I bet some of you are in the midst of spring cleaning. Sure, the weather’s been toggling between being freezing and rainy and it doesn’t feel much like spring, but do it now and you can go outside and play when the weather actually becomes nice, whenever that may be.
I have a little bit of inspiration for you. A couple weeks ago, I announced a contest in conjunction with the release of the movie Sunshine Cleaning. I challenged readers to tell me their most hilarious cleaning-related mishaps. So, while you’re in the midst of scouring, scrubbing, and sanitizing your home, you can tell yourself that life isn’t so bad — at least you’re not dealing with a situation like one of these.
The winning story comes courtesy of Sara B. from Manhattan. (Hey, I never said you had to live in the Hudson Valley to win.) Sara writes:
“My roommate is a raging Diet Coke addict. She needs and craves Diet Coke. So one day a few years ago, probably during a hot and sweaty New York summer, I picked up a liter of liquid crack at the grocery store and decided to put it in the freezer when I got home so it would be cold when she got here.
And then I forgot about it. Six hours later, she opened the freezer and found the bottle half-frozen. And then she decided to open it.
Do you know what happens when Diet Coke expands because it’s frozen and then you open the bottle? It’s kind of like making a volcano for the science fair with baking soda and vinegar — it explodes straight up and coats your ENTIRE KITCHEN with crystals of Diet Coke. Including the twelve-foot ceiling.
The amusing cleaning story part of this comes in as we were mopping up the kitchen. Since our decision-making had been so solid up to that point, we thought it would be very clever to clean the Diet Coke off the ceiling with our Swiffer. And that worked very well. So this is more of a beverage disaster than a cleaning disaster. All the same, it was pretty hilarious. We keep the Diet Coke in the fridge now, as God intended.”
So, there you have it. Congratulations, Sara! You win the Method cleaning products, worth a total of $40. Take your savings and go out to dinner. I took a photo of the cool products you get with your prize: a trendy reusable grocery bag, hand soap, wood cleaner, a few wipes in case you decide to freeze the Coke again, and a few other things. My photographic skills are lacking, which is why the scene looks a little unpolished, but you won’t have any trouble polishing things up when you get the package. From setting the items up for the photo, I can attest that they do smell very nice.
And, for all you at home, you get a little something too: the tip that a Swiffer does the job when trying to get frozen soda crystals off your ceiling.
Just for good measure, we have a runner-up. Irene C. from Greenburgh writes:
“This happened to a friend of mine while cleaning out her son’s hamster cage. As she got her hand into the tank to clean the glass, she realized that the hamster had not moved and that he looked, well, pretty much dead. She figured she’d better get rid of the corpus delecti before her son came home from school. As she went to pick it up, the hamster, which wasn’t actually dead, promptly bit her finger — hard. As this both shocked and hurt her, she quickly brought her hand up and flicked the hamster off of her finger. Now, mind you, we’re all animal lovers, and she did not intend for what happened to happen. She just wanted to relieve her pain and it was a reflex. However, she flicked her hand so hard that the hamster went flying across the room and hit the wall and then, well, the un-dead died.”
Yikes. At least in your house, you can say that no animals were harmed in the making of your clean home.
Thanks again to the people at Method and Sunshine Cleaning for providing us with the givaway. The contest is over, but if you have any other funny cleaning disasters or even some good tips, let me know in the comments.