Vivian thought of everything. She had a carpet cleaning company come out and do the floors – hardwood and carpet. She had a cleaning service clean her McHenry house and paid extra so they would do a thorough job. She got busy with her husband and kids to rake and clean the yard outside. She gazed upon the results of her efforts with satisfaction and then her smile turned into as she glanced out the window.

Vivian had forgotten something; she had forgotten the windows. And now, looking out the windows, she realized how filthy they were. Her dirty windows stood out like sore thumbs now that the rest of the house was so clean.

The truth is that windows often go, well, unseen. And they don’t, generally, get dirty overnight. It happens slowly. The dirty window is a progressive feature. And, because it happens slowly, we don’t notice it so much.

If windows went from clean to really dirty in one day, the difference would be immediately apparent. Consider what will happen when Vivian’s guests arrive in McHenry from California on Christmas Day. She’ll see her nieces and nephews for the first time in a year. For Vivian, all the growing those children have done over the past year will be obvious. But, for her nieces and nephews’ parents, the growth came little by little each day; they haven’t noticed the way Vivian will.

In a way, it’s fortunate Vivian had the rest of the house cleaned so thoroughly. It was only because of this contrast the cleaning created that she noticed her dirty windows.

Actually, it’s not surprising that she forgot about the windows. After all, the holidays are so busy who has time to think about dirty windows? But, more than just a matter of what your guests will think about your dirty windows, cleaning the house, which includes the dirty windows, is a way of showing respect for your guests. It’s a way of saying you care enough about them to take the time and effort to make things as nice as possible for their visit.

Of course, another nice thing is that, after they leave, those dirty windows will still be clean. If we don’t have a white Christmas, little doubt, we’ll have some snow not too long afterwards. The view of a pristine carpet of snow in Vivian’s McHenry backyard is something not to be missed. And it’s something you don’t want diminished by looking at it through a dirty window.

Now that Vivian has noticed that her windows are dirty, the next problem is getting them clean. Most people don’t like doing windows. But, beyond that, it’s also rather cold outside. Vivian is wondering how to clean her dirty windows when the water for cleaning the windows wants to freeze. The trick, as Bill Thomas, of Northern Illinois Windows, explained, is to use some window-washing solvent. Another trick is to hire a professional window cleaning company.

With a clean house, Vivian is ready for Christmas and her guests. And she doesn’t have to worry about dirty windows. In fact, she discovered that she can set it up to have a window cleaning come out and clean her windows every month. That way, she won’t have to worry about her windows next year either.