How I fumigated my bathroom--a Serious Story

As I have mentioned before, I can't smell. Therefore, when I am cleaning, I always worry that everything reeks and I must take special pains to freshen it up. (This is in addition to getting rid of cobwebs from a thriving house spider population.)

Case in point: the bathroom.

I put an ample amount of blue liquid stuff in the toilet to let it "steep" while I scrubbed the bathtub and sink. When I mopped the floor, I noticed that the plastic caddy that holds the toilet brush had water sitting in it. Since it was likely that the water might smell, I poured the water into the toilet.

This is the stupid, serious part. Just to make absolutely, positively sure the caddy didn't smell, I decided to rinse it out with some bleach. I swished the bleach around and then poured it into the blue water in the toilet.

It took a minute before my fractured olfactories began to sense the fumes. Actually, my nose starting burning first. I turned on the ceiling fan and closed the door behind me.

I inspected the label on the toilet cleaner to see if it contained ammonia (which I never would have expected). It wasn't listed on the contents. But, in tiny 8-pt letters on the back, it said not to mix it with bleach.

C'mon! That should be in BIG RED letters on the front!

It wasn't until late evening that I could open the door to the bathroom again. But, by golly, there was nary a spider in there. I hope they died quickly.

I don't really hate or fear spiders and generally try to co-exist with them. I practice catch and release whenever necessary (like a really big, obnoxious-looking spider). I'm not heartless, after all.

FUN FACT: No matter where you are in the world, there is probably a spider within six feet.