I am just back from an extended weekend of vacation. Scott and I spent a blissful four and a half days tucked into a cabin that looked out on the Chesapeake Bay. We ate mountains of crab, read nine books between us and took multiple naps. There wasn’t internet access in our little cabin (an intentional choice) and so I’ve been quite silent on these here interwebs over the last few days (if you’ve sent me an email, I beg for your patience as my inbox overflows). For a girl who’s been on the move all summer long, the break from the demands of home and work was quite the treat.
Before I left town last week, I did a bunch of canning in the hopes of clearing out my fridge. I finally used the Ball Jam Maker I was sent to review and made a batch of tomato jam using orange slicing tomatoes and smoked paprika (so good!). I’ll have posts on both those topics later in the week, but while I gather my thoughts and do the vacation laundry, I thought I’d offer up a lovely little giveaway.
Back in July, the nice folks from Bon Ami got in touch in order to tell me about their Chicks Who Can promotion (get it, their mascot is a baby chick!). They’ve been working with canning bloggers to help spread the word about the fact that their products are (as they’ve always been) entirely free of harmful chemicals. They thought canners might be fond of that fact (I know this one is).
They’re offering on Food in Jars reader cleaning products for a year. It’s an incredible prize, and truly, the amount of dish soap, cleaning liquid, spray cleaner and the classic powdered cleanser they’re offering is fantastically generous (retail value is $145). Enough to share with a few friends or a lucky parent or kid. The winner will get to choose from either the Free & Clear or Tangerine & Thyme fragrance where applicable.
If you’re interested in entering the giveaway, here’s what you do.
- Leave a comment on this post and tell me about your toughest cleaning chore (mine is keeping my bath tub clean. Soap scum is my scourge).
- Comments will close at 11:59 pm east coast time on Saturday, September 8. Winner will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, September 9, 2012.
- Giveaway is open to US residents.
- One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog, I cannot accept submissions via email.
Disclosure: Bon Ami sent me a small sample of the products being offered in this giveaway at no cost to me. They are also providing a year’s supply of cleaning products as no cost to me. However, I have not been compensated for my time or this post beyond the provision of a bottle of dish soap, a bottle of scouring liquid and a dish towel. My opinions remain mine entirely
 |
![[Your name]'s gallery on Punk Domestics](http://www.punkdomestics.com/sites/default/files/badges/GalleryBadge200.gif)
Without a doubt, the most challenging cleaning I do is getting the elderberry slime off pots when I’ve made some with elderberries.
We live in New Hampshire with lots of pine needles and sap that is sometimes tracked onto tile floors. Removing sap is a chore.
My toughest cleaning job is the shower by far. We have really extremely hard water and despite our finest efforts with the water softener, water purifier, and cleaning relentlessly, our shower is still the bane of my existence. I am on the lookout for easier cleaning methods, but have never tried Bon Ami.
I think my kitchen (overall) is the worst to clean! I’m always baking, cooking, and now canning…..ALWAYS cleaning some kind of mess in there!!!
For me my toughest cleaning job is the shower…..all the up and down wiping the walls and shower doors — my thighs and rear end are so sore for about a week I can hardly lower myself into a chair!
Marisa, first of all I can’t wait for your canning class in October at Greensgrow Farms. I drove to Anthropologie just to look to see if your book was there (in Marlton, NJ) and it was.
I have done canning in the past but never had real-life instructions for Pear-vanilla jam and it would be fun to watch and learn new things and bring home a freshly canned jar. :=)
The only thing I knew that Bon Ami had in stock was the powdered-cleaner and whenever I go to food stores I look for them and grab one or two cans because I never know when the stores will stop selling them as they sometimes do that. I have a few cans now and it’s the only thing that I use to clean my shower walls, doors and tub. It works and I love that it doesn’t have highly toxic ingredients. I would love to win the prize because I clean the house naturally and even make some homemade sprays using vinegar, baking soda and essential oils. This would make me cleaning my little house more fun to have some new Bon Ami products that I didn’t even know they sell and it would be a blessing to not have to spend money to buy it!
I think the toughest cleaning chore is around the toilet because there are always corners and crevises that you can’t see until you bend down and get on the floor.
I have three males in my house and so I have to keep up on it more than just once a week when I clean the full bathroom.
The grout between bathroom tiles. Our home can be damp, so it requiresconstant attention.
