Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Adventures in Window Washing

You've heard of Tom Sawyer, right? He's the guy who turned a fence-painting chore into opportunity to get someone else to do it. Am I saying that was my plan when I set out to clean the windows outside? (I plead the fifth.) That is how it worked out, though.

I've been a BzzAgent for about a year now. As a BzzAgent, I check out websites and offer reviews on them. Now and then, I also get free products to try, with the agreement that I will talk about what I think of the product with other people. It's basic word-of-mouth advertising. (Honesty is an important part of being a BzzAgent.) Because Mr.4444 and I really loved this product, I'm posting about it today. Don't whine, now...I promise it will be interesting. You'll get to see the inside and outside of our house (and you know you're curious.)


So, I got this Windex All-in-One Outdoor Window Cleaning Kit from BzzAgent and decide that it's something Mr.4444 could use, since he's a big advocate for "old school" methods of window cleaning. I set the box on the table next to his chair in the livingroom, thinking it would inspire him, and there it sat (for a week.) I couldn't take it any more come Saturday. I mean, look at the filth on this patio window!

From the inside...

And the outside...I mentioned that I was going to "try out this new window cleaning thingy," and I took it outside. It's a gadget; you attach the pad to the wand that's provided and follow these three, SIMPLE steps.

Get the window wet...Scrub the window with the pad...Rinse!Here's the end result:At this point, Mr.4444 came out on the deck and took the scrubbing thing from me. (I pretended to be offended.) Cooper stayed on the lookout for squirrels. See, it's the Tom Sawyer Effect in action; he's a man who saw a gadget that looked like fun, and he wanted in on it!Before I knew it, Mr.4444 was "going to town" on the outside windows, which meant I could tackle the inside (that's our deal, actually; he does the outside, I do the inside.) Can you tell which window I cleaned in this group? (Of course you can. Disgusting, I know.)Now, that's what I'm talkin' about!By the way, the box says that you can do 20 windows, but Mr.4444 did more than 30 and said it still had more in it, so we saved it for next time. He even did this glass-top patio table:Cooper lent his support, of course.I did the inside windows with Nature's Best (another Windex product) and am really happy with the results. Here's the result of our combined efforts.You can't see it in this pic, but these windows are sparkling clean and streak free! I included this pic for two reasons; so you can see the hideous painting chore ahead of me (it's been "builder's white" for nine years. I'm stuck on choosing a color. I'm thinking a deep cinnamon color. What do you think? Also, see that monstrosity in the corner? I want you to appreciate that I also wiped every single leaf on that baby clean on Saturday. Yeah, it's hideous, but we can't let it go; I got it for my dad's funeral when it was just a few feet tall. It is a happy, if asymmetrical, thing, and it's staying.

When we were talking about it later, I said, "I'm not sure what it costs..." and we both said, "But who cares?! It's worth it to cut window cleaning time in half and have such excellent results. I just did some homework and learned that it's actually about $15 for the starter kit with the wand and $5 for 2 pad refills. Considering that the wand should last forever, I think this product will more than pay for itself within a year or two, especially considering the labor time it cuts. And that's the best part,

because I have a fence that needs painting...

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