Sunday Morning Housekeeping Tips

 

Pure as the arctic snow thanks to Mister Clean Wonder Gum.

Last week I shamefacedly checked in after a long absence. I promised to do so regularly and to cut my snark-time on Twitter down to fifteen minutes a day. Front Seat Cat’s observation — about Twitter being nothing but a contribution “to the volume of nothingness” and “a waste of your talent and soul” — seemed right to me. I took it to heart. So in the comments, I made this resolution:

I find my fingers itching to hit that button — and I don’t even know why. Habit, perhaps. I’m going to try sweeping the floor whenever I’m tempted to see if I can break the association between “mild restlessness” and “filling the void with Twitter.”

I’m pleased to say that I kept my vow! I expanded the replacement activity from “sweeping the floor” to “housework, generally.” Here’s the result, after a week: I have no idea what’s happening in the world, but my apartment is sparkling clean. Thus today I’ll check in by opening a thread for sharing our best housekeeping tips (seeing as I have nothing else to talk about).

I’ve been a sucker for housekeeping hints since childhood, which is particularly strange because I was a thoroughly slovenly kid who had to be coerced into cleaning her room. But I always spent the week in eager anticipation of Heloise’s Hints, which I read diligently every Sunday morning when the paper arrived. (Anyone else remember the Sunday paper and what a big deal its arrival was?) To this day, I’m the target customer for infomercials that peddle magical cleaning devices. I watch them, transfixed, eagerly envisioning the arrival of my new Turbo Scrub, my Hurricane Spin Mop, my Fur Wizard, my Dutch Glow Cleaning Tonic. I fantasize about how my apartment will look just like the “after” pictures as soon as I open the box and point my new device at the mess. Needless to say, few of these products ever live up to the hype. The spin broom is only the latest crushing disappointment.

Useless. It barely even moves the cat litter and fur around the floor. I feel like a fool for having bought it.

So, I have to be realistic. I live with seven cats in a small apartment in an old, dusty, moldy building in an old, dusty, moldy city. The only thing that works — the only thing that keeps this place from degenerating into outright piggishness — is non-stop housework. The fur, dust, kitty litter, and shredded cat toys fall on the floor so fast that by the time I finish sweeping , it’s time to start again. And despite all my labors, the best I can ever achieve is “not so horrifying.”

The broom-rag combo.

That said, replacing Twitter with housework really helped. And since I can’t comment on Russia — because I’m not keeping track of the Kremlin on Twitter — here instead are my top five tips for keeping a really old, dusty Parisian apartment with seven cats in it “not so horrifying,” instead.

1. In between moppings, you can keep the dust and fur to a tolerable level by safety-pinning a clean rag to the broom and sweeping with it. It’s way easier to throw the rags in the washing machine (with bleach and a bit of tea-tree oil, to disinfect) than it is to clean the mop in a bucket, which never seems to get the mop truly clean. So every morning, after sweeping, I go over the floors with my broom-rag combo.

Fresh from the washing machine, and way more hygienic than a mop that’s just been rinsed in dirty bucket-water.

2. After years of experimenting with every floor cleaner on the market, I have concluded that this is the best: a mix of vinegar, dishwashing detergent (not too much), and lavender oil. It’s less expensive than anything else I’ve tried, and it works better, not only at picking up the dust and fur, but at neutralizing cat smells.

3. One of the few cleaning products I’ve ever discovered that genuinely approaches magic is Mr. Clean Wonder Gum. I used to think nothing but repainting the apartment would ever get the walls really white. I don’t have a “before” picture, but from the “after” picture, above, you can see that there’s no need to repaint. The cleaning gum picks up everything.

4. The litter genie was worth every Euro, too, especially since to take out the trash, I have to go the basement, which is six flights of stairs down–and I don’t have an elevator. Also, the basement is creepy and scary, so it’s easy to get lazy. The genie holds a week’s worth of cat litter, and it really does trap the odor. Mind you, it doesn’t work unless the used litter’s in the genie. So you’ve just got to scoop the boxes as soon as they’re used. (In a seven-cat household, this means scooping approximately 28 times a day.)

