It's no Taj Mahal, but it's “my hall”

Technically I’m referring to the stairs leading up to my hall, but I thought the title was witty enough to make it work.  Well I just made a shocking discovery about my stairs:

Beautiful aren’t they? I’ve fallen down them once and landed on my tailbone, at which point I was cursing the beautiful stairs, but I digress. My shocking discovery was the spindles…they were FILTHY!

And I’m not just referring to the first spindle that would obviously be a nice anchor for little hands as little bodies round the corner. I am referring to every single one of the 37 (not that I counted) WHITE spindles leading up the stairs to “my-hall”. What’s funny is I didn’t realize they were ALL dirty until I decided to clean just one and found myself 15 minutes later working my way up the stairs because the next spindle was dirtier than the last.

So riddle me this…how did they all get so dirty? I mean, I know my little guy can’t reach the banister, so his hands have probably grabbed them up and down the stairs countless times. And we’ve lived in this house for about 7 years and have had 2 little guys since, which is 7 years of dirty little hands. Oh wait….that explains it.

So this got me to thinking about spring cleaning. It’s that time. Although our area is HARDLY spring yet with frigid temperatures and even sleet just last week, I really should start thinking about spring cleaning. Heck maybe it will bring on the warm weather! One thing I like to do every spring is clean my windows. My front door is also glass and there is still a ring mark on it from the suction cup that held up my Christmas wreaths! Don’t judge.

So I decided to take some lessons from my friend and blog partner, Deena, and clean with vinegar and newspaper. She cleaned her WHOLE bathroom with this stuff (read article here), so why not do my front door?

The supplies

Can you believe the size of that bottle of vinegar?  1.32 gallons all from Costco, where else?  I used a little bit of lemon juice to try and take out a bit of the vinegar smell, but turns out it didn’t really matter since I was cleaning on the outside.  The smell didn’t bother me much at all.

I would like to point out that I am not usually that fashionably dressed when cleaning, but this was a last minute idea and I didn’t really feel like changing.  And was I worried what the neighbors would think of me out there cleaning with newspaper?  Of course!  Afterall, it’s not very conventional.  Oh and I didn’t realize until after I started cleaning that the newspaper section I happened to pick to use was the one with the obituaries.  Oops!  I guess this wasn’t as disrespectful as the time I realized I put them in my dog’s crate when she wasn’t yet potty trained!

Don’t forget the gloves…the newspaper does a number on your hands!

Nice, streak-free, clean windows…just in time for spring!

What other spring cleaning tasks could we be doing? I did a google search because I believe everything I read on the computer:

• clean/dust baseboards, window sills, doors and walls
• dust corners (top and bottom) for cobwebs
• clean cabinets and drawers (inside and out) and appliances
• wipe down inside and outside of refrigerator and freezer
• purge things in your home you don’t need anymore (I’m contributing to a children’s consignment sale this week..yay!!!)

So with my all natural cleaning and the fact that I am about to eat quinoa for dinner, I’d say my Everyday Road to Healthy (e.r.t.h.) rating is a 2 out of 5 stars. If I had eaten a little smarter today and actually attempted to exercise, maybe I’d give myself a higher rating, but I guess I can only move up from here!