Tag cleaning

Help – Why do my tools smell so bad?

brilliantviewpoint 23 Comments

There’s nothing worse than opening a tool box to be welcomed by the most horrible smell. I mean horrible. I was ready to give up on my picture hanging project. I quickly closed the tool box lid.

For a while, I’ve known I had to deal with this smell. The funny thing is, these are all the tools I have. Oh, I lied, I do have a hammer and a staple gun, but I knew they were not the smelly culprits.

So, a five minute picture hanging project turned into a two hour long project.

I got my bucket out, I put the tools in it. I added some dishwashing soap, baking soda, water and then some vinegar. Wow – it was a sizzling explosion in the bucket.

After half an hour, I scrubbed my tools in the water they were sitting in. Dumped water, rinsed the tools, put tools back in bucket. Then, added more water, detergent, baking soda and vinegar.

After another half an hour, I decided to add more baking soda and vinegar. Again the sizzle.

Finally, after an hour, I decided I was done. I rinsed the tools, put them on the towel to dry.

RESULT – Only one tool has a very faint smell. The second one from the top. The others, nothing.

BIG QUESTION – Will the smell be gone forever OR will it come back after some time? I’m not sure, but boy is it nice not to have my tools smelling so bad.

How have you dealt with smelly tools?

International cleaning day, Spanish flamenco dresses and more…

brilliantviewpoint 3 Comments

IMG_1968Sometimes there just isn’t time to write, we’ve got to get other things done. I thought I’d give you a smile today. I’ve decided that TODAY is International Cleaning Day!

Who says cleaning is boring? Last year I had to move and with that means going through storage and making that “big” decision on what we keep and what we give away. What’s interesting with storage is that we forget what we have in there.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened a box that had two small flamenco dresses inside. That brought back a nice memory. I had bought those dresses in Spain for my daughters with a fan and dangling earrings to match. This was when they were small, of course, and I used to dress them up.

IMG_0474Next I found a beautiful dress that my mother bought during her travels in Afghanistan/Pakistan area. She thinks it was a wedding dress that someone was selling. You can see how beautiful it is with the embroidery!

One more find, a polar bear! I couldn’t part with him, so as I washed the dresses I put him in the wash too. He came out super fluffy from the dryer!

As I am finishing this article, I think it would be GREAT to have a post on International traditional costumes from different countries. Each country is unique and beautiful!

Now… back to laundry!