Control your spring cleaning impulse… how to clean kitchen tiles
“The Mole had been working very hard all morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs….Spring was moving in the air above, and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with a spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said ‘Bother!’ and ‘O Blow!’ and also ‘Hang spring-cleaning!’ and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat.”
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
The other day I was looking ahead, mindlessly, at the wall behind my beloved aga… and suddenly I noticed that the tiles there were filthy. They must have been like that for some time, and I hadn’t even noticed.
I was suffering from a bad case of incipient spring cleaning fever.
This is a serious malady which needs to be strictly controlled. The key is to identify one small, containable job to do, do it well, feel self-satisfied and thus avoid any panicky throughout-the-house top-to-toe nonsense.
My kitchen tiles are, thankfully, limited to a small area beyond the hobs – the perfect cure. How to clean them?
This advice is gleaned from Good Housekeeping Magazine. The method has been tried and tested, once, by Saucy Dressings.
How to clean kitchen tiles
- Wash the surface with a J-cloth and a little washing-up liquid. Rinse out and wipe over. Polish dry with a convenient, nearby tea towel.
- The grouting might need more serious treatment. Find an old toothbrush, or commandeer your elderly one, and treat yourself to a brand new one. Dip it in bleach and scrub away. Get some music going… this is a boring job which requires patience. You can use whitening toothpaste instead of bleach but it’s not nearly as effective.
For other kitchen tips and tricks, follow this link.
Music to play as you clean
You could try Louis Armstrong singing and playing Whistle While You Work; or Rufus Wainwright’s Peaceful Afternoon, where he sings “between sex and death and tryin’ to keep the kitchen clean”.