5. Marie Kondo is right about how to fold clothes. There is only one correct way. Every other way is factually incorrect and morally wrong. If you do it so that the clothes stand up, though, as she demonstrates below, the clutter in your closet disappears. You never have to search for anything again.

So there you go — that’s my top five!

Please share yours, especially if you have pets. I’m eager to learn how other people on Ricochet get black cat fur and vomit stains off of their white and cream-colored furniture. (Beg pardon, you say? White and cream-colored furniture? What kind of insanity was that, Claire? Well, admittedly, it was quixotic. In my defense, I have both black and white cats — as well as brown, orange, and grey ones — so no matter what color it was, the fur and the barf were going to show. But basically, yes, I made the willing choice to live on the edge.)

Mr. Clean Magic Wondergum: Officially approved by Claire Berlinski!

 

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  1. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    That is a lot o’ cats for an apartment.  Wow.  I hope it is a bigger apartment than any apartment I’ve ever visited in Paris.

    I have one dog.  Just one.  And the pet hair drives me crazy.

    Anyway, I used to have a roomba with my last dog, which worked well on hardwoods.  It was absolutely useless on carpets–hence no roomba now–but it could really make a dent in the fur balls that appeared where there were no rugs.  I would have to clean the brushes often because that dog had long hair, but that wasn’t such a big deal.  Such a device might help you keep up.

    Plus… cats would probably be fascinated by a robot vacuum.

    • #1
  2. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    When my clothes stand up by themselves, it means it’s time to do the laundry.

    • #2
  3. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Speaking from experience, it is nice to clean when you haven’t done it for a while. I tend to clean in between work assignments, so my office gets really dusty. I love cleaning it up. I feel like a different person. :)

    And my garden shed–wow! I hadn’t cleaned it for a couple of years, and last spring I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer. I found evidence of mice in it everywhere. My goodness. I had some old life jackets in it that were on a hook, and when I pulled them down, I discovered to my horror that the insides had been completely destroyed by the mice. No one would know from just looking at them. The mice were very clever to hide their work. But the stuffing had been reduced to a pile of dust or something. Yuck! And as I cleaned up the rest of the shed, I found the stuffing in piles everywhere, especially in my pots, even the ones that I had turned upside down. I lifted those up and found a pot-shaped pile of stuffing underneath. Unbelievable.

    • #3
  4. Claire Berlinski, Ed. Member
    Claire Berlinski, Ed.
    @Claire

    Lois Lane (View Comment):
    That is a lot o’ cats for an apartment. Wow. I hope it is a bigger apartment than any apartment I’ve ever visited in Paris.

    It’s not, alas. It’s your typical Paris mini-apartment, though at least I have a proper bathtub and not one of those half-tub jobs with a hose. What I do have, though, thankfully, is an attic — one that’s classified as “uninhabitable space” by city law, because a human can’t stand up straight in it — but which is most certainly very inhabitable if you’re only eight inches tall. The kitties love it, so it effectively doubles the space of the apartment. We have very few territorial squabbles, given the number of animals. Partly it’s because they’re littermates, so they know no other life but one with their brothers and sisters. Partly it’s because on every wall I have a climbing toy where they can get up high or hide. Partly it’s because the Feliway Friends pheromone diffuser really works: After I plugged that in, the squabbling went to nearly-zero. And partly it’s because they have that attic. The bonus of having them stalk the attic is that I’ve never seen a spider, even though this apartment’s otherwise a natural spider-magnet.

    I have one dog. Just one. And the pet hair drives me crazy.

    Anyway, I used to have a roomba with my last dog,

    The Roomba. Don’t even get me started on the bitterness. I was so excited about the Roomba. I’d watched the infomercials until I was excited as a toddler high on sugar cookies on Christmas Eve. I was so sure it was the solution to all my problems. I’d been looking out for one I could afford on Ebay for months. But within days of The Precious One’s arrival, I was nearly mad. Every five minutes the thing would clog, stall, and bark at me, in French: Attention! Fault Number Six! Disassemble and clean the brushes! 

