Scrubbing kitchen cabinets until the lacquer comes off: ‘I love it’
The Travelling Judge, we all know it. Overhanging tree branches, fences across the property boundary and cold pancakes: straightforward neighbourly disputes, followed by a friendly but firm judge who puts an end to them. In the latest episode, we were on the edge of our seats, because the judge had to rule on a dispute about a designer kitchen. Unexplained damage—and what do biological cleaning products and the damp chamois have to do with it?
At the beginning of the programme, the complaint from the De Lange couple from North Holland is easy to understand. Their extremely expensive kitchen looks sleek, but when the camera zooms in, small areas of damage can be seen on the end grain of all the handleless kitchen doors. How could that happen? Mr De Lange in particular is worked up about it: a manufacturing defect, it must be. And he felt unheard by the kitchen retailer, who started talking about the manufacturer’s warranty and goodwill, while he simply wants new fronts—and nothing else.
I do think it’s nice that there is now proof that all that cleaning isn’t good at all. #derijdenderechter
— marlies (@marliestalman) November 2, 2021
Cleaning a clean kitchen
Fortunately, Judge Reid examines the complaint thoroughly. Mr De Lange does not spend much time in the kitchen, but Mrs De Lange proudly shows the judge how she scrubs the kitchen every day with a little cleaning product and a chamois. Hang on a minute: did she just say ‘every day’? Indeed she did, whether spaghetti sauce is dripping from the cabinets or the couple has just eaten out: soapy water, cloth, wipe everything down. She likes to keep things neat, she says.
‘Not wet and not dry’
And that, it turns out, is the crux of the matter. No lacquer coating can withstand scrubbing those cabinets every day, concludes the kitchen expert brought in for the case. Without batting an eyelid, the expert says it probably has something to do with Mrs De Lange’s super-organic vegan cleaning product (Judge Reid studies the bottle: ‘It’s vegan, so we could even drink it if we wanted to.’) and the wet chamois she runs over those cabinets every day. ‘Not wet and not dry,’ says Mrs De Lange. ‘I love it.’
Too much of a good thing
Well, that proves once again that too much cleaning is good for nothing. And wiping down your kitchen cabinets every day is downright crazy work. Wiping something for 5.5 years with a chamois, even if it’s neither too wet nor too dry, will make pretty much any material porous. The kind kitchen retailer, who was so sternly addressed by Mr De Lange, sticks to his offer: if the cleanest house in the Netherlands would like new kitchen fronts, he will give them a thirty per cent discount. Fair enough. And the programme’s presenter adds that they should stop scrubbing quite so fanatically.
