|
In Japan the passage of the old year is marked by cleaning. Fanatical cleaning. From top to bottom, in every nook and cranny. Nothing escapes dusting, scrubbing, vacuuming, mopping. Isle families get clean start
to the new yearTraditional scrubbing ensures
a sparkling home for next yearBy Suzanne Tswei
stswei@starbulletin.comIn Hawaii the dominance of Japanese culture has helped to turn the year-end cleaning into a ritual, too. Just not to the same degree of dedication. Maybe.
"I remember when I was growing up, we had to clean. Everything," said Ann Asakura, who grew up in a traditional Japanese household in Kaimuki. "Everything had to be taken down from the shelves. Every shelf. Everything had to be dusted.
"Under every bathroom sink. The refrigerator, the stove, the windows, the ceiling, the light fixtures. Oh, the yard; that, too. Literally there was no stone, no branch, nothing left unturned," said Asakura.
She and her sister had to stay home and help give the entire property the once-over. Often on their hands and knees -- "my mother was a hands-and-knees person" -- scrubbing and mopping. Even the carpeting had to be wet-mopped. (The girls had to get down on the floor to do that.)
"We couldn't go hang out with our friends, we couldn't go Saturday matinee. The house had to be sparkling clean to greet the toshigami (New Year's deities)," Asakura said.
(There are more ways to please the toshigami, whose visits bestow good luck upon the household. Placing kadomatsu, an arrangement of fresh pine and bamboo, at the entrance is another year-end tradition. See related garden story.)
|
It wasn't just the Asakuras who cleaned. The entire block, made up of neighbors of Hawaiian, Chinese, Korean and other racial backgrounds, took the year-end cleaning seriously."It seemed to me everybody did it; it could just be our block. You didn't have to be Japanese to do it," Asakura said.
Asakura is grown now with adult daughters of her own, and she believes in passing on the family cleaning tradition. With modifications.
"My mother's a very clean person, and I try to be. No, that doesn't mean I clean like she did. We've adopted the ritual to a contemporary lifestyle," Asakura said.
Cleaning chores have gotten easier over the years with better cleaning tools and household appliances designed for easy maintenance. The trick to avoiding a mad, last-minute round of cleaning is to keep the place clean regularly, she said.
Arun Savara, customer service manager for the Maids, a professional cleaning service, couldn't agree more. It's much easier to keep cleaning chores manageable by doing weekly or biweekly cleaning.
"There are a lot of studies that link health to cleanliness. Having a clean house or apartment is good for you," said Savara, who typically deals with an onslaught of requests for professional cleaners in December.
His typical customers are those who don't have time to clean, those who are rich enough not to do the cleaning themselves and those who rather would have professional cleaning. Costs vary depending on the size of the job and the degree of dirtiness. A well-maintained three-bedroom home costs between $90 and $110 to clean, he said.
Professional cleaners tend to get everything cleaner, Savara said. There's no substitute for hand-scrubbing the toilet bowl with a pumice stone; strong detergents and cleansers don't quite do the trick.
Professional cleaners also add finishing details to make the home sparkle, he said, like adding a tiny drop of baby oil to a stainless steel sink to give it extra shine.
If you would rather do it yourself, here are some tips from Savara to get you going:
>> Divide the job into manageable portions. It's easier to clean two rooms rather than the whole house in one day. If you do too much at once, you will be discouraged.
>> Use separate rags or cleaning cloth for different rooms. Using the same cloth for the bedrooms is fine, but for good hygiene, use different cloths for the bathroom and kitchen.
>> Clean systematically. Start from one end of the room and clean toward the other from the top to bottom. Vacuum last. When you reach the other end, you'll know you're finished. This way, you also won't overlook anything in between.
>> The vacuum is not an all-in-one cleaning tool. If you think you can suck up all the dirt and grime with the vacuum, you are wrong. Dusting, wiping, scrubbing, mopping and more are all necessary.
>> Pre-treat tough stains. Typically the bathrooms and kitchen are the most difficult to clean because they tend to have the most stains. Put some cleanser on the stains, go clean somewhere else and come back later to remove the stains. It'll be easier.
>> Use microfiber cleaning cloths. They are sold in retail stores and professional cleaning supply outlets. They are great at picking up minute dust particles.
>> Wear an apron with multiple pockets. The pockets are handy places to keep tools and cleansers. It will help you clean more efficiently and easily.
>> Wear gloves. They are good for your hands and help keep the germs off.
>> After dusting, use a little wood polish on wood furniture. A little extra shine makes a big difference in appearance.
>> Don't forget the corners and hard-to-reach areas. Also, don't forget the ceiling fans, the top of light switches and surfaces above and beneath your line of vision.
"It sounds stupid to say this, because cleaning is something everybody does and knows how to do, but to clean efficiently is something else," Savara said.
Savara, who has a doctorate in management and was an information technology executive, professes to knowing nothing about cleaning before he took over the Honolulu cleaning franchise. His mainland training, which comes with the business, changed him forever.
"Now, all I do is look for dirt," he said. "It's terrible. As soon as you go into a house, you start to look for dirt. Anything that is horizontal in the house is a source for dirt."
And an efficient cleaner is one who is relentlessly scouting for dirt and then removing it.
Click for online
calendars and events.
