The Bakersfield Voice
Let's Laugh - And Clean the Bathroom
Let's Laugh - And Clean the Bathroom
By: Caroline Reid
Topics: Humor, Let's Laugh
Posted by caroline Mon Sep 15, 2008 06:47:08 PDT
Viewed 263 times
0 responses 0 comments
A friend whined to me the other day that she is sure that manufacturers of cleaning supplies do not want people over 50 to clean their houses! Intrigued, I dug a little deeper into her latest tirade. Could that be possible? Is it good or bad?
Possible? Yes. She said this sad fact slapped her in the face the other day when she bought a new brand of toilet bowl cleaner. She was drawn to it because in bold red letters on the outside of the plastic container it said, “POWERToilet BowlCleaner.”In big white letters on a green background it blared, “WITH BLEACH.” In red and white it said, “Kills Germs, Brightens as it Cleans.”
She said in little bitty letters there were the usual warnings about not drinking it, don’t put it on your pancakes, forget about using it for a coffee creamer, don’t inhale it and don’t mix with other cleaners. We agreed that after 40 years of cleaning house, we were pretty much up on those warnings but laughed and conceded that in today’s world there might be those who would try to make toilet bowl cleaner an item that can multi-task.
She said the fun really started when she decided to clean the master bath. She described holding it over the toilet bowl and squeezing it. Nothing happened. She realized she should probably read the directions on how to open it. Based on past experience with a medicine bottle that she literally murdered, she was very glad to see there were “easy to follow instructions.”
She whined some more and said, “In letters the size of flea feet I read the following: Do not squeeze bottle. To open child resistant cap, hold bottle firmly with one hand on a flat surface. With other hand squeeze sides of cap where symbols indicate and turn counter-clockwise. To close, turn clockwise.” She said she got lost at “with other hand.”
Also in very small letters, the user was advised, “this product is harmful to humans and domestic animals.”
In other words, don’t feed it to your dog and keep your children away from it. She wondered aloud who would feed toilet bowl cleaner to a dog. Both of us agreed that people with small children should know to keep all cleaners locked in a cabinet where a child cannot get them.
She complained bitterly, “Most of us over 40 wear reading glasses but there is a limit to how much good they do when you have to read the flea feet font.”
So come on, retailers, give us some instructions on bottles of cleaning supplies that we can read without a magnifying glass and a flashlight. It seems to me that if instructions can be printed in as many as six languages, they might as well up the font size a notch. Give those flea feet a rest!
Thanks bunches.
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