Magic Erasers

The mystery of Mr. Clean’s Magic Erasers and why they work so well . . . I don’t really need to know the ins and outs of them.  I do appreciate them.  What the Germans know in their secret formula is a winner.  

We had oak railings put onto the walls of our interior back door steps several decades ago.  They had a wonderful poly finish on them before Kevin installed them.  We use them multiple times each day.  Anyone that comes into our home most likely uses them.  For some reason today as I came up the basement steps, I took a long, hard look at the railings where the hand would touch them while putting the foot on the first step going up into the kitchen.  The oak for the first twelve inches of the railing on the left side of the stairs had turned a gray color.  Hmm.  I had used a Mr Clean eraser on the steps to get some surface dirt off.  This surface dirt that I am referring to is due to the factory finish of the vinyl flooring wearing thin even though the manufacturers suggestions for cleaning has always been followed.  The traffic patterns on these steps and also certain areas in the kitchen and bathroom are tell-tail.  When Kevin told me that the life of vinyl flooring is generally twenty years, I dang near cried.  Getting back to the railing.  I used the eraser on the railing with a fair amount of pressure.  The gray color was being transferred to the eraser.  I kept rinsing the eraser and low and behold, I was just about down to bare oak, and it no longer looked gray.  

I basically felt like mom, Lena, was clucking her teeth at me saying, “I’ve taught you better than that.”  This particular situation had been taken for granted for a long time.  I cleaned both railings and let them dry.  Out came my favorite oil wood stain, “Golden Oak.”  The biggest challenge for Dennis and I will be to walk those five steps keeping our hands off as the goal is to really let that stain soak in and then give it a new poly finish.  

The Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are a good line of defense for multiple uses.  I know that there is a Mr. Clean Mop, which would work out great for me.  When we have looked, one store may have the handle but not the refills and then the exact opposite is true in the next store.  I may pay Amazon a visit, as I am not ready to replaced flooring in the entryway, the kitchen and the bathroom.  In the meantime, Grammie needs to bend over and get it done. 

Where in the world does all this tweaking of home care come from!  In all honesty, I pray that I will always be able to see what needs to be done and then act on it.  It might take an ah-ha moment such as I had today, but I will keep looking.  

In the meantime, in between time, the acre has been groomed today.  Dennis encouraged me as he watches the weather forecast and neither he nor I enjoy getting overheated and then end up feeling ill. The acre is showing mixed signs of green.  Our front yard as well as a few others in the neighborhood totally burned in the last weeks.  It crunches and begs to be left alone for some type of recovery.  It is a good feeling to end the week with a tidy yard.

May the weekend bring all that you desire and all that you need to have that contentment of liking where you live.  We sure do!