It is Sunday evening and we are still settling in to our new home. It is a great house and property, but it needs a lot of TLC. There are big things to do and small things to do before this house will truly feel like home.
One of the most immediate things to do here is some good old fashioned spring cleaning. The house, I am afraid looks like it hasn’t been cleaned for a very long time. Cleaning one single window pane required three whole paper towels to before they wouldn’t come up black, and that was for the inside of the window!
Ah yes, I forgot to mention that one of the biggest obstacles to cleaning everything at the moment, is the fact that we cannot use the water. We are waiting for a water treatment system to be installed, and then we will be all set. But, for now, we have to get a little creative with the cleaning.
Looking around at the two acres of woods, I got the idea to let nature do some of the cleaning work for us. After all, nature is generally free.
The first thing we did was to shut off the heat and opened the windows and doors. Immediately, fresh air breezed through our home, carrying away the stale smells of the house. With those stale smells went some of the air pollutants, such as dust, mold, bacteria etc. Nature saved us from purchasing a fancy air purifier system or even a can of air freshener.
Next I took the old curtains that came with the house outside for a good old fashioned beating to get all of the dust out. It is amazing how clean a curtain or rug will get when you beat it. In the days before vacuum cleaners and automatic washing machines or dry cleaners, this is how people kept these items clean. I know an Amish family who always cleans their rugs this way, and their house is spotless.
The sun will work for me as a natural disinfectant, so hanging the curtains outside for a a day should kill any lingering nasties and freshen the curtains right up. The sun will bleach anything that isn’t colorfast, but this can work for your advantage, too, since it will also bleach out stains in white curtains, clothes or cloth diapers.
So at the end of the day, nature worked for me and saved me a little bit of sanity and cash.
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