Clean(er) [housekeepery, Helga]
Feb. 9th, 2021 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterBack in college during the AOL Instant Messaging era, one of my friends would use the away message "Getting clean(er)" when she would jump in the shower after rowing practice. I always loved that.
In any case.
On Saturday, shortly after I finished competing in a virtual erg race,scrottie departed on a bike ride and I thought to myself, "Right now would be an ideal time to work on certain housekeeping projects."
I really don't like working on mopping the kitchen floor when other people are around because it seems like they inevitably need to walk through / all over the kitchen while the floor's still all wet. I'd like for at least 5 minutes to elapse before it starts getting dirty again. Plus, if I tackle the project during a quiet time, I feel more free to extend my cleaning energies to the cabinet fronts, the baseboards, parts of the refrigerator, and who knows what else.
It always feels nice to have a clean(er) kitchen, whenever I actually have the time and space to get/keep things that way.
Then, to the bathroom. I'm mostly describing this here because bathroom cleaning in this house has been a source of vexation for me almost since the moment we moved in. The bathtub here accumulates a special layer of grime unlike any bathtub grime I've experienced previously. The permanent scuzz on the baseboards also makes me itchy.
Even worse, somehow the toilet in this house is extra-special in that the very bottom part of the toilet bowl is so narrow that most toilet brushes don't properly fit in it. It has therefore seemed impossible to actually get the toilet clean, thus strongly deterring me from even bothering to try and leading to a nasty mess, about which I'll spare you most of the details.
Anyway. Back before the Great Adult Bath Towel Numerical Controversy of 2019 (remember that? LOL), I hadn't realized that there were people who were vehemently opposed to the idea of ever toilet-cleaning with a toilet brush at all. If I'd been enlightened earlier I would have had a MUCH easier time with things, but alas, I learned too late.
So eventually I found myself desperately trawling the OtherBoob (how'dya like that one??) in search of ideas for how to reverse my toilet-cleaning woes. Once I got past an initial round of useless suggestions (gorram Infomercials, half of 'em!), I finally found a video put together by a former hillbilly*-type plumber who had two magic words for me: muriatic acid.
I'd never realized before that a person could just walk in a hardware store and purchase concentrated but unpurified hydrochloric acid for home use. On the one hand, this knowledge now scares me tremendously, because that stuff is DANGEROUS, as with any highly concentrated strong acid. But on the other claw, my inner analytical chemist is utterly delighted by this knowledge, because (sibilant voice) we know perfectly well how to safely and properly use and dispose of strong HCl, my precioussssssss. I have worked with acid glassware cleaning baths all the time through grad school and beyond because you have to get your glassware exceptionally, scrupulously clean to be able to accurately quantify phosphorus. On top of that, and VERY importantly, it is very straightforward to neutralize and dispose of HCl, such that it can be used to get a job done without putting excess toxic chemicals down the drain and into the sewer system (very key: dilute! dilute! dilute! and maybe even a fourth and fifth time, dilute!). The safe disposal / minimal chemical use aspect is huge priority for me and one that keeps me away from most commercial toilet-cleaning and drain-opening products.
In any case, it was amazing to watch that disgusting biofilm peel off, and I was SO relieved to discover that it was a biofilm and not corrosion, after all. I really don't want to have to get into the business of toilet replacement whenever we eventually move out of here. And now you know, too.
Shortly after that I also discovered that a baking soda paste, of all things, seems to do a better job of scouring off the bathtub grime than anything else we've tried previously.
I didn't get the bathtub completely Clean, but I did at least make substantial forward progress on it, and am so glad to have a Plan on that front.
Really, the worst possible scenario as far as cleaning goes, for me, is to wind up in turd-polishing land. The general trouble with renting is that one winds up in this land more often than not, and then one also lacks the agency or full desire to upgrade out of it. Cue flashbacks to the Lincoln apartment and Dogtown, especially.
Somewhat tangentially related, last week the NYT ran a personal-interest article on the "surprising" popularity of house cleaning videos on OtherBoob and other video-hosting platforms. I was initially fascinated by the idea, but then just as quickly repulsed when I realized that this genre seems to be largely about a certain American suburban house and cleaning aesthetic to which I most definitely do not subscribe, which most definitely involves the extensive use of heavily fragranced Product and the promotion thereof.
