Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The toilet wand dilemma...

Ya see this?  This is my (old) toilet wand that I paid somewhere near $11 for in a kit. It came with some free scrubby pads to clean my toilet.  That was nice of them.  Behind it is a refill pack, 10 count.  It cost $5.67!  That means that every week, I am spending .57 cents PER toilet to clean!  We have four.  That's $2.28 per week, assuming I get around to cleaning them all each week, ah-hem.  In all fairness, we all seem to gravitate toward the powder room.  That makes my life easier, even though I've told them this is my bathroom, stay out, and quit peeing on the darn floor already, Bill!
I got to looking at the box, thinking...oh, man!  When these are gone, it's going to cost a lot of money to replace them!  I know there's a cheaper way.  I hate those old rounded toilet brushes that don't get where they need to go (aka 'under the rim').  I really hate doing it the way we did growing up, which was with a sponge, your hands (no gloves...ewwww) and some Comet.  Of course, nowadays, I have gloves, but still, I don't like that. I forever view those gloves as 'poo gloves' that will infect everything they come into contact with.  I'm a germaphobe from way back.  

The other day, I found this nice little brush at Target for $1.29!  I know it's for dishes.  I don't care.  I'm a rebel like that.  I was sure to label it so my husband didn't use it for dishes!  Yeahhhhh, like that'd happen, psssshhhhhhh!
I liked the cost first of all.  Then I got to looking at the shape.  Because it's not totally round, it can get under the rim, hallelujah and amen!  My husband was getting a little embarrassed by me comparing all the shapes, sizes, bristles, pros and cons in the store.  I'm on a mission, what can I say?!  This is important stuff!  

Wanna know something gross?  Probably not, right?  Too bad.  Here it comes...I was really surprised at what came out from under that rim with my new brush!  It looked to be something like black mold!  And quite a bit!  That tells me that my super-handy toilet wands weren't so super after all!  So there!  I can also get around the bottom of the toilet  where it meets the floor. With boys, that's important.
I'm still using Comet with Bleach like in the old days, but it's cheap.  I can get a 22.8oz can of it at Dollar General for a buck.  I've considered switching to baking powder, but it's not much more to buy the Comet.  (It would cost about 70 cents to purchase the same amount of baking powder) Besides, it has that nice, clean bleachy smell I associate with cleanliness.  

I guesstimate that I use approximately a Tablespoon each time I clean the toilet.  (could be more.  I'll have to do an experiment)  There are over 45 Tablespoons in that can of Comet if my calculations are correct.  That means that each toilet I clean now will only cost me 2.3 CENTS!  Heckuva lot better than 56.7 cents, huh?!  And I don't keep wasting by throwing something out each week.  Still hate cleaning the toilet, but someone's gotta do it.  That someone is me.  Sigh.

Update: I made my own Comet, aka Schmomet.  You can find that recipe HERE.

1 comment:

  1. As a professional toilet bowl cleaner, I can attest to the fact that Comet is a very good product to clean the toilet with! They now make Comet with bleach in it, good job Chanda!

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