the kitchen floor needs love, too

I hate doing dishes. I really do. I hate the way they pile up in the sink, their sauce-covered faces twisted in despair. They sit there, tangled up in one another, moaning and whining softly, "wash us, pleeeeeeeeease, kate, we're so dirrrrrrrrrty, and it just feeeeeeels so grooooooss." So I wash them. I do them every day, and if not every day, every other day. But I hate it. And they know I hate it. We've reached an understanding.


But I hate mopping the floor worse. And it shows.


Last weekend, I had a small baking catastrophe that involved some very chocolatey batter splattering onto my white (well, at the time, somewhat grey) linoleum floor. I got on the floor, Formula 409 in hand, and cleaned everything up. Then that one square of my floor was sparkling white and the rest of the floor was actively redefining the word dingy.


So I did another square.


And another. And another. Until I had a gleaming L on my floor. Then I ran out of paper towels.


This weekend, I decided it was too disgusting for words, and since I didn't have any plans on Sunday (see failed attempts to garner said plans here and here and here... sigh) I tackled the floor, while the dishes sat quietly humming to themselves in the drying rack (yes, I did them first. that's how little I wanted to do the floor.)


I had recently read in Real Simple Solutions (a good book for someone else to spend their money on and for you to leaf through at their house while your co-star is two and a half hours late) that you can clean linoleum with baking soda. And I'm into trying earth-friendly solutions.
So I hauled out the bucket and the mop (neither of which even recognized me anymore) and got myself some hot water and dumped in some baking soda. I dragged it out to the corner of the kitchen that was the least dirty, and got to work.


Let me just say this: Baking Soda beats the pants off of ANY floor cleaner I've ever used.


Let me say this, too: only use it if you have at least an hour to clean your floor. While it grabs the grime like that's its only purpose in life, it also likes to linger. On the floor, on the baseboard, on the mop, in the bucket, on your hands... on your knees, when you get down on the floor to scrub at it with a sponge to just Make. It. Go. Away.


My floor is more spic and span than it ever was with spic and span, but I mopped and glo'ed more than I ever had to with mop and glo. Yes, I saved the earth a little, and got the white floor back that I had assumed was gone forever, but I think I'd rather have a social life.


Or at least something good from netflix.