Schnitzel the Swiffer
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A long, long time ago…17 years to be exact, my youngest daughter, Mandy, brought home this book from her school library.
I thought the story and illustrations were adorable, but didn’t know at the time how much the book was going to impact my life.
Before she brought the book home, Mandy and my older daughter, Kelly, begged to have a dog. Ed had a dog growing up and was onboard with the idea. I never had a dog, only cats and wasn’t sure I was a dog person, so they kept pleading with me.
In the story there was a grey cat and a goldfish, the pets we had at the time, all we needed to bring the book to life for us was to get a cute little fluffy brown and white dog.
I told my daughters if they could find a dog like Schnitzel, we could get a dog. Well…as you can imagine that gave them the green light to search. “Mom said….so….wheeeee!”
6 months later – On Mother’s Day weekend (very appropriate) when Mandy and I were on a Girl Scout camping trip, Ed and Kelly were out shopping and found a puppy that looked just like Schnitzel. When we came home from the trip late Sunday (Mother’s Day) afternoon, Mandy and I were ushered immediately to the pet store and a little Shih Tzu became ours. Of course his name had to be Schnitzel. We joked he was now a Chinese-German dog.
Schnitzel lived a long and happy life. He lived for laps, soft pillows, treats and goodies which he would endlessly search for on the kitchen floor.
In so many ways he was exactly like the story book Schnitzel. He got lots of love and attention.
He became a major part of our family. I enjoyed looking through my family photos to find a few of him. It is fun to see how my kitchen looked in the mid 90’s in this photo. I made the Madeline costume for Mandy one Halloween. Schnitzel became a little French dog that night.
Last December, Ed and I had to make the sad decision that it was time for our little Schnitzel to go to heaven. I can’t even write about it without getting teary-eyed, but he lived a good life and it was the best thing to do since he was 16 and failing. He was blind, deaf, and was dealing with many other age-related problems. We knew it was time when he had stopped eating and was having a hard time moving and sitting up.
I took this photo a few days before we made the decision to say goodbye to him.
A few weeks went by last January without having Schnitzel around and I noticed that the kitchen floor was covered with crumbs. I mentioned it to Ed but didn’t put 2 + 2 together until I realized, we had lost the kitchen Swiffer…aka, Schnitzel.
I never realized until after he was gone, just how much he kept the floor crumb and dirt free. :-) Without Schnitzel around, I needed to up my “sweeping game”. I had gotten out of the habit of sweeping the kitchen floor on a regular basis.
I had a broom and dust pan and used that until I was invited by Swiffer this past summer to go to the P&G headquarters in Cincinnati to learn all about the Swiffer brand. The invite made me smile as I found it very timely :-)
I learned many things about a Swiffer mop and how to use it correctly. I also became aware of what the Swiffer Effect is and how it would apply to me. I was sent a big green box just like you see in the TV commercials. One of the items in it was a Swiffer® Sweeper® Floor Mop Starter Kit
I learned that Swiffer is more than a 2-in-1 hard surface sweeping and mopping tool. It makes the task of mopping fast and fun… a way for me to clean the kitchen floor daily with ease.
The dry cloth has deep ridges and grooves that conform to the surface of your floor to trap and lock dirt, dust and hair.
It goes under furniture with a flick of the wrist.
The wet cloth dissolves dirt and grime and traps it away. I especially like the green scrubbing strip that is exposed when you flip the head of the Swiffer, allowing you to easily clean stubborn dirt and grime without having to get down on your hands and knees. The wet cloths smell good too!
I learned that you don’t throw the cleaning pads out after every use. They are good until you see that they no longer pick dust and dirt up, then you replace it.
I found that the Swiffer Effect for me was having more time for the things that matter most. That’s the Swiffer Effect; it transforms the way you feel about cleaning.
While in Cincinnati, the folks at Swiffer sent us out into the community in teams to surprise some of the locals with Swiffer green boxes filled with Swiffer products. The number “99” represents the year 1999 when the first Swiffer was introduced.
When I returned home, I also got to surprise my friend Toni with the gift of Swiffer.
I miss soft and cuddly Swiffer, my little Schnitzel dearly, but I am happy to have a new cleaning tool…it may not be as soft, cute, and cuddly, but it gets the job done beautifully and with ease.
I get to spread the “Swiffer Effect” even more with one of you. I have a big green box filled with Swiffer products to give away.
Giveaway is over.
Winner of the Big Green Box of Swiffer products: Congrats to Julie Benson-Grant
I will be emailing you.