# Stupid cleaning stories. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712 "2006-12-18T23:49:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/41 "2006-12-20T17:19:02Z")
> [@](#): > > "DYNAMITE PIZZA’’ For once, a business that lives (or lived) up to its name. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/42 "2006-12-20T17:27:50Z")
I guess I was lucky. I defrosted my previous (non-frost-free) fridge many times with a hammer and I don’t **think** I damaged it. Its compressor finally died one day and the apartment management replaced it with a frost-free one. I haven’t needed to beat on my current one (yet). And, yes, a few years ago I learned that you shouldn’t try cleaning your bathroom floors with bleach right out of the bottle. Rather hard on the eyes and nose! ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/43 "2006-12-20T17:33:34Z")
My husband used to work at a mortuary (this had to be back in the 70’s - he’s told me the story once or twice and I forget) - one evening, he and his brother were cleaning the basement where they did the embalming. He was using something that was naptha (?) based - I’m not sure what exactly it was, but it was really, really flammable, there was no ventilation, and the furnace was downstairs in that basement and it had a pilot light - not a good combo. He and his brother blew up the mortuary embalming room while cleaning the floor. ---
**Author:** ![Stout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Stout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stout)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/44 "2006-12-20T17:34:21Z")
FatBaldGuy,thanks for the welcome, I do plan on becoming a full member in the next couple of days now that I’ve decided I’ll stick around. I’m aware of the “proper” way of presenting a news item however due to the nature of the site I pulled that item from I decided to do it the way I did because the story was buried 3/4 of the way down the page on what looked more like someone’s blog than a real news site. Heck it didn’t even look like a proper blog, just a page of text that google must have sucked out of some archive. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/45 "2006-12-20T17:39:47Z")
A great way to defrost a freezer is to get a small pot of water boiling, empty your freezer (this won’t take long), stick the pot in there and shut the door for maybe 10 minutes. A lot of the ice will melt and what’s left is a lot easier to remove. The only stupid thing I can think of at the moment is using bleach to clean windows. Definitely not a streak-free shine :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/46 "2006-12-20T17:45:28Z")
[QUOTE=Savannah] Oh, yeah, right. Like I’m the _only_ person who ever looked at some ammonia, and some bleach, and thought… I bet if I mixed these, I’d really get things clean! :smack: [/QUOTE] My dad, normally quite responsible, nearly offed himself that way one time giving the basement a good scubdown. Managed to stagger out the door before collapsing in the yard. Oops! ---
**Author:** ![Stout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Stout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stout)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/47 "2006-12-20T17:53:31Z")
Did anybody else ever figure out why the Armor Oil bottle say’s “don’t use on vehicle control surfaces” the hard way ? I remember an incident from my youth where my nice clean, shiny brake pedal caused me do give a small love tap to the car in front of me. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/48 "2006-12-20T18:06:46Z")
[Check out this poor guy. Happened yesterday.](http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/178495,201NWS1.article) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/49 "2006-12-20T18:21:16Z")
Holy crap! That must have affected him awfully fast, for him not to be able to walk away. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/50 "2006-12-20T19:57:10Z")
When Hallboy was about four, I’d left him and the Hallgirls at home when I went to work. My philosophy is to keep them busy, as it will lessen the opportunities for them to get into trouble, so they each had chore lists. Since Hallboy was so young, and was just learning to read, his was pretty simple. Mid-afternoon, I get a hysterically angry phone call from Hallgirl2. She was sputtering so badly in anger, the only thing I could understand was when she finally screeched into the phone, “Here! Let HIM tell you what he did!” Hallboy came onto the phone, sobbing. At this point, I was beginning to panic and screamed into the phone, “WHAT HAPPENENED???” Come to find out, Hallboy had read through his list of chores and came to the one that said, “Dust the tables. Spray the polish on the rag, not the tables!” Only, he’d read the directions incorrectly, instead of spraying the polish on the rag, he’d read “Dust the tables. Spray the polish on the RUG, not the tables!” He’d sprayed an entire can of Liquid Gold furniture polish all over the carpeting in the livingroom, the foyer and the diningroom. For weeks we slid around the house–it didn’t matter if we were bare footed, had on socks or shoes, we slid. (There was absolutely nothing we could have done with it, until it wore off or semi-evaporated.) Even when I think about it today (nearly 10 years later), I still laugh hysterically. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/51 "2006-12-20T20:51:16Z")
