I once heard a story that went something along the following lines. A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. They enjoyed eating dinner each evening in their dining room which overlooked both theirs and their neighbor’s backyard. One day the young woman remarked to her husband, “Our neighbor has hung out their laundry to dry. Can you believe someone would still do that in this day and age?”
A few days later during another mouth-watering dinner, the young woman pointed out of their dining room window again. “Look, they’ve got laundry out again, and it doesn’t look very clean,” she said with a bit of a scoff in her voice.
About a week later, while the wife was setting the table for dinner, she glanced out the window and saw her neighbor’s laundry hung out again. This time she didn’t mention anything to her husband but mentally chided her neighbor for the poor job she did cleaning their laundry. It looked even dirtier than it had the week before.
Finally, several days later the woman had just about had it. “Can you believe how filthy their laundry is?” the woman commented to her husband. “I think when I get a chance I might go over and say something.” But when dinner came around the next evening, she was very pleasantly surprised. “Look, sweetheart,” she commented and gestured. She finally learned how to get her laundry clean! Someone else must have said something to her.”
“No, I don’t think so,” her wise husband said. “I just cleaned our dining room windows when I got home from work today.”
Somethings seeing things clearly deals with getting the right perspective on life. Sometimes, it’s just about getting the windows clean.
Glass Cleaner
Since this is a Serious DIY Series post, let’s talk about making your own window cleaner.
As I’ve looked at glass cleaners, both online recipes and store-bought bottles, with ingredients listed on the side, I’ve seen a couple of common elements – vinegar, alcohol, and dish soap. There are a couple other ingredients I’ve seen in others, but let’s talk about these three for a moment.
Vinegar
Vinegar is antibacterial. Unlike other antibacterial agents, this one is all natural and safe around children. When it comes to illnesses like the flu, this is all the more important. According to ABC News in Australia vinegar is capable of killing the flu virus. This is HUGE when thinking about a window cleaner. I don’t know about you, but I have fourteen hands in our family. That’s a lot of windows and mirrors that can be taken care of with vinegar. But more interesting than that, research has been done in the UK that shows that malt vinegar can quickly make the flu virus inert (or harmless) just like bleach can. How cool is that!
Alcohol
While alcohol like isopropyl is also antibacterial, the reason that you will find this in many glass cleaners is that it evaporates quickly. When it evaporates quickly, it leaves fewer streaks.
Dish Soap
Dish soap is included in many homemade versions of glass cleaner. First and foremost because dish soap is a cleaner. And I’m sure many of you are saying (in your head because saying it out loud would be rude) “Well DUH!” Yes, dish soap will help clean gunk (nice scientific word, huh?) off your windows or mirrors, but dish soap is included in many glass cleaning recipes because it cuts grease. If we were just looking for a cleaner, vinegar and alcohol and a little elbow grease would get the job done, but add dish soap and it cuts the grease – elbow or otherwise, hence, it is included in many recipes.
Homemade Glass Cleaner
3 C water
6 T isopropyl alcohol – the best prices I’ve found on this (even better than Amazon) were at my local Wal-Mart
6 T vinegar
1/2 T dish soap
10 drops lemon, orange, or tangerine essential oil (to help with the stinkiness of the vinegar)
Mix this in a 32 oz spray bottle. It should fill the bottle.
Do you have homemade cleaning solutions that you use? What are your favorites? Do they work as well as conventional cleaners?