I would say the bathtub for me too—I always want to clean it in a few minutes and it always takes way longer–while I’m scrubbing I always think there has to be a better way to do it. I also love Bon Ami powder, but I haven’t used their other products yet.
My toughest cleaning jobs are twofold:
First: my bathroom – grout and grime seem to accumulate by the second in my tub, no matter how hard I scrub.
Second: cleaning out my pots post-jam making!!
(PS – thank you so much for all of the recipes on this blog – I love your ideas and flavors)
What luck! I found your blog after searching for a refrigerator pickle recipe after an abundance of cucumbers this years and a friends suggestion I try this simple way of keeping them. I have to say I love your blog and you’re inspiring me to start canning.
Oddly enough, just this morning I thought, I wish there was an easier/less messy way to clean my bath tub-as its in need right now. A few years ago I switched to using only natural products to clean my house and for the bath I use a baking soda/castille soap mix and vinegar. Works great but I still thought – I wish I could just grab something – so when I came across the Bon Ami post I thought “THERE IT IS”, and today was the last day to enter! Yippie.
Your site has been a win win for me today. Thanks!!!
My 32-foot sailboat — sink, decks, windows, toilet, shower; spiders, airborne grit, spiders, leaves, spiders.
Keeping my stovetop and oven clean are, by far, the toughest cleaning jobs for me.
I would have to say, with two small boys in the house, I spend a better part of my week cleaning the bathroom! The tub and toilet are my toughest jobs.
bathroom sink… soap and toothpaste spatters!
Worst cleaning chore: the (gas) stove top!
Lovely!
Ack–the bathroom tub, for sure!
My greatest dilemma is everything in the bathroom. We babysit 4 of the cutest grandchildren, all age 5 and under, that can destroy bathroom sinks, tubs, and Toilets with ease. That being said, I wouldn’t change anything about them.
Baseboards, because I am not agile it is very hard to bend down to reach them.
Hardest cleaning task – all the moldings, high and low, in our old house.
Now that there’s a little one in the house, every cleaning task seems daunting. The tub is still the big winner, though…
Keeping the floor clean. The dogs bring in so much dirt.
My hardwood floors – seems they are always dusty and have little footprints on them. Sigh.
I am too cheap to buy parchment paper, so alas, there is many a tough to scrub baking tray with cooked on bakey goodness in my life.
My stove is such a problem, especially after canning! I’d love to try this on my stove, a true antique from 1950′s.
Toughest cleaning chore: stovetop! (Particularly after this week of canning marmalade, salsa, butter, pearsauce, peaches, and tomatoes.) Thanks for the inspiration shared through your blog!
Dusting–I hate to dust because it seems as soon as I dust something, I turn around and it needs to be dusted again. It never ends.
My toughest cleaning chore is my floors – from pets to dirt tracked in (year round in my warm climate!) to all kinds of other spills and such, it seems like as soon as they’re clean, they’re dirty again.
Keeping the bathroom clean is a daily headache!
Since we moved into the rental house, the toughest cleaning job is definitely the white kitchen sink. I miss stainless steel.
I love to keep my windows wide open, even at night, to take advantage of the breeze. As a result, my toughest challenge by far is cleaning the interior window sills and wells. They get grimy so quickly, but the delicious breeze is worth the extra cleaning!
My toughest cleaning time lately was getting the grime out of the Kerr and Ball bail jars from my Mom. That was how I found this Lovely Blog !!! thank you Lady M.
toughest cleaning job- dog barf. If anyone figures out an answer, I’m all ears.
The kitchen floor… it really should be mopped regularly but I just refuse.
My toughest cleaning chore is definitely our bathtub. It’s big and has the pebbled texture floor (so we don’t slip, which *is* nice) and soap scum loves hiding in the grooves between them. A good stiff bristle scrub brush and the classic powdered Bon Ami is my secret to keeping it clean.
My toughest cleaning duty is scrubbing burned milk off the pot and stove after cooking steel cut oats. I always get distracted and miss getting the lid off the boiling milk and water before it overflows!
Cleaning my kitchen, in general, is my biggest chore. I have 5 people in my house ranging from 1 year to 75 years with all opinions of “cleanliness.”.
. There are always spills to clean up, sweep up, or mop up.
[...] many thanks to all of you who took the time to leave a comment on the Bon Ami giveaway and share your least favorite cleaning tasks. I learned that I am not the only one who is plagued [...]