Baseboards and door cleaned

I asked the question at my party on Sunday: what safe non-toxic detergent should I use to clean walls and woodwork?  The answer: Dawn dishwashing liquid.  It's better, purer than Ivory.  Dawn  uses a very safe and effective detergent.

So on Monday I went down to the store to buy a bottle of Dawn, also two different kinds of Pledge (for use on the shelves, after they have been cleaned with Dawn).  Pledge products also get high marks for safety.

In the new bucket I bought last week, I mixed three tablespoons of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of dawn with a bucket of water.  I think this is about an optimal safe cleaning solution.  I wipe and gently scrub the solution with a small cloth, then wipe it off with a large towel.  It might have been better to use a clear water rinse stage but I didn't.

I used one bucket of solution to clean the baseboards that had not previously been cleaned on the south and west sides.  Then I also cleaned the rest of the baseboards except for the middle half of the north wall (where I had stacked stuff out to get it out of the way of the baseboard on the north side).

Another bucket of solution was used to clean the french doors, inside and out and on their edges, and the trim around the doors.  I used the solution on the glass but not on the aluminum door threshold.

Wherever cleaning was done, the smell vanished.  In the evening, with the doors open, the room seems to have no smell at all.  But you can still detect something, especially near the shelves.  On Sunday, two friends determined that most of the smell was coming from the shelves.  I tend to believe the worst of the smell, per quantity of paint, had been coming from the baseboards, and next the doors, but the shelves also are covered with the same oil based paint (which I didn't ask for) that either has or attracts the chemical smell, and there is a lot of shelf area, so they do need to be cleaned.

I've continued leaving the doors and window open and the fan running, and I plan to keep it that way through Thursday.  Highs in the upper 90's are expected...just right for outgassing.  

Next weekend I hope to clean and wax the shelves.

There is a slit in the backside of the front trim on the french doors.  It looks like this is not an accident, it may be intended to help hold in place some kind of weatherstripping.  It is clear that there needs to be some kind of weatherstripping at that point to keep air from simply blowing in around the doors.  It is not clear whether the weatherstripping would need that slit or not.  If the slit is not needed, I will use caulk to fill it up.  But it is not a good idea to use caulk until I determine how the weatherstripping is supposed to fit in place.

Another little household job I did on Memorial Day was to clean the grass around the drain splashblock for my household A/C.  When the grass builds up, it can divert the water closer to the house, which is not good for my house foundation.

During the workshop construction, contractors working on the slab cracked my little 18 inch spash block.  I should replace it with a longer splash block.