    I spent more hours taking the thing apart and cleaning the brushes than I would if I’d committed to cleaning my floors with a toothpick. I finally gave it away on Craig’s List in exchange for “best offer” — which turned out to be a bag of used T-shirts and jeans. My cats defeated the Roomba in a rout.

    which worked well on hardwoods. It was absolutely useless on carpets–hence no roomba now–but it could really make a dent in the fur balls that appeared where there were no rugs. I would have to clean the brushes often because that dog had long hair, but that wasn’t such a big deal. Such a device might help you keep up.

    Plus… cats would probably be fascinated by a robot vacuum.

    They liked it for a day and then they got bored with it. I thought they’d do superbly cute things like this:

    But basically they just stared at it, at first, and then they didn’t even bother to watch it. So the Roomba counts as one of my great disappointments in life — up there with my Irish ex-boyfriend.

     

    • #4
  5. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Claire Berlinski, Ed.:5. Marie Kondo is right about how to fold clothes. There is only one correct way. Every other way is factually incorrect and morally wrong. If you do it so that the clothes stand up, though, as she demonstrates below, the clutter in your closet disappears. You never have to search for anything again.

    Claire,

    Marie Kondo is an angel of folding mercy. My mother would roll my socks into a ball thereby stretching the elastic and the socks would fall down! I explained the phenomenon to her many times but to no avail. This left a deep scar on my psyche.

    Socks up boss.

    https://youtu.be/w0ZVLVYL1Hw

    Regards,

    Jim

     

    • #5
  6. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Claire Berlinski, Ed. (View Comment):
    But basically they just stared at it, at first, and then they didn’t even bother to watch it. So the Roomba counts as one of my great disappointments in life — up there with my Irish ex-boyfriend.

    You should have attached a laser pointer to the Roomba. After reinforcing the baseboards, of course.

    • #6
  7. Claire Berlinski, Ed. Member
    Claire Berlinski, Ed.
    @Claire

    anonymous (View Comment):
    This may all seem rather fussy,

    Not at all. It all makes perfect sense. I’ll vouch for the flat mop — I’ve got one — and put in a plug for my vacuum cleaner, too: Two thumbs up for the Dirt Devil (regular, not upright) pet vacuum. I’ve had it for four years and it’s still sucking like mad (unlike that wimp of a Roomba). It comes with a lot of useful and well-designed attachments for cleaning furniture and corners and the like, too.

    I’m scared to clean with ammonia because I use so much bleach. I’ve heard the warning never to mix the two so many times that I can’t help but envision a particle of one meeting a drop of the other and immediately asphyxiating us all.

    • #7
  8. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    Love this post! My housekeeping trick is using stove top cleaner to scrub shower doors. Soap scum has been my worst nightmare and I have tried so many things, but nothing even comes close to the glass stove top cleaner on a scrubby brush, water to rinse, and a squeegee.

    • #8
  9. Online Park Member
    Online Park
    @OnlinePark

    In Canada we call it Mr Clean Magic Eraser and I love the product too.

    • #9
  10. Online Park Member
    Online Park
    @OnlinePark

    One of the best tips I ever read was to wipe down the entire bathroom with your towel after a shower. The room is steamy and it dries and polishes the chrome.

    • #10
  11. KentForrester Coolidge
    KentForrester
    @KentForrester

    Claire, my wife and I have discovered that the absolute best device for picking up dog and cat hair is a Bissell carpet sweeper.  (It’s not a vacuum, which hardly picks up carpet-clinging cat hair.)  It’s one of those 25 buck “sweepers.”   If we were more clever, we could make a woven wall hanging from the handfuls of hair that that Bissell picks up daily.

    Seven cats in a small Paris apartment?  You’ve not evolving into a crazy cat lady, are you?  (Right here I would have included a cat lady clip from “The Simpsons” if I knew how.) Kent

    • #11
  12. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    Tips?

    Don’t have a toddler. They are worse than cats.

    Especially don’t have a toddler in a lowish-rent building that still has its original horsehair plaster, especially if the plaster is in poor repair. Because poorly maintained plaster leads to flaking paint, which probably has lead in it, and which toddlers find indescribably yummy. Fortunately, I’ve been reassured by my state board of poison control that one or two incidents of toddlers ingesting paint flakes probably makes no difference. It’s chronic ingestion that maims ’em. So, go me for only letting it happen twice?…

    The one good thing to come of all of this is that I really do enjoy spackling more than other housework, so it’s nice to have an excuse to make spackling higher-priority than, say, sorting socks. The bad news is that our apartment totally looks the way you’d imagine it would if spackling took priority over all other household maintenance.

