Today I was cleaning my arcadia doors and I thought back to a time when I was doing house cleaning for a maid service. I took the job to work my way through college and it was a perfect fit….go clean a couple houses one or two times a week after classes. My first cleaning job was an eye opener. I was sent to a nice house where a forty something woman and her husband lived. I lugged in all my cleaning supplies in a large bucket and asked where I should start and if she had any instructions she wanted to give me.
She looked casually at my cleaning supplies and said “You won’t need any of those. We only use natural products in this household.” She went on to explain that both she and her husband were extremely sensitive to chemicals and so they a stash of all natural cleaning products for me to use. I remember using most of them without noticing much of a difference between them and the chemical cleaning products. They sure did smell a whole better too. But I did struggle with the instructions to use vinegar and old newspapers to clean glass and mirrors. No matter how much I tried, I could not get them very sparkly looking and I so wanted to sneak out to my car and get my Windex, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to send this woman or her husband into a chemical induced allergic reaction.
When I went back to the agency that had given me the job, the owner Dana, had already spoken to the homeowner to check up on me. The homeowner was happy with the job I did….with the exception of the glass and mirrors. Dana asked me about that and I went into a rant about how unreasonable it was to expect me to use archaic cleaning methods. Hadn’t we evolved past the use of vinegar and paper to clean glass I asked?
Dana just smiled tightly and told me that she had grown up using nothing but vinegar and paper because they could not afford anything else. Well, I felt like a heel. :(
I was never sent back to that home and I never ran into another homeowner who wanted me to use all natural products, but I will always remember that time. I will always remember it because I was so naive. I had no idea how important a task it is to clean your home with natural products that do not add to your cumulative exposure to dangerous chemicals.
Now, as an adult who cares deeply about all things natural, I have very different opinions. Well, I guess this shows that people can learn and grow…I know I did.
Do you need some clean solutions for a green home?
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