I've begun my deep cleaning in earnest and have a new comrade to bring to the battle with me. It's a hand knitted dish cloth! For the record, I have always turned my nose up at knitted dishrags, they seemed so granny, but what the heck, I'm a granny, but still, I was stubbornly snobbish about them. Then my girlfriend started making them and loving them and convinced me that I would love them too.  I had also  recently read that my beloved microfiber cleaning cloths were bad for the environment. Each use releases zillions of microscopic fibers into the water supply and oceans and they never biodegrade. And sponges harbor bacteria. I knew I had to replace my system and was so happy to get a push towards the old fashioned  dish rag. I've used them now for a few weeks and found they are great for every cleaning chore. I made up my own simple diagonal garter pattern and it's free for you on Ravelry in my project page. Garter stitch makes a great texture for scrubbing, yet the cotton is non scratchy. It's absorbent and dries quickly and can be tossed in the laundry at the end of the day. The ten I can make out of my 5 skeins will be enough to get me through the week. I used Knit Picks Dishie, 100% cotton worsted weight. Dishie is easy on the hands and I loved it so much, last night I ordered 5 skeins in pale blue for a summer sweater for me. If it works, it will be the bargain sweater of a lifetime! 

Back to deep cleaning, I printed out a guide that I keep out on the kitchen table--a sort of visual daily reminder so there's no denying that I really am  in deep cleaning mode. I can't link to it because I couldn't find it again but I like this one even more. I also penciled in some extra chores that are specific for my house, such as the furnace room and my mountain of ironing. For all this I'll give myself 2 months because some days I don't mind working for several hours and other days I barely want to do 10 minutes. I'm saving the beast 'til last, the kitchen, with the worst of the beast being the freezer and pantry, and that will be dead last. It's easier to clean out the freezer and pantry when they are somewhat empty and to prepare for that I'm going to do the "pantry challenge" again. Remember that? So many of you did that with me in 2022 and weren't we glad we did? The rules are the same: eat the food you have, no buying items for the pantry or buying frozen food for one month (or as long as you can go--I don't want you to starve!) Bypass the sales, resist the urges, because we are on a mission to lighten things up before we clean. We will plan meals around the food we already have and only shop to supplement our meals with fresh bread, dairy and fruits and vegetables.  Buy nothing frozen, canned, bottled or boxed. Read the whole post to get yourself geared up and then let's start on February 1. Bonus: it's a short month. At the end we'll tackle the beast! Are you on board? Please say yes!