    D-limonene is edible, at least in small quantities, and is also a pretty good household solvent. It actually makes an acceptable (not perfect) Windex substitute, and it smells pleasantly of oranges. It allegedly kills and repels roaches, too. It definitely will kill an arthropod when applied full strength.

    Still, I am leaning toward “purge our stuff and move” as being the only really effective tip for the Rattler household.

    • #12
  13. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    I can help with the cat vomit on the white upholstery. Spot Shot:

    They make a pet version in a green can, but I don’t think it really matters. The stuff is magic.

    I won’t tell you how learned of this product while embarrassing myself at a church ladies’ luncheon at a friend’s home…. Oh, okay, if you insist. My friend hosted a nice luncheon in her gracious home with about 12 of our other bible study friends. She has a glass dining table with contemporary white upholstered chairs. I fixed my plate, including fresh blackberries, and sat with the group for grace. I picked up my spoon with blackberry, and, never in my life before, but, at that very moment, had a spasm in my wrist that made it seem I was intentionally flicking the berry to some unseen recipient nearby. It took two bounces on the upholstery (leaving its imprint) and pirouetted across the floor. I was mortified. Makes me believe in demons.

    But, my friend picked up the Spot Shot and the stain was gone lickety split. You will be amazed!

    • #13
  14. Claire Berlinski, Ed. Member
    Claire Berlinski, Ed.
    @Claire

    Online Park (View Comment):
    One of the best tips I ever read was to wipe down the entire bathroom with your towel after a shower. The room is steamy and it dries and polishes the chrome.

    I discovered that independently! I’m very proud of the economy of my post-bath routine: It’s too neurotic to impose on anyone else, but I use a single towel to dry off in the tub, then the same towel to clean the bathroom, then I throw it directly in the wash. Keeps down on laundry, keeps the bathroom clean.

    • #14
  15. Claire Berlinski, Ed. Member
    Claire Berlinski, Ed.
    @Claire

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    I can help with the cat vomit on the white upholstery. Spot Shot:

    They make a pet version in a green can, but I don’t think it really matters. The stuff is magic.

    I won’t tell you how learned of this product while embarrassing myself at a church ladies’ luncheon at a friend’s home…. Oh, okay, if you insist. My friend hosted a nice luncheon in her gracious home with about 12 of our other bible study friends. She has a glass dining table with contemporary white upholstered chairs. I fixed my plate, including fresh blackberries, and sat with the group for grace. I picked up my spoon with blackberry, and, never in my life before, but, at that very moment, had a spasm in my wrist that made it seem I was intentionally flicking the berry to some unseen recipient nearby. It took two bounces on the upholstery (leaving its imprint) and pirouetted across the floor. I was mortified. Makes me believe in demons.

    But, my friend picked up the Spot Shot and the stain was gone lickety split. You will be amazed!

    I’m mortified just imagining this.

    What’s the active ingredient in that stuff? I don’t think I’ve seen it on sale by that name here, but maybe I can find the equivalent?

    • #15
  16. Claire Berlinski, Ed. Member
    Claire Berlinski, Ed.
    @Claire

    KentForrester (View Comment):
    Claire, my wife and I have discovered that the absolute best device for picking up dog and cat hair is a Bissell carpet sweeper. (It’s not a vacuum, which hardly picks up carpet-clinging cat hair.) It’s one of those 25 buck “sweepers.” If we were more clever, we could make a woven wall hanging from the handfuls of hair that that Bissell picks up daily.

    Oh, and they sell it in France, too!

    Laissez-vous séduire par une solution de nettoyage ultra-pratique et des résultats exceptionnels, grâce à la nouvelle expérience de nettoyage humide BISSELL.

    The French really get my emotions about cleaning products. Who would sell a carpet-sweeper in the US with the words, “Let yourself be seduced by a cleaning solution that’s ultra practical, with exceptional results, thanks to the new, humid cleaning experience of BISSELL …  ?”

    Seven cats in a small Paris apartment? You’ve not evolving into a crazy cat lady, are you?

