Wanda Wooly, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2008, photo
© 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
It’s cleaning day in our household and dust bunnies fill the air. Once in a while, Liz comes home from shopping excited about a new cleaning gadget. Last September it was Wanda Wooly — The Pure Wool Duster.
Wanda has a long, blue metal handle that extends to 75″, is environmentally friendly because you can wash her hair, and by pivoting the handle rapidly between the hands, is ready for her next swipe up spidery corners. Made by Starmax Resources in Ohio, Wanda is fully guaranteed and cute to boot. She sits in the corner of our laundry room, smiling back at us.
We only deep clean about once a month, with light cleaning between. But the three cats require constant maintenance from their various romps and tips around the house. We do have to vacuum up all the cat bunnies, and Liz is forever coming home with the next version of the perfect cat litter. We’ve been disappointed more than once. But this last bag she bought seems to really do what they said it would do on the packaging.
How often do you clean the house? Are you one of those people who has to have a fanatically clean environment, everything in it’s place and spotless? Or do you like a more lived-in feel. What about cleaning gadgets? Do you buy them? Are you always first in line to pick up on the latest trend?
Who does the cleaning in your household? Is it you, or your partner or spouse? Or maybe you’re a person who hires someone else to clean your house. If so, do you feel obligated to pick up and clean the house before the cleaning person comes?
I’m sold on Wanda Wooly. And after I drape her fluffy lamb’s hair across the dusty piano, we’re heading outside to shake her hair in the wind, put the hose away for winter, and rake a few more leaves.
Note: Wanda Wooly runs about $20 and can be picked up at ACE Hardware SuperStores. The price listed there is for a unit of 6. We try to shop local and visit our little ACE Hardware store whenever we can.
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
-related to posts: WRITING TOPIC – CLEANLINESS
Mz Wooly is too cool QM! Sorta Phyllis Diller meets Don King with Hazel attitude 😉
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Ha! ROTFL 8) Hazel, my I hadn’t thought of her in forever.
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Heather, I had to look up Hazel. Found a thoughtful link about the significance of that program at The Museum of Broadcast Communications. The show ran from 1961-1966. The review talks about this program along with others that portray the US nuclear family and their housekeepers including: The Jeffersons, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Bonanza, and the Brady Bunch.
Here’s the link:
HAZEL – U.S. Situation Comedy at The Museum of Broadcast Communications (LINK)
And also a link to Hazel on Wiki (LINK).
I’m trying to think if you’d see a similarly themed program like that today. I’m guessing not. Ironically, the housekeepers in families are often like the rocks of stability, confidantes to many of the women heads of households.
ybonesy, I remember you did this drawing of Madge (LINK) from a commercial that was popular during this same time period.
A close friend of mine said they had a woman who came in and cleaned for them once a week and she was one of her mom’s closest friends (this would have been in the 60’s and 70’s, too). The cleaning woman was recently sick (I think she’s in her late 80’s now) and my friend and her mom went to see her. She said it was a very emotional reunion.
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Hey QM, I *love* Wanda Wooly. We have a feather duster on a stick (hmmmm….), a long stick, and that’s what we use to dust the beams all throughout the house. I do worry that once the duster gets filled with dust, then using it on the painted wall part might end up putting dirt onto the wall. These are the things that worry me about certain cleaning contraptions. (Also, does my bleach spray, that I use for the white countertops have the potential to ruin the stainless steel part of the counter?)
If I had my druthers, our house would be clean and organized at all times. But alas, none of us is super-clean, so we settle for a house that gets pretty cleaned up once a week, and then we use the rest of the week to get it messy.
Although, I did do all my laundry—washed, dryed, folded, hung—yesterday morning. It was two weeks’ worth. I had run out of jeans and underwear. 8)
My cleaning gadgets are pretty basic. Ajax for the bathtubs and sinks, a slightly (very slightly) damp water and vinegar for the wood floors. One of those old-fashioned mops that you ring out—that for the tile floors. Old English furniture polish. And the feather duster (or is it wool, too?) extension we got for the beams. Maybe when that one dies out, we’ll get a Wanda Wooly. 8)
(BTW, when I was growing up, my grandparents had two sheep, and I named them Wooly and Wally.)
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Interesting QM, I’ve never heard of a show actually jumping channels. I doubt that could ever happen today.
I had forgot about Smiley 😉
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I think wooly is way too cool, but you know I have that sign in my kitchen that says “This house gets cleaned every 3 months, whether it needs it or not.” I wish I had been the person who invented Swiffer products. Dang, they make life so easy! Wooly is adorable! Looks like she could make cleaning fun. Well, almost! 🙂 D
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QM – one of the advantages of failing eyesight is the inability to see dirt, well, at least to me, but Rumpole, bless his little red socks, is eagle -eyed as ever. “G, come over and see this!” he orders.
‘What???”
“Do you see the cat hair in wispy balls all over the end of the rug?”
“Oh, that’s just the nap of the carpet where the cat has been scratching.”
Nope. it’s loose.”
