On Household Cleaning Products  

Sometimes when I clean, I think about what I would say about it on my blog. But I've always refrained from mentioning it because A. I don't want you to think I'm neurotic about it (which is borderline true) and B. as you might be thinking right now, It's boring. But today I had a sort of funny experience. After purchasing a glass-surface cleaner based on environmental concerns, Leslie discovered that it was not, in fact, streak-free as the packaging claimed. Well, that's about what you get when you don't use ammonia. But today I decided to try using White Board cleaner (that is, a cleaning solution for white boards, not a brand name) instead. But the cleaner didn't 'clean' as such; smudges remained smudges, etc. However, the streak-free 'cleans' great. So my new method of cleaning the mirrors is to use the streak free to clean, and the cleaner to get rid of streaks. Huh..

Ok, so the one thing I really have wanted to ask my "mother" audience* is, Does vacuuming several times a week do good? I thought I heard once that vacuuming every day (or whatever) actually extends the life of your carpet, but I don't know where I heard that and the internet is more or less unhelpful. I would say I spot-vacuum certain places every other day, with a whole-room vacuum twice a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have to clean the vacuum more often, but I like how the carpet feels. Am I full of it in thinking that I'm improving the quality of the carpet, or is it somehow bad to vacuum repeatedly?

*Fathers and sisters may weigh in as well, haha.

In other news, I was a gym teacher yesterday. I would guess that 90% (or more) of 4th through 8th grade students were unable to complete two laps around a football field without walking, and probably 25% ran no more than 100 yards total. As one kid put it, with a sort of 'Aw, gee' look, "I guess skateboarding doesn't really help your lungs..."