Yes, I too, as a young college girl in her first apartment who ran out of dishwasher detergent decided to use regular dish detergent in the dishwasher. Such lovely foam, all over the kitchen and living room. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/52 "2006-12-20T21:33:46Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] Man, oh man, you guys should have seen my boyfriend and his roomates moving out of their apartment this past spring. I mean, they’d never cleaned anything they didn’t have to, even the really anal retentive one, but they want their deposit back, right? So evidently one of them is supposed to be cleaning the toilet, and comes in from the bathroom with a… felted ring of something, held on a stick at arm’s length. Pubesfelt. Evidently, if you live in a house full of guys who never ever ever ever clean the toilet, pubic hair will just weave itself into a whole new textile under the toilet rim. Who knew? [/QUOTE] :dubious: I think someone used to sit on the toilet and trim his not-so-short-n-hairies. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/53 "2006-12-20T21:39:19Z")
[QUOTE=Stout] FatBaldGuy,thanks for the welcome, I do plan on becoming a full member in the next couple of days now that I’ve decided I’ll stick around. I’m aware of the “proper” way of presenting a news item however due to the nature of the site I pulled that item from I decided to do it the way I did because the story was buried 3/4 of the way down the page on what looked more like someone’s blog than a real news site. Heck it didn’t even look like a proper blog, just a page of text that google must have sucked out of some archive. [/QUOTE] Don’t worry about it; this thread is all anectodal anyways. Now if you meander into Great Debates… ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/54 "2006-12-20T22:57:06Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] Yes, I too, as a young college girl in her first apartment who ran out of dishwasher detergent decided to use regular dish detergent in the dishwasher. Such lovely foam, all over the kitchen and living room. [/QUOTE] I did that. I didn’t actually come up with the idea, but I was the one who said it was all the same (hand-washing dish detergent and dishwasher detergent) and wouldn’t make a difference. :smack: We filled both cups and squirted a little extra in on the dishes for good measure. Foam… freaking EVERYWHERE. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/55 "2006-12-20T23:19:00Z")
I most add this once again for the person that use the wrong soap. Use fabric softener to instantly kill the foam. Remember that for when somebody calls you. ---
**Author:** ![Adoptamom\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Adoptamom\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adoptamom_II)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/56 "2006-12-21T12:45:19Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] Pubesfelt. [/QUOTE] bahahahahaha 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/57 "2006-12-21T17:34:44Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] Or 'Gee, I bet some bleach will really get this cat box clean 😃 " :smack: I left when it started hissing. [/QUOTE] Maybe you should have removed the cat first? ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/58 "2006-12-21T17:43:53Z")
I always have to have a buddy around when I clean, especially the bathroom. The thing is, I can’t smell bleach\* or any bleach-based cleanser and apparently tried to kill myself from fumes many a time, so I’m no longer allowed to clean the bathroom when no one else is home. \*a side effect of my job in the cat research colony where I had to bleach the entire room and everything in it (except the cats) 3x a week ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/59 "2006-12-21T18:42:49Z")
[QUOTE=ouryL] :dubious: I think someone used to sit on the toilet and trim his not-so-short-n-hairies. [/QUOTE] Dude, I still hang out with these guys, knowing about their pubesfelt! ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712/60 "2006-12-21T19:52:07Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] I’ve busted my ass on one of those floors after a swifter was used on it. Do not enter a room in socks and try to make a sharp directional change. The worst thing in a retail store that people did to the floor, was spray furniture polish to check the scent. It was super slick until the patch was stripped and rewaxed. The old man spraying stripes on the floor to see the color of spray paints, made my day. [/QUOTE] You should see our dog on those floors. She still has to work up the nerve every morning to leave our carpeted bedroom and go into the land of the slippery floors. I see her pause at the doorway each day and sigh. Man, she curses the day we put those floors in. Much amusement for us as she frantically scrabbles around though. It’s partly her own fault, as a puppy she greatly sped up the need to replace the carpet! Another thing that make floors slippery: try standing in a smooth-tiled bathroom and using spray on conditioner. The next person that comes in there wearing socks will end up on the floor. Funny if it’s your husband, not so much when it’s your 2 year old son. Oops. Now I remember to stand on the bath mat when using hair products. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-cleaning-stories/384712.md?page=4)