You Missed A Spot

I'm not quite sure when I first became aware of my "clean windows" obsession..
I have a suspicion it started somewhere in my childhood, having the prestigious job of cleaning my grandma's windows standing barefoot on her English oak dining table, and working with a chamois leather until my arms ached.
She liked to clean the windows at night, her theory was, "You can see the streaks better , when the sun goes down"...

One of the standards in an English household, are clean windows.
We obsess about them, neighbours fall out over them, you are judged by them.
Woe be the housewife who has dirty windows......



The window cleaner used to come around weekly, and clean the outside of the windows. There were window cleaners in every neighborhood of every town in England. The homeowner themselves, usually cleaned the insides, unless the job was too difficult.
It was always about pride.....we British seem to hang our hat's on that one.

 

It seems I continued my "must clean the windows" one -woman campaign , as soon as my suitcase was unpacked in Colorado. One of the first items I bought at the local K. Mart store was a nice leather chamois cloth, Windex and soft cotton towels.

Cleaning the windows on the inside, was not a problem, but I had never been introduced to "storm windows", or "screened windows". I understood the need, but wondered how American housewives cleaned the windows weekly, when it took so much time in removing the screens first.
It wasn't too much time before I realized it was an impossible goal. Too heavy, too cumbersome, too time-consuming......forget it.

I still clean windows regularly. Maybe not all at once, (we have 25 windows in this house) but they all get a "lick and a promise", before a season passes.

These days we have those "new type" windows that you can pull inside the house and clean...except it's not quite that simple.
I tend to end up wrestling with the bloomin things, and then have to wack 'em back into the tracks to get them back in the frame. I have this feeling one day they won't go back in, and I'll be left with holes and NO windows...lol




My grandma Ciss used to tell me " Take care of the corners, the middle will look after itself ."

To this day, I cannot clean a window, without hearing her whispering that little saying into my ear. I always smile and give the corners an extra little rub.
I have innocently enough, passed this obsession along to my daughter....... *grin*.