Chemicals, schmemicals...

I deep-cleaned my (in)famous bathroom floor yesterday.

I've been using a new hair product in a bottle with a crappy sprayer that never sprays where you want it to go and I've consequently accumulated a lot of sticky gunk on the floor. So, I spent a couple of hours de-gunking yesterday.

The problem is, the stuff that won't spray where I want it to spray and won't hold my hair where I want (if I DO manage to get some of it on the proper spot) somehow sets up like concrete when it hits vinyl flooring.

I try to use natural products whenever I have that choice. I've been using citrus-based cleaners for a few years now, simply because I believe as a society we are unwittingly toxifying ourselves with all the possibly lethal chemicals we use, on a daily basis, to make our lives "easier" without counting the potential down-the-road costs. (Another sermon for another day, maybe.)

I tried all the natural stuff on the hairspray gunk. Nothing budged it. So, I dug in the back of the cabinet and found a couple of old chemical cleaners. I tried some kind of spray stuff that SAID it was orange, but the only thing orange about it was the hideous color and artificial orange scent. It kind of worked. Then I tried the "scrubbing bubbles" stuff. That, or the combination of the two, worked. The floor is de-gunked. All pretty and white again.

I, however, am not. I was wearing shorts. My legs are now covered with an ugly, itchy poison ivy-ish rash. I am truly MIS-ER-A-BLE. And I've learned my lesson. Those chemical cleaners are in the trash. Along with the others I'd shoved to the back of the cabinet. And the cheap, gunky hairspray is going in there, too. If natural products won't clean it up, I won't be using it. Harsh chemicals and I are parting company...as much as we possibly can.

Sometimes I have to be reminded why I've made the decisions I've made in the past, especially when another way looks easier. Point taken...and the basic truth of that will be applied elsewhere as well.