36: window cleaner

I spent Thursday working with Dad, cleaning windows and trimming bushes. Let me start by telling you that I absolutely loved hedge trimming.

I loved being trusted to take a power tool to someone else's property. I loved watching smooth lines appear. I loved carving rounded edges into the newly shaped shrubbery. I loved thinking about our home, and how I'll be able to care for it... and how our neighbors will be frightened or impressed that the Woman of the House is trimming and not Her Man, because let's be honest, a lot of us are still back there.

Now as I said, Dad and I spent a good part of the day (four hours) cleaning a woman's windows inside and out. The recipe for that:
2 rolls paper towels
1 squirt bottle glass cleaner
2 buckets of wadded paper towel and cardboard rolls

So that got me thinking. How much money could we save–how many chemicals could we save spraying–if we made our own window cleaner? Answer: a lot.

There are a million and one recipes out there for window cleaner, but many of them involve dish soap. This is adding all of those chemicals back in there (with the exception of soaps like Seventh Generation).

I was reading along and had settled into using alcohol, vinegar and water when a professional window cleaner names Steve chimed in on a post. He argues with the common idea that newspaper print is good at preventing streaks... he goes on to say that we should buy professional cleaning tools, or better yet hire a professional.

Well I say that people should buy newspapers written by journalists instead of reading shit by citizen "journalists" that didn't study the art, and no one listens to me. So, here's tip #1: use newspaper instead of paper towels. I know, I know. You think the ink's going to go to town on your window, but no. It all works out. You buy a paper; you read it; you fill a squirt bottle up and clean your windows. Everybody wins.

Now for tip #2. the average of the recipes I've found for window and glass cleaner looks something like this, found with a few others in Tipnut:

1 part alcohol to 4 parts water
splash of ammonia

I'm standing by that recipe, newspaper and some elbow grease to get the smears out, but if results are satisfying, I'll opt for a teaspoon of dish detergent, one free of harmful chemicals. Hmm... I bet we could make that, too.