She signed herself The Casual Housekeeper in The Glas House, but her real name is Esther Glas of Madison, Wis.
This Glas House (and housekeeper) can take stones, dirt balls, even a hail-storm of crumbs.
“I’m clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy,” Casual Esther proudly wrote.
She puts rag in hand “when I can jot phone numbers in the dust,” de-crumbs the toaster “when there are finally flames” and admits to making the bed only one to two mornings a month–“bought a house with bedrooms upstairs for that reason.”
Casual Esther was one of more than 6,500 readers who let us into their private sanctums by participating in our Sept. 17 Behind Closed Doors survey.
Most of the survey questions dealt with cleaning habits, but we also asked you to share your decorating nightmares, neighbor stories, family matters, pet problems and Pet peeves.
Besides the incredible number of responses, which came from as far away as Virginia and Colorado, we were surprised by how much people revealed to us and how strongly almost everyone felt about housecleaning–or not housecleaning.
One woman told us she doesn’t buy shirts anymore because she hates ironing them. More than a few people said they regularly vacuum their cat.
And another woman shared her antidote for husband and kids who leave behind dollops of toothpaste in the bathroom sink: “I keep telling them I’m going to scrape them out and serve them as ‘after-dinner mints.’ “
We did some scraping too.
We compiled the survey responses and put together a series of articles. This week, we tackle housecleaning–how to do it better and faster. In weeks to come, we’ll do stories on pets, neighbors and decorating fiascoes.
And finally, chalk one up for Casual Esther.
We caught up with her by phone recently “Believe it or not,” she said. “I came home from work today to clean house.
OF MYTHS, MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND MISSED TARGETS
Our mothers were pretty smart, says professional housecleaner Don Aslett. “But it is a totally different world today”
It is a world with powerful cleaning products, fancy appliances, all sorts of latex paints and insulation materials, gas and electric heat and a world where many women work outside the home. All of these things have changed or should have changed–the way we clean and when we clean, says Aslett, who is comfortable behind a mop and vac.
Aslett is chairman of the board of Varsity Contractors, the cleaning business he started as a college student 40 years ago in his home state of Idaho. It is now a multimillion-dollar, multistate operation, and Aslett is a walking, talking clean machine. He conducts cleaning seminars across the country and has authored 25 books on the subject, including the bible of them all, “Is There Life After Housework?” (Writer’s Digest Books, $10.99),
Aslett’s-line: Housecleaning needn’t be so time-consuming.
Mother may stand corrected.
We asked Aslett and another expert on the home front, Joanna Wissinger, editor of recently published The Home Answer Book” (Harper-Reference, $25), to set the record straight on some basic cleaning routines and beliefs:
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Myth: Spring cleaning.
Reality: Fall is the better time to do the annual deep cleaning.
Back in the days of coal heat and wood-burning stoves, it made sense to really shake the winter out of every nook and cranny of your house, says Aslett. Because insulation was inferior, people battened down the hatches to keep out the cold. But in the process, they also locked in all sorts of soot.
These days, dirt and dust are more symptomatic of June, July and August. According to Aslett, the average household of five people takes in 40 pounds of grit a year, and most of that happens during the summer months when windows are open, kids are racing in and out, and there is no snow or frost to hold the earth in place.
Another advantage to fall cleaning: Your house will be clean for the holidays.
Myth: The inside of the toilet bowl is the most unsanitary part of the bathroom.
Reality: Beware the outside of the bowl.
“Men miss,” says Aslett, ever so succinctly.
In bathrooms that are heavily used, Aslett recommends a daily wipe down of the entire outside of the toilet bowl:
Spray disinfectant on the tank, handle, lid, seat, under seat, rim, base and let it sit for 5 minutes. (Those 5 minutes of “killing time” are important). Then wipe from top to bottom–from tank and handle to lid, seat, rim and base.
As for the inside of the bowl, the cold water that enters with each flush actually discourages bacteria growth, according to Aslett. It is not necessary to disinfect weekly; every couple of weeks will do. Instead, take a few seconds every day to briskly scrub inside the bowl with a bowl brush. This prevents buildup of hard-water deposits.
Myth: Men and children are useless.
Reality: There is hope. They can and will clean.
“I started writing a book on how to get kids to clean about 20 books ago,” says Aslett. “We researched and researched” and found it wasn’t bribery or clever games that had the most impact. Rather, what mattered most was “the influence of the father.”
If Dad cleans, doesn’t make a big deal out of it and doesn’t say things like “Let’s help Mommy out today,” but instead approaches housecleaning as everyone’s responsibility, children will learn to clean. They won’t learn to dread or debate it.
