House Cleaning at the Anna Westin Foundation

The young people who stay at our foundation often have to be taught basic skills, such as proper diets, grooming and house cleaning. We take these activities seriously, and shop for the right products for each job.

Over the last two decades, marketers have learned that it pays to create specialized cleaning products to cater to every taste. If you stroll down the supermarket aisles, you'll see products that are designed for kitchens, bathrooms, wood floors, tiles, shiny surfaces, smelly surfaces, etc. The quaint old mop has been replaced my various high-tech floor-cleaners and sweepers, some of which are electric. The sweepers are sold for nothing when you buy a supply of the disposal cloths, an old marketing trick but still one that still works.

This isn't a negative trend. What the foundation gets is superior performance that helps speed boring or unpleasant jobs. There are a great many products that are marketed directly via infomercials and/or websites. These products usually provide excellent value, especially when you purchase one and get a second one for only shipping and handling. As a bonus, sales tax is often not collected on web-marketed products, an additional savings.

As a case study, let's look at a product that has gotten better over time. A good rust remover is one that eliminates any rust it touches. The rust remover will clean a metal part with a soak that requires from half an hour to 12 hours, depending upon the part's level of rust.

You'll know that the part is clean when its shines brilliantly after its treatment. A top-notch metal cleaner strips away oxidation from all common metallic compounds, through a process called reduction. A properly cleaned part will undergo reduction by an effective cleaner, dissolving away a lifetime of accumulated rust. Importantly, a rust remover must never harm non-metallic surfaces such as rubber or plastic.

You can restore a rusty frying pan or cast-iron vessel. Restoring a frying pan is small business compared to the amount of money you can save by utilizing a specially-engineered rust remover on costly items like wrought-iron railing. Another example: expensive woodworking tools like hand planes and chisels would be a shame to discard because of rust. Fortunately, science understands how to undo rust quickly and without inflicting damage. And like a magician's trick, you can reuse left-over rust remover again and again until it is finally exhausted. We at the Anna Westin Foundation salute today's modern cleaning products and the values they teach to young people.

How to Donate

Drew & Anna

The outrage at Anna's death and the outpouring of community support has led Anna's family to establish The Anna Westin Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed to help others suffering directly or indirectly from eating disorders, and to provide education and information designed to prevent the development of anorexia and bulimia.

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The Anna Westin Foundation - PO Box 268 - Chaska, MN 55318