porcelain
A lot of people ask me what I do with ALL my time here in Panama. Well besides working on my arts, learning to be a better cook, gardening and so on, I also do the cleaning. With a simple modern house, the idea of the clean lines, well is just that. Clean lines. But in the tropics, where you have the windows open constantly and the wind is always blowing, the lines get slightly fuzzy with the dust. It is amazing how much accumulates in one day. In Colorado, we were able to get away with having ‘cleaning day’ where we dedicated one evening after work to cleaning the house top to bottom. Here, my cleaning day is one full dedicated day plus the daily projects of dusting and sweeping.
One of the biggest challenges with the cleaning is the cleaning of the porcelain tile. After several GOOGLE searches and research I have tried a variety of cleaners and mixtures to get it right, and also wanting not to put heavy chemicals all over the place, we have settled on a method of very hot water with 3 squirts of JOY!! in the bucket and a well-squeezed sponge mopping. I still get a little streaks, which I found that if I did a ‘rinse’ layer with hot water after makes it better….but essentially means having to mop the floor twice…joy.
In the end it looks great. Just don’t walk on it with muddy feet!!!