    Evolved. Long ago.

     

    • #16
  17. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Claire Berlinski, Ed. (View Comment):
    What’s the active ingredient in that stuff? I don’t think I’ve seen it on sale by that name here, but maybe I can find the equivalent?

    Amazon doesn’t deliver? ;-) I buy it by the case.

    Contains 2-butoxyethanol and 2(2-butoxyethoxy)ethanol.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • #17
  18. Roberto Inactive
    Roberto
    @Roberto

    You have too many cats Ms. Berlinski. Seven is too many and you need to stop.

    Also, Front Seat Cat knows what she is talking about.

    • #18
  19. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    First, Claire’s apartment—lovely, cat-filled and not-that-big. The cats are nice.

    Second, this isn’t really a housecleaning tip, but someone once told me that after you’ve had a nice hot bath, don’t pull out the plug until the water is cold. You paid for the heat.

    Third, during the oh, two or three decades in which my life was dominated by toddlers, I did not fold laundry at all. I had four boxes on the top landing, one for each kid. When a load of laundry came out of the dryer, I carried it upstairs and spent forty seconds dealing out the tiny t-shirts, Big Boys pants, fuzzy jammies and Osh Kosh b’Gosh overalls by size.  When one kid grew out of an item, it got flipped into the next box down. Fast and dirty.

    Fourth, small children like to scrub floors. It’s an exciting project—lots of warm water, some Dr. Bronner’s soap, big brushes and sponges… we’d make a catastrophic, soggy mess and then sop it all up with towels. The children generally got wet and soapy too. Excellent for bad moods. Not so sure how good it was for the floor, and probably exposed them to all sorts of germs and toxins.

     

    • #19
  20. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    If anyone has any tips for smells in carpet…

    • #20
  21. Claire Berlinski, Ed. Member
    Claire Berlinski, Ed.
    @Claire

    Kate Braestrup (View Comment):
    First, Claire’s apartment—lovely, cat-filled and not-that-big. The cats are nice.

    Kate left my apartment spotless. Don’t think I didn’t notice and appreciate those mopped floors! You didn’t have to do that, but it was awfully nice of you.

    • #21
  22. Claire Berlinski, Ed. Member
    Claire Berlinski, Ed.
    @Claire

    Stina (View Comment):
    If anyone has any tips for smells in carpet…

    Baking soda. Baking soda fixes most everything. Sprinkle it on liberally, let it sit for an hour (or more, depending on the extent of the problem) and then vacuum it up.

    • #22
  23. Claire Berlinski, Ed. Member
    Claire Berlinski, Ed.
    @Claire

    I was perusing the Internet for household tips and came across this video — an inadvertent portrait of the most neurotic woman in America.

    I think I’ve been put off housekeeping for a while. That video shows where the craziness can lead, if you’re not careful.

    • #23
  24. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    You can only keep track of the Kremlin on Twitter? No Russia research without Twitter? That’s baffling – how did they do it before Twitter?  I don’t know about all this cleaning mess……..don’t they have Twitters Anonymous?

    I tapped some of the housekeeping crews that keep these big fancy beach houses that I manage, spotless and sparkling – not kidding. I found they use the cheapest products and they work. Barkeepers Friend cleanser for sinks, metal and porcelain, Safeway products like granite and stainless cleaner, they are dirt cheap $4.00 at Home Depot and work.   Another uses Tilex Mold & Mildew Remover for showers, tubs, even on shower door glass. Bleach water on tile and shower floors, Murphy’s Oil Soap for wood, I use a mix of Lysol and water on floors, vinegar and water for windows. Those tape rollers for cat hair and lamp shades.

    Our Sears Kenmore Vacuum bit the dust, so we asked the pros and selected the Shark bagless Vac. It’s light and comes with all kinds of attachments plus you can remove tank and walk around with it. We had no idea how crappy our old vac was until we got this. We didn’t know how dirty we were either! I saw the same vac used by several different housekeepers.

    When I was a kid, I had to help with chores and clean my room before going out to play. To this day, I loathe ironing – pre-permanent press sheets had to be ironed and pillowcases. I hate wrinkled clothes, and like pressed pillow cases so I suck it up.

