Destiny Home

"A clean house can and will get messed up again, but you can't mess up the improvements to quality of life your efforts have produced. How you live in and care for your dwelling shapes your personality --- and your destiny. Home is the center of civilization."

Don Aslett

Photo: Elm Street Antiques

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Friend's who wish you 'Happy Spring Cleaning' with a gift as lovely as the one Karleen gave to me last Friday are friends indeed! I've read about the Mrs. Meyers products, but had never tried one --- until Friday. Now I know what everyone is talking about! Karleen knows that lavender is my favorite scent, so she thoughtfully selected lavender scented counter top spray to give to me. I could hardly wait to try it; as soon as I returned home from visiting with her at her house, I sprayed down the counter tops and sink. Awwwwww, the fragrance was wonderful! But what really impressed me was that for the rest of the afternoon, each time I walked past the kitchen, the wonderful fragrance of lavender hung in the air. It made housework so much more pleasant and inspired me to do more. Now THAT, my friends, is a good cleaning product! Anything that inspires more housework has to be worth every dime!

Thanks, Karleen! I love the produce! You'll need to drop by for tea. I'll be sure to spray down the counter tops before you arrive.

Mrs. Meyers Clean Day

Mrs. Meyers Clean Day products are advertised as aromatherapeutic household cleaners. According to their website, their cleaning supplies make cleaning a home fresh, fun, and fragrant. Their products are made with natural essential oils and are biodegradable and phosphate-free. And they have never been tested on animals. Their products, from cleaners to dish soap or laundry detergent are good for your house, your nose, your pets, and the environment. Their products come in three fragrances: geranium, lavender, or lemon verbena.

Ye Old Washing Machine

When I was a child, I would help my auntie wash clothes with a wringer washer like this one. It sat on her porch and I remember how proud she was that she had a 'new' washer. Clothes were carefully washed in her machine and then hung up to dry. Her clotheline was of great interest to me. She would take her laundry basket and climb stairs to a platform that appeared, to me, to be high in the sky. From there she would hang her clothes, one by one, on her clothesline. Each time she clipped something onto it, she would use a pully to push the clothes down the line and bring a new space of clothesline into her reach. Eventually the item of clothing that she hung first would be way down the line. After the clothes dried, the opposite process would take place. She would take off her clothes one by one, remove the clothes pins, and reel in the line for her next item. Such memories --- time together for auntie and me!

Shiny Silver

Baking soda can be used to clean silver pieces quite easily. Although this method may not be as gentle as a commercial paste silver cleaner, it works quite well in a pinch! Make a paste using baking soda and water. Rub the paste on silver pieces and then put them onto a sheet of aluminum foil in a pan. Add two or three inches of water to the pan and allow your silver pieces to sit overnight, then rinse. The tarnish will be mostly gone, but any remaining darkness can be rubbed off easily with a terry cloth towel. Some recipes call for the addition of 1/4 cup of Tide powdered laundry detergent to this technique.

Another method of silver removal using baking soda is to place a sheet of aluminum foil in the bottom of a large kettle. Add several inches of water along with 1 tsp. of baking soda and 1 tsp. of salt. Add silver pieces and bring the water to a boil. Be sure the water covers the silver pieces completely. After boiling for 2 -3 minutes, remove the silver, rinse, and dry. This method works well for cleaning hard to reach crevices.

Great-great-grandmother's silver that is a priceless family heirloom may not endure this method of cleaning. Be sure to test a spot first, as the salt and baking soda solution may damage fragile silver-plate. I've used this method, though, on pieces of silver that were not responding well to a cleaning with commercial tarnish remover and the silver shined up so well with this technique.