18 years . . . Almost

Next week is our wedding anniversary. Since schedules prevent us from getting away next weekend, we skipped town this weekend. Well, not for the whole weekend, but for Friday night anyway. It was heavenly to get away. We had the best time and returned home rejuvenated. 18 years . . . where has the time gone?




Since I came home so rejuvenated, I decided to get some cleaning done. I got myself a Swiffer sweeper. I have a tendency to avoid commercialy-trendy things such as Swiffers, but now with so much "wood" flooring I thought it might be handy. I had read on the internet about the Swiffer Vac, and found that although everyone loves them, the battery life is short. I knew, since I am so darn cheap, that that would not do. So I went for the Swiffer Sweeper - low tech. I set my expectations at "LOW," since I didn't think it would do any better than my trusty broom, but it so did! I was really surprised. It didn't pick up every little thing, but it picked up most, and the rest I just pushed into the dust pan. I was very pleasantly surprised. However, I am still cheap, so I looked up on the internet what I can use instead of buying the disposable cloths, and found that the most favored thing (at least on the site I was looking at) was flannel, cut to the right size, and zigzagged to prevent fraying. Heaven knows I have enough flannely lying around, so I'll give that a try. The Swiffer kit also came with 1 wet pad for mopping. It did a great job on the family room floor, which wasn't very dirty, but couldn't handle my kitchen floor, which was truly awful. So I tossed out the Swiffer pad, and replaced it with one of our clean dusting cloths (essentially, an extra large wash-cloth). I decided to mix up a new concoction for mopping my floor, and I liked it better, which is saying something because I really like the other one. I sprayed the floor as I went along, and it turned out perfectly. I don't think the kitchen floor has looked that clean and shiny since it was put in. So thumbs up to the Swiffer Sweeper! And yes, if you were wondering, I do mix most of my own cleaners. I will list my recipes below if anyone cares.



I also managed to get most of the laundry done, the kitchen cleaned (I even pulled out the stove and cleaned behind it!), the bathrooms cleaned, including a long-overdue shower scrubbing. I hate grout.




Pergo/Laminate Cleaner #1 (works great - I've used this mixture for YEARS)
1 part water
1 part vinegar
1 part rubbing alcohol
few drops of dishwashing soap (like Dawn)
Combine in a spray bottle and use as a "spray as you go" floor cleaner





Pergo/Laminate Cleaner #2 (also designed for real wood floors)
My spray bottle is 28 oz, so this is portioned for that size bottle
1 Tablespoon Murphy's Oil Soap (the real oil soap, not the ready-mop stuff)
28 oz water
Combine in a spray bottle and use as a "spray as you go" floor cleaner



Although #1 doesn't streak much, #2 left no streaks at all, and doesn't leave a "vinegar" smell in the air. While I don't mind the smell of vinegar, other people seem to. Go figure.