There's nothing like a day off to allow you to get caught up with a couple maintenance tasks and today is one of those days. Our kitchen island has a big (4+ x 8+) maple top that needs to be oiled a couple times a year; our Fireslate counter tops (which I've discussed before) also need treating a couple times a year.
I used mineral oil for the island. The top really soaks it up. Whenever I oil the island top, I also take the opportunity to oil our cutting boards and wooden utensils.
For the counter tops, I use Tung oil. I put it on pretty thick with a rag and wipe off the excess after it soaks for a bit.
Needless to say, between all that mineral and tung oil, the house is pretty smelly.
Probably one of the best side benefits of this chore is that we have to completely clean off the counter tops and the island. That gives us a good opportunity to (maybe) not put a few things back and keep the clutter down. Although, I have to say that we (Sarah especially) keep up with that kind of de-cluttering pretty regularly.
This is definitely not one of the more strenuous chores I do, but it's an important one to have done. (And yes: it would have been better to do this on Saturday morning before we left for our jaunt to Concord, MA but we were out of mineral oil, I had to drop the dog off at friends, etc., etc. You get the idea.)
