Sticky glasses, discarded hors d’oeuvres toothpicks and an army of crumbs sully the kitchen counter after you’ve hosted friends for holiday cocktails.
Caramelized cement from a pot that boiled over just moments before company arrived holds tight to the stove top. The sink is drunk with dirty platters, spent drink limes and other chunks of food — public enemy No. 1 to the garbage disposal police.
This place could be mistaken for “Bad Santa’s” workshop after a dive off the wagon.
When faced with a mess of these proportions, a steadfast, chemical-laden cleaner comes to mind, one of those old faithful brands that’s been around for eons and has a reputation for cutting through every kind of imaginable mess.
But ’tis the season to don the house in festive colors and scents, making Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Holiday Clean-Up Kit especially appropriate.
The kit is a handy, cookie-colored four- pack filled with gingerbread-scented room freshener, liquid dish soap, countertop spray and all-purpose cleaner. It looks like a tiny gingerbread house with scalloped white graphic “icing” along the top, and snowflakes, candy canes and gingerbread men sprinkled around the box.
The warm and cozy packaging includes a recipe for gingerbread and butter icing printed on the side. “Ginger, oh what an uplifting, fresh spice,” reads the package. “It warms the heart and home during the hectic holiday season.”
Mrs. Meyer’s is one of many nontoxic, “aromatherapeutic” cleaning products around these days. How does it work? The gingerbread countertop spray, when left to sit for a minute, confidently soaks up dried spills. But even soaking didn’t give it the muscle to remove that molasses-like goo from the stove top.
In short, the Mrs. Meyer’s holiday cleaners seemed fine for routine wipe-downs. But they might not be the mightiest weapons in the cleaning arsenal for tackling caked-on kitchen grime.
Still, in a place where a perfectionist merrymaker has trimmed each tree with precision, hung the family’s stockings with care, lit the outdoors and adorned most rooms with holiday candles and ornaments, the adorable Mrs. Meyer’s Holiday Clean-Up Kit caddy will look right at home.
Whole Foods, Wild Oats Market, Sunflower Market and Ace Hardware in Green Mountain (12035 W. Alameda Parkway, Lakewood) carry Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day products. The Holiday Clean-Up Kit is $14.99 (plus shipping) at .
Elana Ashanti Jefferson: 303-954-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com
