The fumes almost killed me...

Housework is hazardous to your health. I’ve always seen those cheesy little refrigerator magnets that attest to that, and now I’m a believer. In an attempt to clean my house for our overnight guests (yes, dear, I know YOU didn’t care if the house was clean or not, and that you were here to see US, but it was bugging me!!), I took out my passive aggressive cleaning behavior on my kitchen sink. The kids were in school, the IPod was blaring, and I just knew that the time had come for me to tackle the mess.

Just a note about my sink… it’s original to the house. AND our house is 16 years old. AND the sink is white. AND no one around here has learned to turn on the water and rinse down the red Kool-Aid after they pour it into the sink. That’s a major grunge factor right there. It gets so stained, and nothing short of Clorox Clean-up bleach spray (wanna be my sponsored link, Clorox?!) will get it clean.

So don’t ask me why I attempted to use Formula 409 the other day to deep-clean the sink. Don’t get me wrong… 409 is great for many cleaning chores around the house. Peanut butter and jelly smeared on the counter? 409 it! Grease splattered on the stove? 409 will do the trick. Pee on the floor around the toilet? 409! (Oh c’mon, if you have a little boy, you’re feeling me on this.) 409 doesn’t make big bleach spots on my dish towels, but it is simply NOT going to get my kitchen sink stain-free.

Realizing that the 409 was not doing the trick (duh!), I grabbed the Clorox spray, and yes… sprayed it into the sink, completely coating all the grungy surfaces. I blame the IPod… I wasn’t focused on the task at hand. Damn that sexy John Mayer! Now, I’m no chemist, but even I should know that ammonia and bleach do NOT mix. That’s right. It even says so right on the side of the bottle.

Some pretty noxious fumes ensued before I could get it all rinsed down. In my haze of John Mayer, and my own little ‘chemistry experiment’, I thought to myself, ‘At least if I pass out now, the paramedics will be treated to a nice clean sink, in case they need a drink of water.”

Fortunately I did not pass out, and managed to get my kitchen sink looking respectable. So yes, housework can be a real hazard… those fumes could’ve killed me! What have I learned (other than that I should have paid more attention in chemistry class?) Well, I discovered that I wasn’t being lazy to let the housework slide. Not at all… it’s really just a case of ‘survival of the fittest’.