Friday, February 10, 2017

A cleaning disaster


I like tidy. Swept floors, furniture dusted. Ditto lamp shades and lamp bulbs. Clean counters, clean stove, clean bathroom. I’ve never held any grandchild’s room or bathroom to this standard, so Laura and I get through the common areas in half an hour a week.

I like convenience. I dust with a Swiffer duster. I use Windex on the stove and the microwave. I put a rust remover in my toilet tank, because our well water is rusty, and I like a white toilet.

Before the bathroom remodel in the old house, I still had a walk in shower, and water hard enough to leave soap scum. I kept the walls clean, but the glass door was another matter. About the most it got was a semi-annual date with heavy duty cleaner.

Then I discovered Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaner. The unit hung over the shower head. After a shower, push the button, exit, and eight or ten seconds later the unit sprayed magic stuff on the walls. It trickled down the water left from a shower, and cleaned. Visibly cleaned! Over time I watched the scaly mess on the shower door descend, descend, leave. My kinda stuff. 

It took four batteries. I didn’t care. I could get them to the recycle center. Every two or three years the unit’s little motor gave out. I felt a twinge tossing it to the landfill, but that didn’t outweigh my clean shower.

Since I discovered this little darling, about ten years ago, I’ve had to purchase three. Two for the old house, one of which came with me, and one new one for Laura’s bathroom.

My Scrubbing Bubbles died this week. I went on Amazon to buy a new one. They cost over two hundred dollars. I paid twenty for the last one. I opened a new tab and asked Google for a Scrubbing Bubbles cleaner. They are no longer manufactured.

I asked Google how I now can automatically clean my shower, and it returned a list of the top ten ways to automatically clean the shower. Everyone involved spraying the wet walls down before exiting. That’s right. Stand naked in the shower and spray Scrubbing Bubbles or its equivalent by hand.

Life as I know has not ended, but it certainly took a sharp turn. More post cards may be required.


Rest in Peace

30 comments:

  1. I'm noticing a rise in prices here as well, Joanne, but a jump of $180 sounds more painful than the alternative. Don't catch cold.

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  2. A Scrubbing Bubbled automatic cleaner here in the UK costs £502 on Amazon. Bet you didn't know you had a bargain!

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  3. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, said NO MANUFACTURER EVER. Bah!

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  4. I'm thinkin' those postcards are going to solve EVERYTHING! Seriously, two hundred dollars is highway robbery. What brand of rust remover do you buy?

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    1. Johnson & Johnson quit making them last year. A bunch of gougers are making their fortune on the last of the stock.
      I get something called Iron Out. Big round tablet, lasts about a month.

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  5. Hari om
    Well that stinks... :-) YAM xx

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  6. I like it all clean too Joanne. When I moved to the city house, I soon realized the water was different. There were water spots built up all over the windows. After a good cleaner and scraping them clean, I used a towel to wipe down the windows. Just a brief wipedown. No spots.

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  7. I've never heard of those automatic things, i wonder if i can find them here.

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  8. I've never heard of that doo-dad... guess that happens when a person doesn't have a TV for 40 years. Wonder what other magic machines are (or were) out there that I've missed? I wonder if you can get one on e-bay? I don't know how that works but a friend of mine finds all kinds of out dated things there.

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  9. We had that scrubbing bubbles and could find the replacement for it at stores, but never the original thing for the last 2-3 years. Very frustrating because it worked so well!

    No I just clean the shower walls, etc. best I can the old fashion way with a little elbow grease, a cleaner and a sponge.

    betty

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  10. I never had the advantage of having Scrubbing Bubbles during the time when it was made. I hate cleaning showers. And now rescue from that chore sounds to be even further away.

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  11. I didn't know you could buy Iron Out tablets. I knew you could get the liquid. We have rusty water, too. I am hesitant to use something that stays in the toilet due to a cat who shall remain nameless who drinks out of the toilet like it's his own personal water bowl. That's rather ridiculous charging that amount for one of those scrubbing bubbles machines! -Jenn

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  12. Why is it that the first time I hear about a useful gadget it is because it has just become unobtainable..

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  13. I never believed in that scrubbing bubbler, I have used just plain vinegar water on my shower to good success, one thing I have been lusting after is that scrubber brush battery operated on a long handle that scrubs much better than I care to nowadays, one of these days I hope to get one for those far reaching corners and low down places I can't seem to reach wiht relish nowadays.

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  14. Oh, that's too bad about the Scrubbing Bubbles. What a neat thing to have to clean your shower stall.

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  15. I've never heard of Scrubbing Bubbles and I'm sorry you've lost yours. From $20 to $200 is a heck of a price hike.
    I scrubbed like a madwoman getting soap scum off the tiles and glass here when I first moved in and from then on squeegeed and dried after every single shower. But we have hard water too and there's a bit of scum building up on the bottom row of tiles again.

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  16. Please accept my condolences for your deceased automatic cleaner. I also have hard water and it is a pain.

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  17. Every time that something comes onto the market which actually works, it is withdrawn within a couple of years. I really wonder why - maybe there is not a large enough profit in it.

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  18. With my eyesight dimming, I don't notice scum so much and only see dust when the sun shines bright on it. However, I do love my swifter products.

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  19. I haven't seen one of those yet

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  20. I have success keeping soap scum at bay by using a squeegee to clean the glass portions of the shower before I get out of it in the morning.

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    1. Sadly, I cannot bend and I cannot reach. I wonder if Johnson & Johnson, a family company, decided to keep them out of landfills. Who knows.

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  21. I was getting all excited. "What sweet news is this? An automatic shower cleaner?" And then the let down. Ask not why it ended. Be glad it happened. That's more than I ever got from Scrubbing Bubbles:-)

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  22. I knew that this invention existed at one time, but since I had not heard hide nor hair of them in a long time, assumed they were no longer made. It seemed so useless to me and cost so much that I never would have even considered buying one. If there are many like me out there, maybe that's why they are no longer made. No market for them.

    As for cleaning the shower, I use a Tylex product that has bleach in it. Works wonders for the white subway tile in our shower that I stain every time I wash my hair. My shampoo is the same color as my hair and stains everything it touches. The Tylex spray is great. When I finish washing my hair, I step out and spray the Tylex all over, even the floor of the shower, and let it sit there while I dry my hair. Then I hose the shower down with our hand held shower head. Some days I'll let the stuff sit there all day because I forgot to rinse it off in the morning. Does a great job of keeping the shower walls white.

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  23. I hate it when something I love (and something that works so well) is no longer available! I never tried this product but I often wondered if it worked. Now, sadly, I won't get to use it!

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  24. I also had not heard of this device. I suspect it may have been dropped for safety reasons.

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  25. What stupidity to stop making a product that actually works. Have you checked ebay in case someone has some to sell? My daughter loved a particular shampoo. Of course, the company stopped making it. She bought an entire case on ebay.

    Love,
    Janie

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