Scrubbin'

We're getting our house ready to put on the market, and all the cleaning involved has made it very apparent to me just how dirty our house was.  You never really think about washing things like baseboards and trim (well, I never think about it).  And I didn't really realize how dirty they were until I started washing them.  There were little spatters from the Tom & Jerry I spilled two Christmases ago and the glass of red wine from three years ago.  Note to self: don't drink and walk up stairs.  But now that three and a half year's worth of dust is gone, all the trim looks really good.

I also just finished scrubbing the bathroom floor - on my hands and knees, with a scrub brush and some 20 Mule Team borax (that's seriously what it's called).  First, and best, of all, I don't need to go to the gym anymore.  And the bathroom actually looks pretty spiffy now.  I mean, there's only so much you can do with old grout, but at least it doesn't look brownish-black anymore.  By the way, borax is awesome; it's not bad for the environment, you can use it to clean pretty much anything, and you can use it in the laundry to give your clothes a little extra cleaning oomph.  I'm not sure where the "20 Mule Team" thing comes from, but I'm pretty sure having a team of 20 mules in my house would not make it very clean.

I have decided that in our new house, we should make sure to do a deep cleaning twice a year, so that we don't end up with alcohol-spattered baseboards.  I am not making any promises, though, and so we are considering buying a house made completely of stainless steel that will clean itself while I walk the dog.

Update: I just went on Wikipedia, and apparently the "20 Mule Team" refers to the twenty mule teams that were used to move borax out of Death Valley, CA to the nearest rail spur between 1883 and 1889.  I love random trivia.