Tag Archives: Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning Fling~Part 2

7 Mar

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

 

 

House with Flag

 

Spring Emails from Onisha and Patricia Franklin

Onisha
I’m kind of glad you felt the same way about the classes as I did. It makes me feel better about myself. My mother wasn’t in to the cleaning thing. Whenever we would be cleaning the house when company was expected she would get side tracked and begin building something, a new closet, or shelves, whatever. I ended up doing the cleaning. I often wonder if there are cleaning tips that mothers passed down to daughters. My brother in law’s wife was a professional cleaner for many years and I often wanted to ask her about tips but didn’t want to appear dumb. I did get her potato salad recipe though. The secret to it was the number of eggs used plus some sour cream. I had to iron for free at home as well as basically run the household during my teen years. Fortunately by then, permanent press had been discovered.  For that, I got lunch money for schook, fifty cents per day plus $2.50 for a total of five dollars per week. I saved that up plus some babysitting money to buy my first prom dress.  I also ironed for some of mom’s friends. One lady had a lot of baby clothes, 5 cents a piece is what I think I received.

Patricia

Monday seems like a good day to put in a “cleaning” blog.😉  I can’t recall doing much cleaning as a child.  In fact, I had one dresser drawer with all my stuff in it.  We did not have much “stuff.”  As far as housecleaning, I think my Mom did most of it.  I spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house.  In fact, I do remember “penny dusting” at her house.  She would go around and put a penny on each item that needed dusting and I would make a little spending money that way.  It wasn’t much, but seemed like a lot in those days.  We usually spent it on penny candy. You could get a lot of candy for a penny from my aunt’s Biggest Little Store in the World or from Mrs. Motts store on Main Street.

I did help her more with the yard work later on, raking, pulling weeds and even mowing.

We now have a lot of stuff to go through, including a closet full of pictures.  Husband and I are both collectors, so we have a hard time getting rid of things.  He is better than I am about it, but I know my kids will not have any use for it so I ought to just pitch everything. It seems like I can’t find time enough to do anything extra, except my usual everyday things.  Hopefully we will be able to get at it soon.  It drives me crazy thinking about it.

 

Fly Lady http://www.flylady.net/

“Build My Mansion Next Door to Jesus,” written and sung by Dottie Rambo

 

 

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Spring Clean Fling~Part 1

29 Feb

My Take

 DiVoran Lites

Old House

Author, Poet and ArtistAt one time I had a woman come in and clean every other week. I had to get two more cleaners one at a time before I went back to not cleaning myself. One woman got a different job, one moved away, and the last one wanted more money than I thought I should pay. It was, after all, an indulgence. I was then on my own as I had pretty much always been.

I took some classes at church and I went online to learn from Fly Lady. Have you heard of that site? Our daughter introduced her aunt Judy and me to it several years ago. I didn’t think Judy needed it, though, because she has been a military wife all her grown-up years and has kept house beautifully. Eventually I stopped Fly Lady, but lately I went back to it. She knows all my dirty little secrets and helped me change my ways. The strange thing was, I enjoyed it.

Bill is decluttering too. He gives me gifts that he purchased a long time ago and put away for the right time. He also gives me books I’ve asked him to read. I wondered where those went. I like the craft scissors he gave me, and there was a letter from my mother who died some time ago.

When I clean now, I remember my grandmother teaching me to wash windows with cold water, vinegar, and newspaper. She had a great fix for dirty ovens, too. She laid a stack of newspapers on a rack, saturated it with household ammonia, and shut up in the oven overnight. In the morning all we had to do was wipe out the oven. I’m into green now, but the memories are good.

Mother liked a clean house too. She, however, spent so many hours on her feet at the restaurant we owned that she decided to pay me to clean once a week. I did a huge basket of ironing every week for a dollar, as well. I like to iron, but I got behind on Bill’s shirts this year, so I’ve recently concentrated on catching up. The best thing about ironing when the kids were young was watching the old black and white movies on T. V. while the kids played in the sandbox. Eventually I had to iron less and less because of the changes in fabrics, but Bill and I both still like his cotton Hawaiian shirts, and to us, they need to be ironed.
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