    Any chance of getting a few possible chapter titles of the new book? So nice to see you back in these parts Claire!  Put on some nice classical music when cleaning!

    • #24
  25. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    Perfectly astounding: In the very same week, Claire and my wife both converted to the Marie Kondo folding method. And both with the same righteous insistence: Marie Kondo is simply correct.

    If this is so–and who am I to gainsay Claire or the Missus?–then what we have here is a remarkable finding. People may have been folding clothes for centuries, but there was still room for a breakthrough in technique. As I say, astounding. Can there be any aspect of life that is truly settled and unimprovable?

    • #25
  26. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    Claire Berlinski, Ed. (View Comment):
    I was perusing the Internet for household tips and came across this video — an inadvertent portrait of the most neurotic woman in America.

    I think I’ve been put off housekeeping for a while. That video shows where the craziness can lead, if you’re not careful.

    lol you laugh, but I need this in my life. Thanks for sharing!

    • #26
  27. Mike Rapkoch Member
    Mike Rapkoch
    @MikeRapkoch

    We have two dogs. I preempt their filth by beating them thrice daily.

    Don’t tell PETA.

    • #27
  28. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    anonymous (View Comment):
    but it wasn’t until 1987 that somebody got the idea to put wheels on a suitcase. There was no technological innovation which would have prevented making rolling luggage a century earlier, but nobody perceived the need.

    A full century earlier, were pavements even and reliable enough to make wheels as beneficial as they are now?

    That said, I’d think by, say, the 50s, there’d be enough even pavement to make wheels advantageous. Widespread elevators and escalators also aid the convenience of wheeled luggage, too, of course.

    • #28
  29. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Peter Robinson (View Comment):
    Perfectly astounding: In the very same week, Claire and my wife both converted to the Marie Kondo folding method. And both with the same righteous insistence: Marie Kondo is simply correct.

    If this is so–and who am I to gainsay Claire or the Missus?–then what we have here is a remarkable finding. People may have been folding clothes for centuries, but there was still room for a breakthrough in technique. As I say, astounding. Can there be any aspect of life that is truly settled and unimprovable?

    Peter,

    Don’t try to comfort me with the bright side. Over and over again I would explain to my mother the devastating effect the sock ball had on the elastic in the sock. Then I’d go to the drawer and there they were again, SOCK BALLS!

    In my entire life, I can’t remember my mother actually raising her voice to anyone. Yet, in her own quiet sweet passive aggressive way, she could be merciless.

    At the moment, I am exceedingly thankful that an extra special cleaning product will not be used to clean out my entire apartment.

    It goes by the brand name STORM SURGE. I think the manufacturer is the one who makes the entire universe.

    Hashem, Gd of Israel, turn back from Your flaring anger and relent from the evil meant for Your people.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #29
  30. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    Peter Robinson (View Comment):
    Perfectly astounding: In the very same week, Claire and my wife both converted to the Marie Kondo folding method. And both with the same righteous insistence: Marie Kondo is simply correct.

    If this is so–and who am I to gainsay Claire or the Missus?–then what we have here is a remarkable finding. People may have been folding clothes for centuries, but there was still room for a breakthrough in technique. As I say, astounding. Can there be any aspect of life that is truly settled and unimprovable?

    Peter,

    Don’t try to comfort me with the bright side. Over and over again I would explain to my mother the devastating effect the sock ball had on the elastic in the sock. Then I’d go to the drawer and there they were again, SOCK BALLS!

    In my entire life, I can’t remember my mother actually raising her voice to anyone. Yet, in her own quiet sweet passive aggressive way, she could be merciless.

    At the moment, I am exceedingly thankful that an extra special cleaning product will not be used to clean out my entire apartment.

    It goes by the brand name STORM SURGE. I think the manufacturer is the one who makes the entire universe.

    Hashem, Gd of Israel, turn back from Your flaring anger and relent from the evil meant for Your people.

    Regards,

    Jim

    Are you in your home? Do you have an update? We are under tropical storm – the news reports are astounding! I have friends in Lakeland and Tampa who elected to stay put – Susan Quinn is around Poinciana I think – then there’s @bossmongo – check in Boss when you can – he evacuated – Hope all ok with everyone – Do you have power where you are?

    • #30
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