Soapy...

Yesterday, I wrote about how Casa Didgeridoo is being put through the rigors of spring cleaning, and revealed that I was attacking Didgeridoo Boy's bathroom. I also told you about how Ajax dish soap with bleach alternative, the lime-scented version, and a pair of exfoliating gloves had become my new favorite things for scrubbing away the horror that is soap scum. Today I am going to discuss the reality of employing this combination in a shower setting.

Don't misunderstand - it still works. It just gets a little interesting if you don't take a precaution - just a simple, easily obtained precaution. Consider a non-slippery something to stand on, people, if you are going to clean a shower with dish soap. How do I know this? Because I did not do so while I was cleaning Didgeridoo Boy's shower, and I had a grand time sliding from end to end, side to side while trying to scrub the walls of it. Soap runs down walls! And it'll make a shower floor slicker than lickety split! Who knew? I would have declared an epiphany had I not been trying very hard to keep my hold on the likewise-slippery toiletries shelf after losing my grip on the soap dish.

It was kind of fun, honestly, until I realized (mid-pirouette) I could get hurt. Once I managed to get everything as scrubbed as I could scrub it, I grabbed a towel, put it on the bathroom floor so I would not slip on the tile (yeah) and grabbed a large pitcher from the kitchen. I thought filling that with water and sloshing it all over the shower walls would be an efficient means of rinsing all that soap down the drain. I filled it up with cold water in the bathroom sink, because I am accident prone, and knew I would bust my a$$ trying to carry a huge pitcher of water down the hall. Before stepping back into the shower, I made sure to line the towel up with the edge of the shower itself so I wouldn't slip when I stepped back out. (Are you getting this?) I stepped back into the shower, steadied myself, and doused the back wall in a glorious splash.

Three things happened next: One, I got soaked, but I expected that. Two, the force of pulling a fire bucket maneuver with the pitcher sent me sliding backwards. Three, I realized I was standing in a shower, which meant I didn't need a damned pitcher of water - all I had to do was turn the shower on. Which is precisely what I did. Can't say I really should have done that, but it was effective. I stepped tightrope walker-style back out onto the towel that was there to keep me from slipping (I hope this is sinking in for you now), and grabbed a hand towel off the rack to dry myself off and get the mascara off my face that had made its way all the way down to my chin.

Right then I realized I needed something in the shower to keep myself from slipping. Duh. So I put the hand towel on the still-soapy floor of the shower, got a cleaning rag, and went back to work - soaking the rag and wiping down the walls. This proved highly effective. Not as effective as finally aiming the shower head directly at a particular location, but effective. And at the very end, I learned a combination of those two methods was downright miraculous.

We live and learn, don't we?