Friday, January 06, 2006

Friday Five Housewifery

Four things I love having in my kitchen/household arsenal:

1. 409 Cleaner. Works well. Be careful where you spray it as it will clean and leave spots if, for example, you spray it directly on a wall. Rinse quickly if this happens but you may have clean spots or clean lines.

2. Kitchen Aid Mixer. Does exactly what it is supposed to do. Works well every time. Is the Cooks Friend. Very heavy. Place is where you want it to stay as dragging it out of a cabinet or back and forth from the pantry is an exercise ritual, not a housewifery event. Because of heft may be used as a weapon. All attachments make sense, especially the lid cover for adding liquids as you mix.

3. Mr. Clean Miracle Sponges. I've mentioned these before. New uses are polishing old, badly tarnished silver plate or hotel plate; getting tar off my car if used lightly, cleaning wooden offering bowls you bring home to "freshen"; and cleaning wall spots.

4. Miscellany Drawer containing: rubber bands, kitchen shears, books of matches, broken pencils, paper clips, grocery store receipts, batteries and the phone book. I clean this drawer regularly but it is the repository for anything without a regular home or the "dumping drawer" for lazy kitchen cleaners.

5. What is a waste of time? tarn x (strips patina, stinks and harms sterling), most smooth surface stove cleaners, marble polish, fancy chip clips (use wooden clothes pins instead), wine glass name tags, dry carpet treatment for dust mite removal and Windex non-streak (it smears).

P.S. I suggest MAAS metal cleaner for your sterling. It is gentle, concentrated, works well and doesn't smell. Can be used to clean other metals, too. I've used it for years and do not see it damaging sterling silver. I like Clorox Clean-up for cleaning shower tile walls and bathtubs , toilets, etc. It contains enough bleach to be a dangerous product around small children and little cats so it must be used with caution. I really, really like having Half and Half in my frig for coffee.

Just So You Know,

St. Casserole

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know I'm a fan of the Mr. Clean sponges, too.

I have, however, had a good experience with wine glass markers---but I have never bought them at the store.

aola said...

I use Barkeepers Friend on my procelin sinks and glass topped stove.
Bleach. (works wonders on so many things)
Lysol cleaners in the bathrooms.
and
old fashioned Drano granules for the drains (it works so much better than the liquid gel stuff)
Murphey's Oil Soap ( I love the way it smells)

Jules said...

Ah, Murphy's Oil Soap. Best smelling wood cleaner in the world. I forgot to put it on my list...

Jaye Ramsey Sutter said...

I have discovered that "Orange Cleaner" will take that nasty stuff off your ceramic tile floor grout. Not that I want to spend the day on my knees scrubbing, but I might pay a kid down the street to do it.

I secretly love to clean my house.

Captainwow said...

AMEN! KitchenAid Mixer ROCKS! (and is very heavy)