- Dust/polish furniture in living room and bedroom
- Vacuum living room and bedroom
- Clean bathroom
- Sweep and mop kitchen and bathroom
- Laundry
The first task on the list is almost always met with resistance. My mother-in-law hates to dust because within a day the morning sun exposes the a new layer of the dust she removed the day before. It is a constant battle.
As a child, I despised dusting. I would gladly trade a week of dishes for the one day of dusting. My parent's house was filled with wood furniture and filled with clutter. Dusting meant touching every piece of furniture in the place after having removed all the pictures, knick-knacks, or books from their place and then returning all the pictures, knick-knacks, or books to their home. The task was endless and boring.
Additionally, in our house this chore was often overlooked week after week. Somehow, I always got stuck with actually performing the task because in the weeks leading up to my week my siblings would earnestly claimed to have dusted to receive their allowance. And probably they had attempted the task, possibly even taken out the oil and a cloth, but had really only grazed over the furniture, without removing the knick-knacks before calling it quits. I, however, usually got stuck with dusting on the weeks where I would not have the luxury of feigning the task, the layers of dust so thick I could write a message on the grand piano with our fingers.
Dusting would not have been such a dreadful task if it hadn't made me feel so sick afterwords. After dusting, my eyes would often itch, I would get a low hum of a headache and my fingers would swell. I associated these side effects with Pledge and even the "natural" orange oil polish my mom sometimes bought. I hated dusting because it made me feel sick.
When I married, and moved out of my parent's house, I quickly gave the chore of dusting to my husband. Ryan completed the task willfully and thoroughly, picking up every book and knick-knack, shining the wood, and dutifully replacing the knick-knack to its home. The problem was that his thorough dusting only happened sporadically when I reminded him. Once again, I was living in a house covered in layers of dust, so I decided to take back the chore. This decision led to making some alterations to my process.
First, I cleared away a lot of clutter from our shelves. I saved only the knick-knacks and pictures that I love and spread out the rest or gave them away. We still have four huge bookshelves filled with books, these take a long time to dust, but I have settled with thoroughly dusting these only sporadically. Know there is not much to move, or to dust, so dusting happens in half the time.
Second, when I took back dusting, I had just stumbled upon a green cleaning book that illuminated the harmful effects of commercial wood polishes.
I learned that "many brands of both furniture and metal polish can contain nerve-damaging petroleum distillates, which are flammable and dangerous if swallowed." Uh, could this result in a low hum of a headache?
And that "contact with furniture polishes can cause skin and eye irritation, whereas aerosol spray furniture polishes are easily inhaled into lung tissue." No wonder I my hands swelled and my eyes itched.
Furthermore, "some formulations of furniture polish may also contain formaldehyde, a known carcinogen." Scary.
With this new knowledge, I said good riddance to my commercial polishes and immediately tried a homemade recipe. I have used this recipe for the last three years with satisfying results.
I mix 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar with a few drops of cooking grade olive oil in a jar and shake vigorously. Then pour the mixture onto a wood surface and scrub with a soft rag. If the mixture separates, shake it up again.
This natural mixture leaves my wood furniture clean (the vinegar is a natural disinfectant) and shiny for up to a week and a half and leaves me feeling like me.
