Cleaning the Bathroom - Sunday, 8 November 2009

"Be careful what you wish for." Since about my 2nd week here, I have wished for a working light in the bathroom. Now I have it. Now I can look at my shower, with the bright glare of a new light bulb to help me. I can see the absolute filth and grime that lines my shower's edges. What is that black stuff?

I think I preferred showering in the dark.

I had noticed that it was dirty my first week here; however I had other concerns then. Then it went dark. So there wasn't much to do.

By the way, 'dirty' is an inadequate word to describe my shower. 'Dirty' implies dirt, which is brown and can be scrubbed.

Parts of the shower are dirty--the shower door slides open and closed, and the door--especially along the top railing--is dirty. The shower tiles are dirty--grimy perhaps is the better word?--and the shower faucet is dirty--rusty? But the bottom railing where the shower door slides is brown and parts of it is filled with black.

Where the shower bottom meets the wall, there is something that perhaps was put there to seal it, to keep the water from running out. This something is black.

So Friday Christie showed me where the bleach is in the supermarket, and Sunday I set about to cleaning the shower.

Luckily, Sophia was quite amused by computer games the entire time.

First, I cleaned the toilet room. I figured that after an hour or so of attempting the clean the shower, I would be fed up, so I should start with something clean-able. So I would have something to show for my efforts.

Then, I cleaned the bathroom, starting with the sink and the walls first (under the same theory).

Finally, I began to work on the shower. As I had suspected, after an hour of hard work, I had little to show in my shower. It was still black and disgusting.

I had "Mr. Muscle"and bleach that I'm not sure it pure bleach--it didn't have the same smell or burn my bare skin like real bleach. I sprayed and scrubbed. I was glad that I had found a bucket in the kitchen porch.

Finally, I poured bleach all over the edges of the shower. I waited and sprayed with water. Although quite a bit of black gunk escaped hidden corners and went down the drain, not much happened in terms of how the shower looked. It still looked just as disgustingly gross as before.

If you ever happen to visit and use my shower, do like I do and don't touch the sides. Which is really hard, considering how small my shower is. (Shaving legs is an acrobatic feat.) (Or do like I do and pray for a shower-cleaning miracle.)

So, several hours after I had started cleaning, I had a cleaner toilet, slightly cleaner sinks, cleaner bathroom floors, and a shower that most likely is cleaner although it does not look so.

Next week, I'll try some more.