8 Things I Use to Make Cleaning Easier in Midlife (Every One Came From My Mexican Mother)

📖 Get Bertha's Cleaning Book, every method for the whole house, written down: https://berthacleans.com Pick up a full bucket of water the way you always do and feel where it pulls, low in the back, then in the wrist. It is not because your body is too old for cleaning, mija. It is because you are still cleaning with the tools and habits of a twenty five year old. My mother kept her own house until she was eighty one, and she never cleaned harder as she got older. She cleaned smarter with her body. Eight things, and every one came from her hands. THE EIGHT: 1. ONE JOB A DAY (la lista). Monday the wash, Tuesday the ironing, Wednesday the bathroom, Thursday the floors, Friday the kitchen, taped inside the cupboard door. An hour of cleaning is exercise. Five hours is an injury 2. EL BANQUITO. A low wooden stool for every low job, the oven, the tub, the bottom shelf. Back straight, knees free. Kneel only on a folded towel, never bare tile 3. THE JALADOR AND THE JERGA. The floor squeegee with a wet cloth around the blade, pulled standing up straight, wrung around the handle. The broom upside down with a rag takes the ceiling cobwebs. Never climb a chair 4. THE HALF BUCKET ON A TOWEL. Never more than half full, filled where you use it with a pitcher, slid on an old towel instead of carried 5. THE ESTROPAJO. The natural loofah grips the surface by itself, so your hand does not have to squeeze. Scrubs without scratching, dries fast 6. THE SOAK. Zote on the collar and into the water overnight. Vinegar on the shower walls, then walk away. The waiting does the scrubbing, your hands only take it away 7. THE PUMICE STONE. The toilet ring off in about a minute instead of twenty on your knees. Stone and porcelain both wet, gentle like erasing a pencil line 8. THE SUN. Pillows on the line, cutting boards face to the light, whites wet on the bushes, the rug over the railing. It does the hardest job while you sit down The same mistake wearing eight faces: using your body as the tool when an old tool would carry the weight. TWO WARNINGS: sharp pain, pain at night, or pain down the leg is not a cleaning problem, have it looked at. The banquito sits flat on a dry floor and is never stood on. Pumice only on wet porcelain, never enamel, glass or chrome. WHO PROFITS: a whole aisle of machines for women over fifty. A little wooden stool and an old towel under the bucket do most of the same work for nothing. Let the tool carry the weight. Tomorrow: find your banquito, a low stool, a sturdy crate, a step, and do your next low job sitting down. Tell me in the comments which of these eight your mother used and what she called it, your county, and how old you were when cleaning started to hurt. I read every one