House Cleaning is Bad for My Health!

I attempted to clean house today – BAD IDEA - which is why I am now typing this blog post. It’s safer.  I have confirmed (again) that housecleaning is really detrimental to my health.

A few years ago, I attempted to clean the hard water spots from my shower doors. So I bought some heavy-duty industrial strength cleaner and climbed into the shower armed with my mighty scrub brush. I remember starting to feel really dizzy, like I was going to pass out. Luckily my husband got home early and after opening all the windows to ventilate the toxic air, he recommended – loudly – that I not try that again.  Now that I think about it, I guess those warning labels did mention something about ventilation. OOPS.

And then there was the electric shock I received from our vacuum when I tried to fix the cord while it was still plugged in. That really upset hubby since he’s an electrician but at least he was able to explain why my fingers had turned black - electrical burn.  Who knew?

And yesterday, I was so excited because my daughter left for summer camp and I have wanted to try this housecleaning tip I saw on Pinterest. Supposedly, Woolite Carpet Cleaner works really great on tile grout.  It sprays out as foam and then you just scrub the grim away. Sounded easy enough.  I tried it on one tile and it worked pretty well. When I showed my husband, he claimed that he couldn't really tell the difference between the dirty grout and the clean grout.  WELL, I’d show him!

So today I was all set.  I sprayed the foam all over the kitchen floor figuring I would conquer a bigger area than yesterday. I let it sit for 15 minutes while I put on my upbeat, funky housecleaning music. I got my full bucket of water ready and was swinging it to the beat, thinking how proud my hubby would be when he came home from work and checked out my sparkling clean floor. Boy, would he eat his words!

Low and behold, one moment I’m dancing and the next moment the bucket has gone flying. I’m completely drenched in water and sprawled out in shock on the kitchen floor.  As I attempted to catch my breath, I surveyed my surroundings.  I saw a flood of water washing away all of my perfectly foamed grout lines. I thought to myself…DANG that carpet cleaner is slippery.  No wonder it is recommended for carpets and not tile!  CURSE that Pinner on Pinterest and her “easy” housecleaning tips!

So, as I sit here typing, I realize that:

• My neck has a crick in it
• My back hurts
• I smell like Mr. Clean
• I actually prefer dirty grout
• Finally, I better stick to writing my blog. According to my hubby, it pays absolutely nothing but at least he knows I’m safe and alive when he gets home.

So, I think I will take it easy on the ambitious house cleaning projects.  I will admit that I am a Pinterest flunky and stick to my mediocre housecleaning methods.  My husband seems to have come to terms with my inept level of domestic skills and still claims to love me so I better quit while I’m ahead.  Also, after I called and told him my sob story of, “I've fallen and I can’t get up”, he stopped laughing long enough to sympathetically suggest I go wash off the dirty bucket water and take a nap. Sounds good…It is Summer vacation after all…

Love,

Yolanda