You’re familiar with the adage: “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Well, if you give my mom lemons, don’t expect lemonade; expect a cleaning product. What this woman is capable of doing with a single lemon can only be described as phenomenal (more on that later). In honor of Mother’s Day, I am dedicating this blog to my dear mother. The woman who taught me how to get a hairbrush so clean I almost feel guilty using it on my dirty hair. The woman who laminated a sheet of hand-written stain-removal tips and neatly tucked it into my suitcase the day I left for college. To this day I’ve yet to meet anyone who can get a stain out like my mom. (Of course, I’ve never met Martha Stewart.) With that said, here are some of my mom’s greatest “lemon-infused” cleaning tips:
Got Lemons? My mom does… tons of them. Fresh lemons are my mom’s best friends. Need to rid your glass-top table of greasy fingerprints? My mom will tell you to rub lemon juice on the table and dry it with a lint free cloth or paper towel… viola, no more prints.
Need to remove a stain from your marble countertop? Do what my mom does: Sprinkle salt on a fresh cut lemon and rub gently over the stain (rub too hard and you run the risk of ruining the polished surface), wash off with soap and water… and bye-bye stains.
If that funky smell in your kitchen is coming from your garbage disposal, grab some lemons. Cut them in wedges and throw them down the drain along with some baking soda. Switch on your disposal and within minutes your kitchen will smell like a lemon orchard.
If your microwave is caked with grime don’t grab a lime… reach for a lemon instead. Once a week, my mom cuts two lemons in half. She squeezes the juice from one of the lemons into a microwave-safe container filled with water. She then puts the other unsqueezed lemon halves into the container. She heats the lemon-water mixture in the microwave for about five minutes and lets it sit for another five minutes; allowing the steam to loosen the food particles. She then gets a rag or paper towel and wipes the entire microwave. Yet one more part of her kitchen left smelling lemony fresh.
If you find think that some of these tips seem a bit familiar, I don’t blame you. My mom doesn’t recall where she learned these cleaning tricks, but by now most are considered universal. She says some could have come from my grandma (her mother); others could have been obtained from Heloise or Dear Abby columns, while others were products of trial and error. Regardless of the tips’ origins, I’m sure, mothers worldwide are following them… and passing them on to yet another generation of moms.
Happy Mother’s Day!