May the force of Persil be with you!

Who would have thought?

I am not a neat freak, not by far, but even I was starting to get frustrated by the state of the kitchen. Reasonably tidy it was, the floor was reasonably clean but the wall and ceiling by the cooker was in a shocking state. I could see any left over cash we would have for the next year going into redecorating the kitchen. To top that our cabinet doors are painted with a white, matte finish. Anything that spills down – and when does it not in a kitchen – stains the blasted doors.

As many of you know I am no stranger to cleaning equipment and practically every detergent that has hit the market since I was born. Every time something new is on the TV commercials I buy it, try it and discard it. So far I have tried pretty much everything bar blow torch on the cabinet doors, loads of elbow grease and still been disappointed. It may have looked cleaner, but not pristine.

Then, the other day, when I was sticking to my usual afternoon TV routine the cleaning ladies came on and scrubbed something in someone's house with ordinary laundry detergent dissolved in water. Can't hurt to try, I thought, boiled some water and donned the gloves.

One swipe over the cabinet door and the dirt just came off, I kid you not! No scrubbing, no rubbing, no effort at all! I was gob smacked. Had to shout for The Long Suffering Husband and tell him to watch. I was so chuffed I wouldn't even let him have a go, I did all of them myself.

Well, worked on the doors, I thought. Wouldn't do the ceiling and the wall behind the cooker though, of that I was convinced. But I decided to have a go. To my even greater surprise even that worked!

Now I refuse to leave the kitchen, I guard it like an Rottweiler would a juicy bone. There will be no more cooking to sully my pristine kitchen. At least not until the old stomach start growling at The Long Suffering Husband to don the pinny and get me some grub.