Memories Of Cleaning Con Fabuloso
Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias and #MiFabuloso. All opinions, reminiscing and inordinate amount of cleaning as I bring back memories of Mami are purely my own. Do you remember the cleaning rituals of your childhood? The all purpose cleaners your mom used? The feel of the household as it was being cleansed? The shows on TV? I have distinct recollections of cleaning times. They happened either on Friday nights or Saturday mornings. If it happened at night, for some reason I recall The Love Boat on TV. Isn't that strange?
Saturday mornings of course bring up cartoons but I remember those nights. Because there was merengue on the radio and Mami on full speed around the apartment. In our building, across the way (we were able to see our neighbors from a door down as our windows opened up to a patio of sorts on the ground floor), we saw similar action from our neighbors.
Mami would sometimes tell me stories as we cleaned the floors and wiped the small kitchen counters. And then there's the scents to compliment the sounds. To this day, my floor gets cleaned with Fabuloso. If I'm honest with myself, I should credit the cleaner with being the reason I am in love with the scent of lavender.
I recall the ritual staying about the same, though the music stopped a bit after we moved from our corner building in Washington Heights to the suburbs of Orlando. The setting might've changed but the scent stayed the same.
I can find Fabuloso in like 3 different places at my local Walmart. How about you?
It might seem like a small thing but I love the idea of cleaning with the same product that Mami did. I get to tell the Frog Princess my own stories now. It's a special pleasure to her when she hears "your Abuela..." I pepper our conversations with things like "that was your Abuela's favorite food" or "your Abuela did not like that" in hopes that she gets to know Mami through the lens of nostalgia.
So it's a bit extra fun for me to tell her "your Abuela and I mopped our floors with this same Fabuloso" as we roll down the cleaning aisle at Walmart.
Scent is our strongest tie to memory. It is my hope that by continuing the fabulous (get it?) tradition in the family, the Frog Princess will feel a little closer to the woman who loved as an extension of me.
And pulling out the memories I've realized, I don't dance as much as we used to when I was a child. So, extra dancing sessions are now mandatory in the Mami household.
Do you have a cleaning ritual or did you have one when you were a child?