“But i just vaccuumed this rug this afternoon,”says I. “It looks okay to me.”
“Well, no matter what you say now, we are getting a cleaning service. I can’t live like this!!!”
I may have to cave – it is getting gross.
Now if i had Wooly I could really rearrange some dust. 😉 G
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ybonesy, so cute about your sheep — Wooly & Wally. A few years ago at the MN State Fair, Liz and I watched a couple of sheep get sheared by this young woman who grew up on a farm. It was fascinating to watch.
We use pretty simple cleaning gadgets, too. Some Old English (my mother used to always buy lemon Pledge growing up and I’ll always remember that smell), an orange citrus spray for some of the cat spills that works miracles. Let me go get it ….Oh, it’s called Nature’s Miracle Advanced Dual Action Orange-Oxy Power Clear Liquid Formula Just For Cats. it’s really great, non-toxic, made by 8-in-1 Pet Products in NY.
You say you worry about dust getting in the paint. I tend to worry more about things I spray changing the color of the carpets, clothes, and walls! That’s why I like when I find one that doesn’t seem to affect color fastness. Nice.
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heather, you are right — wouldn’t happen today. Too competitive out there in TV land.
diddy, Wanda is kind of cute, isn’t she. She does make me smile and sometimes I dance around the house with her and make Liz laugh up a storm. I never looked to see what’s in those Swiffer products, but we recently used one at the studio to get up wood dust and it worked great on the old wooden floors there. The only thing about them is it’s another throw-away thing. But in-a-pinch, they can’t be beat.
G., love the dialogue between you and Rumpole. I bet it’s classic dialogue in many homes across the world. One thing I’ve noticed is that I like spending time cleaning less and less the older I get. I used to not mind so much. But these days, I’d much rather be doing something else.
One thing I’ve found is that some people love to clean and get a sense of satisfaction out of it. Maybe they are some of the people who start cleaning services. I have a couple of friends who started one and they like it and the independence of it.
Well, let us know if you end up caving to Rumpole’s wishes. 8) Love the little red socks. I don’t go around in sock feet because I can’t stand hair on the bottom of my socks. I don’t know why. I’ve always been that way. So I have to wear slippers.
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“Nature’s Miracle Advanced Dual Action Orange-Oxy Power Clear Liquid Formula Just For Cats.” ???
Whatever happened to product names like “Mr. Clean…”
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I rarely clean the house. I clean when I have company coming and I know that they are coming. Don’t drop by, that’s my advice. QuoinMonkey, the house will be spotless (more or less) in April. I don’t see a purpose in cleaning because everything get dirty again. I live alone and I’m the one who puts up with the dust and cobwebs. I hate destroying the spiderwebs.
On my first furnace inspection the guy asked me if I knew I should change the filters every 90 days or so. I didn’t. He said, “I know. From the looks of this filter, you must have used it for a year or more.” I didn’t tell him that in the 4 years I have lived in the house I only changed the furnace filter once. Who knew?
I would never hire someone to clean my house. My mother would haunt me for years. Why hire someone to do something that I could do IF I wanted to do it?
The only cleaning gadget I ever bought were devices to clean those mini-blinds of which I have 30 in the house. Great idea, but they don’t work. It’s back to cleaning them with a rag and bleach water. I lost interest after doing the half on one set of blinds.
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Bo, LOL. 8)
Bob, I love blinds and shutters (have a houseful of wooden shutters), but man, talk about a cleaning time sink!
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Bo, lol, ain’t it the truth. What ever did happen to “Mr. Clean?” for the name of a cleaning agent! I have recently bought a Mr. Clean product as something used to clean the kitchen floor. He’s still gracing the front label. Does he have an earring or am I making that up? Quite muscular however.
Bob, funny about the furnace filters. You know, Liz is vigilant about changing our furnace filters every 3 months. And I’m thankful for that. Last year, I had to call 911 because every time our heater would kick on, a little ball of gas and fire would explode out the side and make a Bang! It scared the living daylights out of me.
It happened late at night when both Liz and I were sleeping and we thought someone was banging on the house. The next day, it happened again after Liz had gone to work. It was about 20 below. I rounded up the three cats and we all got into the car, turned on the heat, then I backed up and parked at the end of the driveway and called 911.
The police came first, followed by the fire department. They tested for all kinds of gas leaks. But it ended up that the heater jets were clogged and we had to have the X-Cel person come and clean the heater. After that all was fine. Just a little story about keeping up maintenance on heaters in these freezing cold climates! 8)
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Ha! Bo is so right!
This is for Bob & people like me. I recently received an e-mail about unexpected guests. It was a Maxine e-mail. Her trick? Purchase several get well cards from a dollar store & place them on the mantle or another visible space. This way when unexpected company arrives they will think you were too sick to clean! 🙂 D
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Ah, diddy – I am headed to the dollar store for get well cards tonight! Do you think it will work even if it’s a big Thanksgiving affair? Ha, it’s my in-laws coming. Now if it were my mother…
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