A woman's work is never done

If you have tile, you know those annoying splats & drip marks you get that you can see when the sunlight gleams across the surface just right? They're invisible when you're standing right over them but glance along your floor during the late afternoon and it looks like it's been splatter painted with water spots. I hate 'em. I usually wet mop once or twice a week to get up all the grit and *try* to get rid of these splatters but they don't always mop away. Today I finally got sick of it. I broke out the heavy duty yellow scrub brush I bought at ACE hardware for the shower, some rubber gloves and the mop bucket. I also pulled out the citrus scented rubbing alcohol I bought from HEB a couple weeks ago.

Now, really quick, if you have never cleaned with rubbing alcohol, you simply MUST try it. Not only is it nearly as cheap as water, it cuts through grime FAST. I use it on lots of things but it works especially well at getting the dirt film off glass and windows, leaving them so clear it doesn't even look like glass is there. Oh, and try it for polishing anything chrome. Faucets will shine clean & bright, as if you just replaced them with all new fixtures, and mirrors gleam like they did when you first moved in.

Any ways, I mixed up some of the rubbing alcohol (1/2 cup?) with 1/3 mop bucket of warm water. I put Aiden in his high chair with some snacks and started scrubbing. It was quite the workout! I hand scrubbed the large, main traffic area in the living room and hallway plus a majority of the kitchen that had the worst splatters. I dumped the bucket of now dirty water in the hall bath, filled it back up and then rinse-mopped the floor with just my regular sponge mop and the clear water. I flipped on the ceiling fan to let it dry and went to check on Aiden, who had been surprisingly quiet the entire time.

I didn't mention it before, but I gave him the top half of an oreo cookie, with the cream filling scraped off, along with an arrowroot cookie, a couple of Ritz and the usual Cheerio-and-Gerber-Puff mix. (I have begun referring to this as baby trail mix - it's a staple around here.) I came back to find THIS waiting for me in the kitchen:



Yes, ONE oreo cookie half did all this! I don't think he got a crumb of it in his tummy. He just smeared it all over. Even better, Brian, in his superior wisdom of where he thinks things *should* go, had moved my hand and face wipes from under the kitchen sink to under the bathroom sink where they used to reside before we had kids. So I had to haul a cookie-smeared Aiden to his changing table for a wipe-down, leaving a tiny crumb trail across my freshly scrubbed floors. (Seriously Bri, just leave the wipes under the kitchen sink! Please?) I got Aiden wiped down & completely changed then walked back to the living room to examine my back-breaking scrub job.

The floors are gorgeous. Beyond gorgeous. They haven't looked this good yet. The matte finish is flawlessly streak-and-spot free, even in direct sunlight, and I'm frustrated I didn't scrub every single tile in the whole house. The rubbing alcohol & water mix was an amazing cleaner and since I used the citrus scent, the place smells pretty good, too. Aiden is down for a nap and I'm blogging while I let my back recover because I'm about to re-do the entire kitchen and hand scrub every tile in there. I'll do each room on other days and see if I can't finally stay on top of these mystery spots. After that I need to scrub Aiden's bib & tray. I've got them in soapy water, trying to soak off the oreo paste at the moment. Honestly, a woman's work is just never done!!!