Mrs. Mop

"God, what's that smell?" said the mother in law as she came through the door last week to find me assiduously scrubbing away at a couple of picture frames. "It's the white vinegar I'm using to clean the glass - eco-friendly, you know," I replied. There then ensued a detailed discussion of alternative cleaning products (lemon juice, vinegar) and their respective merits.

Then two days ago, I found myself having this conversation with my grandmother: "I think the green way is best love. But I do use Domestos to clean my loo," she said. "What should I use instead?" I promised to show her the Ecover Mum's bought, or suggested she try white vinegar. "I do remember my mother using lemon juice to clean the silver," she said. "It's funny how the green way is coming back."

And today when my aunt (who's also switched to all eco-friendly stuff) came to visit Dot, we were chatting things over when she began recollecting the days when we were kids and she used to use bicarbonate of soda to clean the U-bend in her toilet. "Great chunks of limescale used to fall off, you know," she said wistfully.

God, what's hapenned to me? Only four months ago I was all about segmenting target audiences, sizing the market and identifying the key business issue, and now here I am conducting almost daily mothers' meetings on the relative merits of household cleaning products (eco-friendly or organic, natch). Whoever thought they'd see the day?

And here's the even scarier bit: Mum says she's got a book upstairs called Vinegar: Nature's Secret Weapon (bonus sections: Nature's Secret Weapons 2 and 3: honey and garlic) and I'm really excited to sit down with it tomorrow and see what it says. Not to mention itching to getting home to make and try out some homemade cleaning products from vinegar, bicarb, tea tree oil and lavender.

Anyone think I need to get out more often?

Tomorrow: Dotpics - I promise.