A brush with death!

I am amazed at where dust and gunk builds up in life’s myriad of nooks and crannies. Most of the bigger stuff can be sucked up with a vacuum cleaner or scrubbed with a rag, but at least once a week I still try to take a shower too whether I need it or not.

In the laundry room and garage, we have built up a collection of ‘old’ toothbrushes that we use to clean the vents in the cars, air filters, and other impossibly small and dirty things around the house. If it has been spilled in the refrigerator or gummed up the grout lines of the floor, those scrubby buddies sure come in handy.The only problem is that unlike most cleaning utensils, the toothbrush for all intents and purposes still looks like a toothbrush after it is 'cleaned up' and has done its dirty work - even if it’s not been in the mouth.

As good fortune would have it, yesterday the dishwasher filters needed a thorough cleaning. Believe me the irony of a ‘cleaning tool’ of convenience needing an inconvenient cleaning is not lost on me. It is akin to the logic and pleasure I get from washing each bar of soap in the house with another bar of soap. Somehow my wife seems un-phased by the added Saturday dishwasher duty. She grabbed one of our trusty toothbrushes and soon enough I began to get loopy from the bleach odor wafting from the confines of the kitchen.

My sleep schedule is rather erratic, so to avoid disturbing my wife’s sleep, it is not unusual that I will retrieve my personal toothbrush from the bathroom when she retires to bed. In an effort to not leave toiletries out in the open for human, rodent, and insect house guests to examine and fondle, I move my dental scrubber to the convenient, yet hidden safety of the laundry room. You’ll be happy to know the dishwasher scrubbed up to perform just like new. And better yet, aside from that bitter caustic after-taste of ‘Chlorgate’ toothpaste, my teeth have never been whiter!