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Bon Journal

Looking for Mr Squeegy

The problem with living in a glass house is that the outside world looks dirty and blurred when the glass gets dirty.

The freelance window cleaner charges £10 for cleaning all exterior glass and £25 to include both exterior and interior. I decided to pay myself to clean all my windows and doors.

Professional window cleaners use a T-bar window cleaner/scraper. Some call it a "squeegy", or is it "squeezy"? Whatever the case, I hunted high and low in my neighbourhood in London in vain.

They are nowhere to be found in do-it-yourself stores like B&Q, Homebase, Focus, and Wickes. Halford's doesn't supply it. Neither do kitchen and cleaning supply stores. I've even enquired at petrol stations, much to my detriment.

How do people in this country clean their windows? Spraying window cleaning liquid and then wiping with a cloth is not only tedious and slow but expensive. Besides, how do you clean roof windows?

In the Netherlands, much to my surprise, they are everywhere. You find them in cleaning stores, houseware stores, and even your local supermarket. The Dutch are known for having big windows, going Dutch and doing it yourself. It's no wonder that freelance window cleaners don't go around putting leaflets in every door. Every house has a Mister Squeegy, ready to do the work.

1 October 2002 Tuesday

Cleaning tips - lots of links

Zen of cleaning - Bon Journal entry

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