There are two types of clean at my house: “clean” and “Dutch lady clean.”
My husband and I coined the phrase “Dutch lady clean” after observing a trio of Dutch ladies clean a public restroom at a Christian music festival. With gloves, buckets, rags and spray bottles in hand, the ladies stormed the filthy bathroom like troops storming Normandy, leaving behind a sparkling path of defeated germs, dirt and grime.
The new ATLAS building is also Dutch lady clean.
I’ve been volunteering with a squadron of others who worked with military precision to move ATLAS of Rock County from Main Street to Maple Street by March 1.
Mission accomplished.
Turning a former motorcycle sales and repair shop into a mentoring office in just a few weeks’ time has been an act of God – and Dutch ladies.
Some of the Dutch ladies have allowed me, a German, to experience their Dutch lady cleaning ways.
Did you know you can wash vent cover “screws”?
I did not.
I marvel at things seen only by Dutch ladies.
“Those ceiling tiles! Oh dear!”
I take a long, hard look at the ceiling tiles and wonder, “What’s wrong with them?”
A second Dutch lady enters the room and exclaims, “I’ll get the bucket! You get the ladder!”
Again I wonder, “Why?”
After the Dutch ladies remove, wipe down and paint the ceiling tiles, then remove and wipe down the fluorescent light fixtures – and then scrub the ceiling tile grid, I have to admit the ceiling looks like a million bucks.
They move on to the walls. “Pine-Sol!” The floors, “Simple Green!”
Really bad floors, “Norwex!”
The Dutch ladies took Saturday off from cleaning ATLAS to clean their houses. “Some of my rooms haven’t been dusted in a week!”
I also took Saturday off, and after surveying my own house, I spent the day reading with my feet up … because I didn’t really see anything that needed cleaning.