Hand Wash

The car wash place can never get the inside of my car as clean as I can. I will be taking a brood of boys on a field trip, so instead of attempting to answer a barrage of questions like, “Why is there red punch on your ceiling?” and “How come this fruit snack is stuck on the seat?” I decided to thoroughly scrub the innards of my almost 12 year old car. Fun stuff.

I think that I used ¾ of a bottle of Windex.

My rubber mats had unusual black goo attached to them and as I gathered the soap, water, and a scrubbing brush, I came across some Tilex Soap Scum cleaner. Although there was no soap scum on my rubber mats I assumed the concoction of chemicals would make for a spectacular solution to conquer the mess which had built on my mats.

I spread out the grey mats on my driveway, sprayed away, dipped the brush in soap and water, and scrubbed until my armpits were a little sweaty. As neighbors drove by and waved I felt proud of the fact that I was taking my car cleaning into my own hands, even if my two youngest were inside the house fighting miserably, I couldn’t hear a word.

What I did not realize as I was cleaning is that the Tilex mixture contained bleach. After a good soak, I retrieved the garden hose, sprayed down the mats, and discovered the unintentional art work covering my grey rubber mats.

My mats now look as though someone took a paint brush, dipped it in white paint, and splattered the mats. They’ve been bleached, not in an even coat, but in a lazy splatter.

Note to self: Do not clean rubber car mats with Tilex. I believe that Tilex is strictly for - tile.

Comments

Sarah Markley said…
too funny. you are the art teacher, are you not?
Denise said…
i always grab anything and everything to clean anything and everything.