The Damsel in Dis Dress
Posted in cleaning on Feb 1st, 2012
The Damsel has long waged war against the grout in her hall and kitchen floor tile. She’s spent hours and lots of sheckles looking for a great way to keep it looking nice. Despair ensues. She once hired a teenage neighbor to scrub the grout with a toothbrush and Ajax. This was effective but made [...]
Posted in cleaning on Nov 11th, 2011
Long ago, when the Damsel was but a teenager, she helped her aunt clean a house she was about to move into. (Hi Aunt Linda! In Mongolia!) The kitchen had a stove hood that was grease-encrusted, and the auntie showed the young Damsel how to clean it with ammonia. The ammonia worked really well but [...]
Posted in cleaning, guest post, Uncategorized on Oct 14th, 2011
Today, the Damsel would like to introduce her old friend, Nathan Wright, as today’s substitute teacher/guest poster. Take it away, Nathan! One Saturday the chore of washing dishes fell to me. It seemed to this nine-year-old the dirty dishes were especially piled up whenever my turn came around, and I was certain my older siblings [...]
Posted in cleaning on Apr 19th, 2011
The words “spring cleaning” often bring a shudder, no matter what season it is. Back in the olden days, there was good reason for the cringe. Spring cleaning was a completely exhausting, dirty job. A long winter of using kerosene, wood, gas, oil, and candles coated the house with dark sooty grime. The thought of [...]
Posted in cleaning on Apr 17th, 2011
The Damsel once heard a famous cleaning expert speak. During the question and answer period, a worried wife asked him what was the first thing he noticed, as far as cleanliness goes, when he went over to someone’s house. He promptly replied, the windows. The Damsel is pretty sure the wife started crying at that [...]
Posted in cleaning on Mar 18th, 2011
The Damsel has heard a billionty times that you should NOT put good knives in the dishwasher. But although she wants to trust and obey, she finds it hard. She wants to know WHY. Here are the most common reasons: You might cut yourself. The knife might cut the dishwasher’s plastic coating on the racks. [...]
Posted in cleaning, Substitutions on Mar 2nd, 2011
Anyone else notice that the dishes don’t come as clean in the dishwasher as they used to? In the area where the Damsel lives, a key ingredient was removed from dishwasher detergent. Phosphorus has long been included in all sorts of cleaning products, but it’s been determined to be harmful to the environment. So they’ve [...]
Don’t be scared. The Damsel isn’t going to force you to make soap out of lard and ashes like in the olden days. Come on, it won’t be so bad. The Damsel got this recipe from Christy Monson, a writing friend. (Contact info below) The Damsel would like to say that Christy is a tidy [...]
Posted in cleaning, Uncategorized on Nov 4th, 2010
If you’ve been doing any canning, or even have a bowl of aging fruit on your counter, you may have experienced a fruit fly family reunion. Just for fun, the little pests fly in human faces and crawl all over human food. That’s what brings them joy. That’s what makes their little 48 hour lives [...]
The Damsel wishes she could say she created this severely burned-on mess so she could post about it. In other words, on purpose. Sadly, that is not the case. The Damsel’s crockpot insert is now completely, utterly, physically and emotionally encrusted with a deep layer of concrete food. How can a person clean something like [...]
