My secret weapon

This morning (okay, it was really like mid-morning.....like 1/2 hour before lunch morning) I went into my kitchen to finally clean it. Which, by the way, what is the point really? I mean, lunch was in a half an hour and it was just going to get dirty again. I was about to talk myself out of it, and then I smelled a funky smell......my kitchen was rank.....I mean it smelled AWFUL! I finally tracked down the smell to a wet dishrag in the kitchen sink. (Just what was it doing piled under all of those dishes that I neglected to load in the dishwasher last night???? Oh the horror.) Well, this was just awful. I couldn't have my kitchen smelling like a dump. I promptly pulled out the offensive rag and tossed it straightaway in the garbage can. Now time to do something about this smell......I pulled out my secret weapon.....



But let me back track a little......a few months ago I was shopping in the hellish isles of Wal-mart. I was pondering over the cleaning supplies when I noticed a lowly little bottle of this stuff:

I had a flashback to my childhood. My mom used to clean with this stuff all the time (that and ammonia, which I'm sure was just awesome for the health of our lungs) and I always remember that when we got done cleaning the house just smelled so.....clean. So among all the new fangled products like Clorox wipes, and swiffer wet jet mops, and Windex wipes and pledge wipes and every kind of antibacterial cleaning product imaginable sat this little dandy. I decided to pick up a bottle. I mean, not to clean with, mind you. No, I would much prefer the newer, easier- to- use stuff. I picked up a bottle of this bad boy to make my house smell clean. (Which you must admit, pine sol does. Sure, it may conjure up images of hospitals and mental institutions, but still...it smells clean.

So, I took it home and used it every time I cleaned my house. Again, not to clean, but just to make it smell clean. I would scrub my kitchen sink and then run the hot water again, add pine sol and just let it soak....the smell would permeate the house. I would also do this with my bathroom sinks, toilets, bathtubs.....you get the idea. And no fail, whenever someone walked into my house, just by the smell alone, they would say, "Oh, your house is so clean." This is when I got my GREAT idea. I don't have to actually clean the house, for the house to appear clean.... Let me break it down for you: a little surface cleaning, (ie vacuuming, dusting, things picked up) and a little pine sol soaking in the sink and you have an immaculately cleaned house. I started to use this trick to my advantage.

"Oh, hello visiting teachers, what's that? You want to drop by in 15 minutes? No problem."

"Yes Lewis, I have been cleaning my house all day instead of sitting outside on my neighbor's porch like a porch monkey watching my kids play in the road."

And let's not even discuss the time that 50 of the Relief Society sisters had a progressive dinner at my house during the holiday Season!!!

Pine sol has become my new best friend.....and my secret weapon.

So, if you are ever in my home and you smell that "powerful scent of clean" well, you'll never know if I really cleaned my house, or if I just employed my secret weapon! But please, don't look too closely at my baseboards...that's all I ask of you.

Oh, and yes, my kitchen does smell lovely now.....Thanks pine sol!