5 Things I Learned About Cleaning from My German Mom

I grew up in a pristine home. I don't mean to say that it was fancy -- it wasn't -- but it was spotless from the fan blades down to the baseboards. This was no easy feat, considering our house was a century old and so had the unique ability to create dust after you had just wiped down that surface (whatever that surface happened to be). Even still, those ugly faux-brick linoleum kitchen floors (and the blonde wood that later replaced them) were literally clean enough to eat off of -- and that wa...