This wasn’t a planned thing. No tip I saw online. No life hack someone passed along at brunch. I didn’t even know I was about to clean, to be honest. One second I was folding towels and the next I got that message: “We’re heading over!” And I just… froze.
The bathroom. I hadn’t looked at it in days, probably. Maybe more. I’m embarrassed, don’t judge me. So I walked in. Gave it a once-over. And right away, there it was, that weird smell that isn’t bad but also isn’t good. You know the one. Like leftover humidity and maybe soap scum pretending to be air freshener.
I looked under the sink. Hoping, I guess. And… nothing. No cleaner, no wipes. Not even one of those half-used emergency sponges. Just some floss and an empty bottle of something I didn’t remember buying. Seriously, what even was that? I stood there thinking: do I fake an illness? Lock the bathroom door and claim plumbing issues? Light a candle and pray?
Then I saw it.
It was just sort of… there. A dryer sheet. Used. Still soft-ish. Sort of curled up on the corner of the laundry pile, stuck to a shirt I hadn’t folded yet.
And I don’t know why, but I picked it up.
Why I Did What I Did (And Didn’t Think It’d Work)
Maybe it was the panic. Maybe I thought it would at least smell like I tried, even if I didn’t technically clean anything. I just figured… swipe the top of the toilet tank. Maybe the handle. Look alive.
But then I wiped, and that’s when it got weird. Not only did the dust disappear, it stuck to the thing. Like, the sheet kind of magnetized the dirt? I don’t know the science. I don’t even want to. It just worked.
And yeah—it left behind that warm dryer smell. Which was oddly comforting in a “this bathroom is less embarrassing now” sort of way.
I Kept Going, Because Of Course I Did
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