Overweight & Underorganized

You know those little blue thingies that you drop in the toilet tank so you don’t actually have to scrub the toilet and no one can tell whether it’s clean or not because the water is darker than the inside of a black cow? (Only it’s blue.) Even though these are likely the handiest “cleaning” product, quite possibly created for the underorganized homemaker, we’re not supposed to use them. Plumber’s orders.

Apparently, the stuff dissolves into a goopy slime that actually causes the toilet’s inner workings to deteriorate. Then your toilet won’t flush. Then you have to stop what you’re doing, drive to Wal-Mart, buy a toilet kit, go home, and try to figure out how to put the stuff in the package into your toilet (correctly) so your toilet can flush again. Or, you can call a plumber. Which is what the janitor at our office did, and which is how I learned this handy tip.

Our plumber is a nice, honest, hard-working guy, and I figure most plumbers are, too, so I hope all the Joe-the-Plumbers out there aren’t angry with me for sharing this tip. But I’m sure you plumbers have enough other work to do without having to stop and rescue toilets of underorganized housekeepers.

Now here’s a tip from me: Buy a toilet that is so ultra-cool that guests and even family members will be distracted by the ultra-coolness of the toilet (see distraction suggestion pictured above) instead of snooping to see how clean it is. (Or isn’t.)