Bleah.
Oh well.
When I started this post, I was originally thinking I would also use this post to wax poetic about my new sink at work, but now this post has gotten long enough, so I'll save the work sink ridiculousness for a separate tangential post at a later time. Too many tangents and I'll wind back up where I started.
So instead I should just conclude by saying that Helga has had many reasons to be pleased lately.
*In our current Era of Woke-ness, is there a preferred expression to use other than hillbilly, or is hillbilly acceptable?
In any case.
On Saturday, shortly after I finished competing in a virtual erg race,
scrottie departed on a bike ride and I thought to myself, "Right now would be an ideal time to work on certain housekeeping projects."I really don't like working on mopping the kitchen floor when other people are around because it seems like they inevitably need to walk through / all over the kitchen while the floor's still all wet. I'd like for at least 5 minutes to elapse before it starts getting dirty again. Plus, if I tackle the project during a quiet time, I feel more free to extend my cleaning energies to the cabinet fronts, the baseboards, parts of the refrigerator, and who knows what else.
It always feels nice to have a clean(er) kitchen, whenever I actually have the time and space to get/keep things that way.
Then, to the bathroom. I'm mostly describing this here because bathroom cleaning in this house has been a source of vexation for me almost since the moment we moved in. The bathtub here accumulates a special layer of grime unlike any bathtub grime I've experienced previously. The permanent scuzz on the baseboards also makes me itchy.
Even worse, somehow the toilet in this house is extra-special in that the very bottom part of the toilet bowl is so narrow that most toilet brushes don't properly fit in it. It has therefore seemed impossible to actually get the toilet clean, thus strongly deterring me from even bothering to try and leading to a nasty mess, about which I'll spare you most of the details.
Anyway. Back before the Great Adult Bath Towel Numerical Controversy of 2019 (remember that? LOL), I hadn't realized that there were people who were vehemently opposed to the idea of ever toilet-cleaning with a toilet brush at all. If I'd been enlightened earlier I would have had a MUCH easier time with things, but alas, I learned too late.
So eventually I found myself desperately trawling the OtherBoob (how'dya like that one??) in search of ideas for how to reverse my toilet-cleaning woes. Once I got past an initial round of useless suggestions (gorram Infomercials, half of 'em!), I finally found a video put together by a former hillbilly*-type plumber who had two magic words for me: muriatic acid.
I'd never realized before that a person could just walk in a hardware store and purchase concentrated but unpurified hydrochloric acid for home use. On the one hand, this knowledge now scares me tremendously, because that stuff is DANGEROUS, as with any highly concentrated strong acid. But on the other claw, my inner analytical chemist is utterly delighted by this knowledge, because (sibilant voice) we know perfectly well how to safely and properly use and dispose of strong HCl, my precioussssssss. I have worked with acid glassware cleaning baths all the time through grad school and beyond because you have to get your glassware exceptionally, scrupulously clean to be able to accurately quantify phosphorus. On top of that, and VERY importantly, it is very straightforward to neutralize and dispose of HCl, such that it can be used to get a job done without putting excess toxic chemicals down the drain and into the sewer system (very key: dilute! dilute! dilute! and maybe even a fourth and fifth time, dilute!). The safe disposal / minimal chemical use aspect is huge priority for me and one that keeps me away from most commercial toilet-cleaning and drain-opening products.
In any case, it was amazing to watch that disgusting biofilm peel off, and I was SO relieved to discover that it was a biofilm and not corrosion, after all. I really don't want to have to get into the business of toilet replacement whenever we eventually move out of here. And now you know, too.
Shortly after that I also discovered that a baking soda paste, of all things, seems to do a better job of scouring off the bathtub grime than anything else we've tried previously.
I didn't get the bathtub completely Clean, but I did at least make substantial forward progress on it, and am so glad to have a Plan on that front.
Really, the worst possible scenario as far as cleaning goes, for me, is to wind up in turd-polishing land. The general trouble with renting is that one winds up in this land more often than not, and then one also lacks the agency or full desire to upgrade out of it. Cue flashbacks to the Lincoln apartment and Dogtown, especially.
