Wanda Wooly — The Lean Green Clean Machine

  

  

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

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WRITING TOPIC – CLEANLINESS

Just in case you’re spending the weekend cleaning house, we wanted to give you a writing assignment that might make all that dusting and sweeping and scrubbing and vacuuming feel more like research than time wasted. Or maybe you’re the kind of person who never feels that cleaning is time wasted. 

Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.     
                                                        ~Christopher Morley

What exactly are your cleaning habits? Do you make your bed every morning? Does laundry pile up until you’re out of clean underwear? Is your nickname Neat Nick or Sloppy Joe? Do you make a conscious choice not to clean, ever, or do you delegate the cleaning to others — a kind and loving partner, your roommate, the kids, Mini Maids?

Cleanliness is almost as bad as godliness.     
                                                         ~Samuel Butler

For this writing practice, do a slow walk along the perimeter of the room in which you spend most your time. Start with your right foot. Walk slowly. You’re not in a rush to get anywhere. Let your eyes move around the room but don’t grab what’s in front of you. See it, let it go. Try not to mentally note what you see. Instead, take it in the way you might take in air. Breathe in, breathe out.

Cleanliness is next to impossible.
                                                         ~Author unknown

Then go sit down and do a ten-minute practice on the topic “Everything I know about cleanliness…” Talk about where your notions of cleanliness came from. Talk about the products you use. Describe your grit in as much detail as you can. Air that dirty laundry.

Now go!

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