Friday, September 30, 2011

Clean as a Whistle


My house is clean as a whistle, Stanley Steemer came and cleaned all the carpets and area rugs. Oh, how I love clean and I know just where I inherited the gene! My Grandma Keeling's house literally sparkled, she knew all the secrets to keeping a house spic and span. In fact, Spic and Span WAS one of them! Armed with her arsenal of cleaning products, no dust speck or germ was allowed in the little rock house where she and Grandpa lived! Even though it set smack dab in the middle of no where, with pastures all around and dirt roads that lead to town, her house was spotless.

Summers when I would go for my two week vacation, she was busy as a bee from morning till night. The beds were made as soon as we slipped out of them, "Spread up the covers." she'd say. I was an obedient child and she molded me quickly to her ways! Next was breakfast, never cereal unless it was a bowl of oatmeal chocked with nuts and bananas, butter and brown sugar and a splash of cream. More often it was hot bread in the form of buttermilk biscuits, bacon/sausage/or ham, eggs fixed the way you wanted... just as if you were a paying customer in a diner!

After breakfast the table was cleared, all except the stash of sweets that set permanently in the middle of the table. Preserves, honey, sorghum, sugar bowl, salt and pepper, and pickled hot pepper vinegar that Grandma had canned to enjoy with brown beans and cornbread. I'd wipe the table clean with the dishrag, then help dry dishes. The kitchen smelled of Ivory Snow flakes and Clorox, she'd add just a small capful to her dishwater. When she drained the water, she'd sprinkle Comet in the two porcelain sinks and then use Jubilee on the Formica table and counter tops. That was just the first hour of her day...

16 comments:

  1. my house USED to be spic and span and i did use spic and span and Jubilee back then. now that i am retired i let things slide and right now i am headed to do some deep cleaning in my kitchen.
    about your celebrity you saw yesterday, i just read in our paper that Jennifer Lopez and Nick Nolte are here making a thriller called Parker. so now i am LOOKING

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  2. Too cool Sandra! Jennifer Lopez is so pretty, she would definately stand out in the crowd! I was shocked at all of the people yesterday that have had close encounters with the famous, guess they mingle "among us" too! They may long for the lives we lead, who knows...

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  3. I love the routine of tidying and cleaning my house in the mornings. Thank goodness we have clean ways to heat our homes. No more dirty coal heat or wood smoke. Have a great weekend...and don't spill on those clean carpets!!

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  4. I really need to have all the carpets in my home shampooed. I think ill try the dry method which is supposed to be better for your carpets. Richard from Amish Stories.

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  5. Such a great feeling when chores are done and the house is spic and span. Unfortunately that is on my list of things to get done this weekend. Fall cleaning before decorating. Hope you have a great weekend yourself.
    Angela

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  6. I love this story and would have so enjoyed to hear more..maybe you will continue the rest of the story another time?

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  7. i am much more lax than my mother ever was in housekeeping. life's too short. the dog hair is perpetual, so i don't worry about it much.

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  8. That is one amazing grandma!
    My mother was a lot like this. She was always cleaning. I still love the fresh smell of bleach!

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  9. Great memories! What ever happened to Spic n Span? I used to like that, (the powdered stuff) for cleaning nearly everything! Hmmm, fond memories for me too!

    Nice post!

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  10. Oh, Lord... so this is why I don't have a GOOD life!

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  11. Oh dear. I love a clean house, too, but live with a messy man. You cannot make a messy person become a fastidious person as I have learned the hard way. I thought when I found him that I could "fix it," but he just keeps messing it up AGAIN and AGAIN! And, I work full time on top of that! Oh, woe is me!
    xo, Cheryl

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  12. Finally caught up reading back posts after a week away!! Ah yes, I do remember Spic and Span as well as Jubilee!!! How wonderful to have such memories of your Grandmother!
    Grace

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  13. My grandmother was the same way, always up doing something! Guess I better get up and do some cleaning...K

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  14. My Grandma's was quite spic and span but I do remember her leaving the condiments in the middle of the big round table.

    She also would leave leftover noon meal food either on the table with a cloth covering or in the oven on her kerosene range. They weren't afraid of 'bacteria' like everyone today is!

    I love these memory lane stories!

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  15. I SO LOVE A CLEAN HOUSE! I remember one year, I was cleaning my walls with bleach. GOOD. BUT THEN I used the same rag for some other cleaner that had AMMONIA in it....need I tell you what happened? I thought I was going to die. But I calmly ran out of the apartment, and at that time, I lived in Massachusetts and right across the street from the beach! So I got a whiff of sea air and all was well. Lesson learned: CHANGE RAGS WHEN CLEANING!!!!!

    Thank you for visiting me, Joycee!!! Anita

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  16. Joycee -- such a fun memory about your grandma. I so enjoy life and my home more when things are clean and tidy. I need to get my carpets cleaned :). Joni

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