My Favorite Cleaner
[bl]T[/bl]oday I share a recipe for my all time favorite cleaning solution. It is especially great for windows and mirrors – in my opinion the best solution around! But I also use it on counters in my kitchen and bathrooms. You can find the recipe online, but I got it from my sister and teacher of how to keep a clean house.
The recipe makes a gallon of solution to be divided into several empty cleaning bottles. After you get used to the proportions, you should be able to make smaller amounts, even wing the ingredients for one small bottle.
Cleaning Tip: I store one bottle of this solution in my kitchen and one in each of my bathrooms, along with a roll of paper towel. Most of my cleaning happens spontaneously. So I like to keep bottles and towels handy in each room so I can quickly grab them and do a one minute cleaning of counter tops and mirrors.
In a gallon jug mix together:
1/2 bottle of rubbing alcohol
2 TB. Prell Shampoo (This is for cutting grease. You can use any liquid soap)
Fill jug to the top with water
And while I’m on the topic of cleaning…
Keeping a clean and tidy home is not essential to being hospitable.
Let me repeat:
Keeping a clean and tidy home is not essential to being hospitable.
Sure, it’s nice to enter into places that are clean and organized. Admittedly, that’s the ideal. But ideal isn’t always attainable. That’s one advantage of redefining our cultural understanding of hospitality. When we place more emphasis on the spirit of the person and home as having an inviting posture that welcomes and serves– it releases us from the pressure of creating our spaces to be perfect.
The goal is reception, not perfection.
In a culture where perfectionism is set before us as a goal, and our magazines are full of ideal homes staged for photography, not for living – it’s no surprise that many of us are not comfortable with inviting people into our mess. We believe in confidence that everybody but ourselves stays on top of the laundry, dusts every week, organizes the junk drawer monthly, and goes to bed with all the dirty dishes cleaned and put away. Which makes us dread the day our friends walk through our door and realize we don’t have it all together.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Your friends will actually like you better if they know you don’t have it all together!! True, right?
Now some of you are comfortable with your clutter, and often times, most guests will sense your level of ease and mimic it. And if you are one of these special women, the kind that aren’t afraid to show their messes – you, my friend, will have an easier time receiving because you won’t feel the need to always be prepared and ready for people to enter. It will take less effort to welcome, because your list of things to do before you invite is shorter. And if you are one of these special women, I like you already. And I hope you can teach the rest of us. Because here’s the beauty in you: If you are willing to invite people into the unkempt corners of your home, you will graciously enter into the mess of someone else. And if you are willing to expose the messy places of your house, you just might be more open to exposing the messy places of your heart. And THAT is hospitality.
