Goo Anyone?

For Christmas, my cousin gave my son goo. It's pretty cool. You pour, in our case, green powder into water and in seconds you have a bathtub, sink or pan full of green goo.

It's a fascinating, disgusting substance. The more water you add, the more the goo expands and more of a mess it makes. You can scoop it, pour it, spread it and fling it from your hands all over the sink, down the walls and onto the floor.

The kit comes with a second package, which is suppose to dissolve the goo into water so you can drain it down the sink. The first time I used half the package of goo remover and eventually it drained the stuff away, albeit in a green form.

The second time we filled the bathtub with the green stuff and getting it off a boy was as tough as getting it off the floor. I used the remainder of the goo remover.

The third time we used the sink again. Once my son finished playing with the goo, I realized he had pulled the plug out of the drain and the goo attempted to do down, but was stuck. As I was out of the magical remover, which according to the package is made from sodium chloride, I tried adding water, in the hopes it would thin the goo out enough that I could make it go down – like the last time. Sadly, it was stuck.

In my house, baking soda is the magic ingredient so I tried that. I didn't work. Then I thought to look up sodium chloride on the Internet, and realized it was plain old salt. I poured a generous amount and waited. Nothing.

With visions of pulling everything from underneath the sink and unclogging a drain, my husband poured Draino down the sink. The baking soda, salt, goo, Draino mixture exploded, fizzing up and across the sink, down the cupboards and all over the floor. And eventually down the drain.

When we used goo yesterday, I put it in the roasting pan. My guy scooped, poured and stirred the goo, all over the table, on the chair and on the floor. A day later, I am still finding goo. And I still have no idea how to clean it up and therefore the pan of it is still sitting on the kitchen table.

So while I recommend goo for the fun factor, the mess factor gets two thumbs down.

Overcome by Dirt

For one simple reason, I love that I live a hour and a half away from everyone.

I never have to worry about the pop-in.

Because of the distance, people never pop by for an unexpected visit so I don’t have to worry when my house is messy or down-right dirty, which it is immediately after cleaning.

I am not sure if it’s because we live in a windowed house by the lake, or if it is that we are truly dirty people but my house is not just untidy, but it’s disgusting.

You don’t look up because there are cobwebs coating the windows; you don’t look down because some genius put red carpets in a house that has very little walls so the flooring is not only faded but also worn and impossible to get clean; and you don’t look directly in front of you because no matter what you do, the walls are grimy.

Now that we don’t have a wood fireplace heating our upstairs, things certainly have improved. However, we have exceptionally hard water so even when you are cleaning, walls, counters, clothing, remains dirty.

My solution - perhaps a match - and certainly a challenge to house-cleaning companies: Can you make this house clean? If you can, I will shout from hilltops about your services - and certainly blog about it.