Somewhat tangentially related, last week the NYT ran a personal-interest article on the "surprising" popularity of house cleaning videos on OtherBoob and other video-hosting platforms. I was initially fascinated by the idea, but then just as quickly repulsed when I realized that this genre seems to be largely about a certain American suburban house and cleaning aesthetic to which I most definitely do not subscribe, which most definitely involves the extensive use of heavily fragranced Product and the promotion thereof.
Bleah.
Oh well.
When I started this post, I was originally thinking I would also use this post to wax poetic about my new sink at work, but now this post has gotten long enough, so I'll save the work sink ridiculousness for a separate tangential post at a later time. Too many tangents and I'll wind back up where I started.
So instead I should just conclude by saying that Helga has had many reasons to be pleased lately.
*In our current Era of Woke-ness, is there a preferred expression to use other than hillbilly, or is hillbilly acceptable?
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 05:48 pm (UTC)Indeed, one can simply buy an alarming number of things. Fortunately, few people know what to do with them.
And in terms of cleaning glassware, you haven't lived until you've cleaned glassware with chromic acid.
hillbilly
Mountain William, to you. :) Or possibly Person of Elevation.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 06:17 pm (UTC)I've heard interesting things about aqua regia as well. *shudders*
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 07:47 pm (UTC)Perhaps part of why I didn't know was that I grew up in an area with incredibly high-quality water that was neither too hard nor too soft. So we didn't need to go to extremes!
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 11:56 pm (UTC)That was not too long after that whole period where Brita filters first got super popular.
When my parents got home from the tour, they took the Brita pitcher out of the refrigerator, drained and dried it out, and stored it away in a cupboard, never to return to use again. They became 100% advocates of Seattle-area tap water.
Whenever I would come to visit from Arizona, I would take a shower and declare, "I can't believe we get to BATHE in this water here!"
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 07:35 pm (UTC)I am allergic to dust and mold, so I try (usually fail) to stay on top of that sort of thing, but I have never once in my life worried that I was carrying germs into the house on my jeans or that I must wash a dish towel if I so much as take it out of a drawer.
But then I was raised in a home where water is sacrosanct and doing laundry as rarely as possible was a big deal. Even showering daily or for longer than 7 minutes was too wasteful to be allowed (I washed my hair in the kitchen sink at least twice a week all through middle and high school.) Heck, letting the water run in the sink for a moment before filling a water glass, so that it could cool off, was unacceptable. My dad still fills a bucket in the shower while waiting for the water to warm up, and uses the water for other purposes.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 07:46 pm (UTC):^)
I was similarly raised, and am similarly inclined to agree with a more water conservation-oriented perspective, which I don't think was really adequately addressed by the article.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 09:21 pm (UTC)Energy use is a thing too. I doubt someone doing multiple loads of laundry a day is air-drying everything. And things wear out faster when you wash them with every use. I guess I'll continue my environmentally-friendly laziness!
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 11:50 pm (UTC)It also seems like all that cleaning would get to be expensive in terms of energy bills!
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 10:04 pm (UTC)Interestingly, I do recommend an occasional bleach scrub, just like in our water wells, because once you've descaled and removed the biofilm, you want try and kill some of the bacteria remaining, as part of how they make biofilm is by eating the minerals in the water so fewer bacteria = less biofilm.
For me personally I keep my toilets clean with a brush and Bon Ami. I have to clean them once a week to keep the scale/biofilm from building up. Maybe you could use a very long-handed bottle brush for your drain opening!
no subject
Date: 2021-02-09 11:47 pm (UTC)S likes to use concentrated ammonia as a general cleaner. Because of this thread I have now finally looked up whether ammonia is actually bactericidal, and see that it actually is pretty ineffective based on a cursory search. So I may just have to resign myself to periodic bleachings, sigh. My body and bleach do not get along at all. (and I do know to never mix bleach and ammonia, aughhh!!).
A month or two ago we found what might be a slightly better-shaped brush for this toilet, plus I've got some gloves and scrubbers that I can now employ as needed. Prior to the round of muriatic acid the biofilm was STUBBORN and no amount of scrubbing would have helped!
no subject
Date: 2021-02-10 05:19 am (UTC)It’s funny the only thing we used ammonia for in my house growing up was to soak the accumulated hair and skin...STUFF off plastic hair brushes. Works well for that.