Day 6 of the 10 Days of Tea
Maybe Grandma really did know best. Some of her old adages and home remedies seemed silly to me as a kid. Like “early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy, and wise.” But today studies indicate that sleep deprivation can be dangerous to physical and mental health.
So, when I recently read that tea is a wonderful cleaning agent for furniture, I flashed back to a conversation I had with my grandmother years ago. She was born in the 19th century and had all kinds of advice on cooking and cleaning—whether recipients wanted it or not. She was also a wonderful storyteller who entertained me with tales of the “olden days.” It had never dawned on me that there was a time before Windex until she told me about her daily chores which included cleaning and shining the household mirrors.
I listened intently as she said, “I brewed a big batch of tea…”
Wait, what? Tea?
I had heard correctly. Cooled tea was used by many people to clean and shine mirrors in the days before mass marketing of chemical cleaning agents. It was used to clean wood furniture and flooring, too. With so many people looking for green and chemical-free products, it seems we have come full circle. The tanic acid in the tea breaks down dirt.
To clean and polish mirrors, windows, and even TV screens brew tea using 2 tea bags to 4 cups of water. Let it cool. Dampen a soft rag with it and scrub dirt off of mirrors. Alternatively, you can fill a clean spray bottle with tea and spray it right onto the glass surface. Either way you apply the liquid, use a soft dry cloth to wipe it off and shine the mirror.
Clean wood floors and furniture the same way, but feel free to rub a little harder than you would rub glass if necessary. You'll remove dirt and deodorize your floors in a healthy way that's easy on the pocket book.
All things healthy and budget-friendly always sound good to me. If you’d like some other ideas for using your kitchen supplies to your greatest advantage check out the Easy Weekly Meals cookbooks. They’re smart, they pay for themselves quickly, and they lead to delicious, healthy food.
Drop by tomorrow for Day 7 of 10 Days of Tea for National Hot Tea Month.
Image courtesy of Susie B / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
