I Can See Clearly ....

.... now I've cleaned the windows.

The trouble with a bright winter's sun is that it doesn't half show up the smears and streaks on your windows.  This morning I'd had enough of staring out through a misty haze and decided to give the windows a darned good clean.  This is no problem downstairs as pretty much all the windows are easy to reach both inside and out.  Upstairs, however, is a different ball game entirely.  The cleaning of the outside of those windows involves much balancing on a small pair of step ladders and a great deal of reaching and stretching at unnatural angles to try and get the whole of each outside pane clean.  I have to admit that I just can't do the outside of the landing window or the bathroom window, and neither of those have been cleaned for almost three years (and that's to my knowledge!)

These days I use the squirty clear Windolene stuff.  Years ago I always used the pink, chalky, original Windolene.  Me and that cleaner always had a very fraught relationship because every time I removed the lid the contents would throw themselves, hari-kari like, everywhere.  And I do mean everywhere.  Cleaning the windows meant liberally sprinkling the windowsills, walls, furniture, carpets, and me, with the lurid pink liquid.  I don't know what my problem with it was but I just couldn't control the stuff.  Thank goodness for the technology that invented clear Windolene in a squirty bottle.  I'm sure there are probably much 'greener' ways to clean windows - probably involving vinegar and scrunched-up newspaper, which I think Dad always used - but I'm just grateful that I have finally found something which doesn't coat it's immediate surroundings with pink gunk.

I do like to use a nice bit of soft cotton cloth on the windows.  The somewhat grubby ball of fabric in the picture above used to be a pair of Bridget Jones-style knickers (they were washed before being used as a duster!), but anything beyond wearing that is made from pure cotton gets cut up for dusters eventually, especially well worn and washed old T-shirts or pyjamas.  They don't scratch the glass, and don't leave bits of fluff behind like those hideous yellow dusters you can buy in the shops, and I don't feel guilty when they get so filthy they have to be binned.

It would be nice to be able to employ a window cleaner again but I never seem to come across them where I live.  The first window cleaner I employed regularly was when P and I lived in Nottingham.  The 'relationship' didn't start off very well as the morning I managed to nab the chap to clean our windows P was still snoozing in bed.  I saw him putting his ladders up to clean the upstairs windows first and thought I'd better dash up and explain to P that there would be a window cleaner outside the bedroom window any second.  Somehow I got distracted and before I could get upstairs there came the sound of a terrible fracas breaking out - P was trying to knock the window cleaner off his ladder as he had assumed he was a burglar and the window cleaner was trying to explain that he was only doing his job!!  After much apology and explanation it transpired that they don't have window cleaners in Switzerland (where P is from originally) so he had automatically assumed a man up a ladder at the bedroom window could only be up to no good!! 

Anyway, my windows are sparkly and clean now - it was probably just as well I cleaned them when I did as snow is forecast for the weekend - yikes!! 

Comments

[Claire]

That has just reminded me to clean my windows - I have told David that we are cleaning the house this weekend - really thoroughly, as it's not been done that well since we moved in. And we have smears all over the inside of the windows about a foot above the windowsill where the cats rub their noses, then covere that in cat fur, and do a really good Marcel Marceau impression trying to get at the bird/leaf/neighbours cat that has dared to stray into the garden.... I also smiled as I was always brought up thinking dusters were really made from old pants and vests (it wasn't until I was a late teenager that I realised people could buy them....) and in particular dusting with my dad's old vest. I use laddered tights to clean my mirrors - they work really well!

[The Shopping Sherpa]

Sounds like you need a Window Wizard or other magnetic doohick which lets you clean the inside and outside of the window at the same time...

[Gill]

Yes I grew up thinking that dusters were made from old t-shirts too! And I still have a bag of them on hand for all sorts of jobs around the house. I used to hate the pink Windowlene, I could never quite get all the pinkness off the windows and mirrors. The clear is so much better, but as I'm lucky enough to have a window cleaner I only have to do the insides. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Pete the window cleaner,every time he calls he's had some sort of crisis or problem and I end up feeling very sorry for him. Currently he's out of action with a broken leg! But I also know he charges more than others in the area, so I sort of reluctantly keep him on because of all these problems he has....he tried to put the price up last year and I said we'd have to stop using him...funnily enough he called back the next day and said he'd carry on at the same rate. I'm waiting for him to put prices up again once his leg has healed,I guess he'll be wanting to make up for not working for the last couple of months.