Carrion Luggage

Dust to Dust

Admittedly, sometimes I save a link just for the opportunity for snark. This Southern Living article is one of those.

     10 Old-School Housekeeping Habits It’s Time To Let Go Of  
Plus, how to break them to create a healthier home.

Is one of them "housekeeper?" Because who can afford a housekeeper nowadays?

We all have habits that we learned from our parents that we may never have second-guessed. And most of those habits are probably healthy ones, but when our parents were growing up, standards were different.

More true for some of us than for others.

A generation later, we just know better on certain things—plus, we have so many more products and tools at our fingertips.

Translation: This is an ad for cleaning products and tools.

Old Habit: Using The Same Sponge For Everything

To avoid cross-contamination, designate one sponge for each purpose. Disinfecting them in the dishwasher, or putting them in the microwave for two minutes, will kill a lot of the germs, but not all, so you also want to replace them often.

This message has been brought to you by The Sponge Company. The Sponge Company. The Sponge Company: Be sure you have enough sponges! Fear the germs!

Old Habit: Neglecting To Clean Your Cleaning Tools

Just like a dirty sponge may actually make your “clean” dishes dirtier, the same goes for all household cleaning tools.

Okay, to be fair, this one doesn't suggest buying new cleaning tools every week. They must have not gotten paid by The Mop Company.

Old Habit: Using Too Much Laundry Detergent

Oh, cool, this one's actually suggesting to use less laundry detergent, not more! Right?

Take the time to actually read the packaging on your detergent to see how much the manufacturer recommends using per load. Chances are, it’s much less than you’d think.

Nope. "Chances are" they still recommend too much, so you buy it more often. "Less than you'd think," maybe, but I'm guessing that's because modern laundry detergents are more concentrated, and if you're used to 1970s detergent measurements, yeah, you're probably using too much.

It's like those toothpaste commercials that gleefully demonstrate the use of their toothpaste by squeezing out a long, curly glob that fills up the entire toothbrush. No, you don't need to do that. But if you do, you'll buy more toothpaste sooner.

Speaking of toothbrushes (yeah, I'm skipping a few):

Old Habit: Not Disinfecting Toothbrushes

Growing up, the concept of cleaning a toothbrush was foreign. We just used them twice a day until the bristles were completely splayed out before finally replacing them.

I don't remember how often we replaced teethbreesh when I was a kid. Knowing my parents' well-earned frugality, it wasn't very often.

Rinse your toothbrush well after each use, and make sure you’re storing it in a place that will let it air-dry.

That's easy to say, and do, if you don't have cats.

Old Habit: Using Paper Towels To Clean Everything

The world is a lot more environmentally conscious than it was a couple decades ago, and one old-school habit we know should be broken is using disposable paper towels to clean, well, everything.

Oh, no, we should use sponges instead. You know, sponges made of some kind of plastic rather than paper towels made with vegetable matter. Sponges that, per the above, are always covered in lurking germs just waiting to pounce.

Nah. I'm using paper towels to clean everything. It's more sanitary. It's not that I don't care about the environment; it's that my contribution means squattly-dick in the face of corporate shenanigans.

Old Habit: Leaving Dusting Until Last

You may have seen your parents dusting off furniture, ceiling fans, ledges, moldings, and the contents of the curio cabinet as the final step of cleaning a room—after the tidying and vacuuming was done.

I'm not psychologically able to use "dust" as a verb. It's one of those contronyms, anyway: "to dust" can mean "to remove dust from" or "to sprinkle dust upon." And I don't have the mental energy to be careful with context every damn time.

Okay, so, that article wasn't nearly as much of an ad as I'd feared. Still, you gotta look out for these things. There's more at the link, because I can reluctantly admit that there may be some good tips in there.