But if the man of the house is the one who dreads and debates cleaning, the woman needs to take a different approach.
You need to present a rational argument, says Wissinger. If both of you work or if you are at home with the kids all day, it simply is not fair that you should be stuck with sole responsibility for the house.
“Sit down at a time when no one is really harassed or obsessed with something else, and figure out what division of labors is acceptable to both of you. Then make a good faith effort to stick to it,” says Wissinger. “Don’t use housework as a weapon: `You didn’t do the dishes; I’m not going to go out with you tonight.’ Neutralize it as much as possible.”
In her household, Wissinger and her husband, Paul, “divide the common areas fairly evenly.” She mops. He does surfaces (counter tops). He vacuums. She sweeps the wood floors. “The bathroom is whoever gets to it first.”
Aslett has a couple of other ideas: Write down what needs to be done, and post it for all family members to see. Often, knowing what needs to be done is half the battle.
Make it easy for them to be tidy: Supply their closets with enough hangers, replace a heap of blankets on their beds with a single, down-filled comforter, which also serves as bedspread.
And stand your ground. If you clean up after everyone, you’re teaching irresponsibility.
(We liked a tip from one of our readers. She wrote about her two teenage sons: “I only wash clothes that are put in the laundry room, and I didn’t clean up their mess in the bathroom for a week. They eventually did it themselves and are improving.”)
Myth: The secret to clean, streak-free windows is vinegar in the water, newspapers to rub dry.
Reality: Liquid dishwashing detergent, a squeegee, no rubbing.
“Vinegar is not a cleaner,” says Aslett. And newspapers–well, who knows where that one came from.
Aslett is a big believer in the squeegee method of cleaning windows. It’s three to five times faster than anybody’s “old way,” he says, once you get the technique down.
Equipment: a 10- or 12-inch, professional-quality, brass-frame squeegee with a rubber blade, which can be found at a janitorial-supply store (he likes the Ettore brand); extension poles if you’re doing high windows; a clean sponge, soft-bristle brush or window-washing wand; several damp cloths or chamois; a bucket; and liquid dishwashing detergent (he uses Joy).
1. Wipe the outside edge of the window with a damp cloth to remove debris. If it’s a really dirty outside window, do a quick hose-down.
2. Mix up the solution: a few drops of dish detergent in a bucket of warm water. Don’t oversoap. It causes streaks.
3. Lightly wet the window with a sponge, brush or wand. Don’t flood. If the window is really dirty, go over it a second time.
4. Now, wipe the dry rubber blade of the squeegee with a clean damp cloth so it won’t skip across the glass.
5. To prevent drips from streaming down the window, tilt the squeegee at an angle to the glass so that only about an inch of the rubber blade presses lightly against the top of the glass (not the window frame or house shingles). Pull the squeegee across the window horizontally. This will leave about a 1-inch dry strip across the top of the window.
6. Now, place the squeegee horizontally in the dry area and pull down. Repeat, lapping over into the dry strip each time.
7. After each stroke, clean the blade with a damp cloth or chamois. Finish with a horizontal stroke across the bottom to remove the water puddled there.
Footnotes: Don’t clean windows on a really sunny day–they’ll dry too fast and streak.
Don’t try to dab away those tiny droplets from the sides of the glass. They will disappear on their own–but turn into big smudges should you interfere.
As for middle-of-the-window drops, don’t use a cloth. (All cloths leave lint on clean windows.) Use a dry finger to wipe them away–your hands will be oil-free from the soapy water.
Myth: Ironing is a fact of life.
Reality: Dry your clothes properly and a lot of ironing can be avoided.
Two tricks from Wissinger: Don’t overdry your clothes and dry items of similar weight together (towels with jeans, lingerie with nightgowns).
Remove clothes from the dryer when they are slightly damp, shake them out to loosen wrinkles and hang flat with seams properly aligned. (” Flat” means smooth out the remaining wrinkles with your hand.)
Shirts and T-shirts might not be perfect, but a little touch up with the iron will be all that’s necessary in most cases, says Wissinger.
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Myth: You will find time to go through that pile of magazines.
Reality: You’ll do anything but go through that pile of magazines.
Tear out what you want to save, file it away immediately and pitch those magazines and newspapers, says Wissinger.
“I actually have heard of people who scan clippings into their computer every week. But that is pretty obsessive.”
Myth: Only obsessive cleaners wash brand new sheets before putting them on their bed.
Reality: Wash ’em.
Neither Wissinger nor Aslett could come up with a good reason to wash brand new sheets.
But Dr. Heidi Baca, a dermatologist with Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, could. “Sheets sometimes have a formaldehyde resin on them,” Baca says. “You can be allergic to that, or it could be an irritant.”
