gave them a whirl…
Even more confession time: The first time I used these
things, I gave them a run for their money. In the whirlwind of painting,
unpacking and trying to find time to eat and sleep, cleaning got moved to an
embarrassingly low place to my list of things to do. By the time I actually got
to it, the house was pretty bad. Either
they were going to be the answer to my easy-cleaning prayers or I was going to
make go out and buy a Costco pack of cleaning wipes and try again.
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