Thursday 9 August 2018

Window cleaning.

He must be telepathic.  This morning the sun shone on my sitting room window - it was filthy.   I have lived in my bungalow for nine months now and in that time the window cleaner has only been twice.   Unfortunately he has had two road accidents quite close together (he is a keen cyclist) and been quite incapacitated.   But he now has a nephew who has joined him in the business and the young man turned up today ready to get stuck in.   There is, of course, a plus side to the windows being so filthy - when they have been cleaned you can certainly see the difference!

I thought back to window cleaning when I was a child.   Our house had sash windows.   My mother cleaned our windows.   She always bought a good quality wash leather, deeming it very important.   She had a bucket of warm water with a good application of vinegar in it, and to clean the upstairs windows she pushed the bottom sash window up, sat on the window sill and then pulled the window down to 'trap' her there while she cleaned the glass.   I always found it very scary.
Downstairs she used a step ladder to reach each window.   The work took most of the afternoon.  (The fact that it then usually rained the next day was always noted).   Each window was dried off with a pristine yellow duster.

Now, the window cleaner comes with his van and his vat of clear water.   He has a hosed brush, switches the whole thing on and goes round the windows at breakneck speed, leaving water pouring down the glass.   No leathering it off.   The windows dry clean and clear and the whole job is finished in around ten minutes.   And does it rain the next day?   Well we shall see tomorrow shalln't we.  As he has been so rarely I really can't remember, but as he has now promised to call once a month they should be glowing whatever the weather.

24 comments:

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

Cleaning windows is what I was doing yesterday - today, of course, it has rained incessantly.

Rachel Phillips said...

It has rained all day today.

Sue said...

I clean the windows of our French house, they open inwards so it makes the job a lot easier.

justjill said...

The DP does the windows here. With vinegar and a scrapy thing to remove the water, and yes it usually rains soon after.

Derek Faulkner said...

Rained all day here Pat

Anonymous said...

I still have to clean some windows the way your mother did.....sitting on the window sill and as I am 76 I wonder how much longer I will be able to fold myself up and crawl out the window. AAgghh!

jinxxxygirl said...

Your doing well Pat... i haven't cleaned my windows in ages... Well the outside any way.. I do the inside... two story house and i won't spend the money to have someone come in and i'am not inclined to do it myself.. So your doing good.. :) Hugs! deb

angryparsnip said...

I use something like your cleaner, you wet the window ,soap it up with the sponge on a pole then rinse it off no drying. Love it !
Clean windows in 2 seconds.

cheers, parsnip and badger

Pipistrello said...

It's a Universal Law, is it not, that window washing (and car washing) is always followed by rain?

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

We have screens on the outsides of our windows (it surprised me so much that there were no screens on the windows in the places we stayed in, in England), so it's a bit of work to wash the outsides of them. I normally use Windex, but am always thinking I should clean with water, vinegar, and newspaper. -Jenn

Cro Magnon said...

I very rarely clean our windows, and then it's only ever downstairs. We have big plate glass windows, so a bucket of warm soapy water, a sponge, and a squeegee does the job very quickly.

Librarian said...

Strangely enough, much as I usually like doing housework (it gives me a welcome change from my desk job), and especially ironing, I really don't like cleaning my windows and usually leave it as the very last job to do, when I will be hosting a party or so.
They never turn out as perfect as I want them, and get dirty here in town so quickly again that it just is not much fun.
My windows open inwards, like most people's here in Germany do, and nobody I know here employs a window cleaner (unless of course they have someone coming in for the general house cleaning anyway). Offices etc. regularly have window cleaners come round, and we watch them from our desks sliding up and down the facades of the buildings in their elevators, working their way systematically across what must be acres of glass.

Ivy said...

Exept 1 very high window in our living room I don't have to use a step ladder to clean the windows, since we live in a bungalow. It certainly makes me clean them more often, less ado.
My husband cleans the high one.
I am going to wait another week because of the rain forcasted.

thelma said...

Our window cleaner comes once a month with a vat of water and it only takes 10 minutes, there are marks on the window though because no last minute polish. It is gently raining today, the showers as they were forecast for this side of Yorkshire.

The Weaver of Grass said...

It was raining when I drew back the curtains this morning!

Maureen Reynolds said...

I remember the frequent window washer housed to come when I lived in England. Here in our part of the US, we have screens on all our windows and blinds or shades to let in or keep out the sun and/or heat. If the outside of the windows get washed yearly, it's a miracle. The insides get a lick and a promise every other week when the cleaning lady comes.

Heather said...

The windows here are due to be cleaned this month but we don't get them done very regularly. I know they are very dirty inside and am waiting for the outsides to be done before I do the them, so I shall know if I have done a good job or not. There is absolutely no defence for having dirty inside windows as I now have only four!

Derek Faulkner said...

13.30 and lashing down with rain here for the second day running and it's cooler and very autumnal - seems like the heatwave and drought never happened.

Gwil W said...

I remember driving through Todmorden and seeing a bucket in the road and then the feet of a ladder as I rounded the corner. I glanced up and there he was - cleaning the windows three stories up - not a care in the world and traffic missing the bottom of his ladder by inches. I shudder to think about it.

The Weaver of Grass said...

It is a relief to know that absolutely nobody seems to get their windows cleaned regularly. Thanks for your comments.

Ruth said...

Oh Pat! My mother washed windows the way yours did by sitting on the windowsill, bracing herself by "holding" the upper window with the crook of her left arm while she washed and dried with the right hand. We lived on the second floor and it always scared me to see her out there. When I married and lived upstairs with double sash windows, I found a way to wash them without putting myself in harm's way. It involved a lot of raising and lowering, standing on a stool to reach outside at the top, stooping to reach up from the bottom - half a sash at a time - until the whole outside was cleaned. Then I could do the insides easily. It made me appreciate what my mother went through and why she was adamant about us not touching the window glass - we weren't allowed to mess with the freshly washed and starched curtains, either. They were done on curtain stretchers - did you use them over there, I wonder? I'm fortunate now to have tilt-in windows so there's no need to go outside or sit on windowsills.

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Maybe I should wash the windows and see if it will rain the next day - we sure could use the rain out here in the Pacific Northwest. Isn't it such a thrill to look through clean sparkling windows?

DCAja said...

love this blog for sure!
br,
CA

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