Let's Talk Dirty - Baltimore, MD. - June 2012

I'm not sure if you remember, but at the beginning of this whole "Test it. Blog it. Win it." thing I mentioned that almost every article of furniture we own was a gift, hand me down, or Craigs List find. Most of that furniture was the kind of stuff you'd either clean with equal parts bleach and warm water, a Swiffer duster and a Pledge wipe down, or you take it out back and spray id down with the hose.

(So pretty)

So you can imagine my surprise when cleaning up after the inaugural dinner at our new BEAUTIFUL dining room table

(which just so happened to be the Monkey's 2nd birthday dinner, Red Robyn take out)

When I finished wiping it down with a wet cloth, aside from the Red Robyn steak fry remnants being gone, the table top didn't really look all that clean.

(Especially the 2 year old's end of things.)

I immediately went into mild panic mode. Maybe I'm not grown up enough yet to have such a nice table. The words of my father began to ring in my ears:

"If you want nice things you must learn how to take care of them otherwise you're not ready for nice things." - WanderingLili's Dad

I want to be ready to have nice things, (she says while stomping her feet like a 2 year old)! So I promptly went to the laundry room and got the pledge. I was gonna fix this!

(Uh Not so much...)

I made our table so shiny and slick that a glass LITERALLY slid across it and onto the floor. ZOOM!!!

(Round 1 - Table Wins)

Next I tried good old soap and water. Well at that point the mix of furniture polish and water and oil from the fries was making things worse.  YUCK!!! 

(Round 2 - The Table Wins)

Then I remembered the kind words of the folks at Su Casa when they said "Let us know if you have any questions or need anything". So I laid the problem of the dirty table to rest for the night and resolved that in the morning I would take them up on their offer.

Sweet Jenni at Su Casa - Fells Point was the lucky recipient of my call and just so happened to be in possession of a solid wood table and a 2 year old of her very own (not there in the store with her, but at home), so we were instant friends. She help me understand the following:

1.) The more I polished the worse it looks because polishing isn't cleaning. It's basically like putting hair gel, poose, hair spray, and sculpting wax in dirty hair. It just becomes a nasty mess. (My weirdo analogy not hers.)

2.) There's always a sort of adjustment period when breaking in new furniture, when your dream of the furniture meats the reality, so don't panic.

3.) Because wood is porous, less water is often better.

4.) She also helped me understand that it takes a little bit of "old fashioned elbow grease" to really keep it looking nice. (My dad would love this girl!)

5.) She said that she ultimately wanted us to be happy with the table and suggested that we invest in an every day table cloth or a good set of washable place mats, both of which they have in all the Su Casa stores.

So a BIG thank you to Jenni. The girls and I will be field tripping our way down to Fells Point to attempt to fix our dirty looking table. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!