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Post by puppybox on Apr 13, 2010 16:49:59 GMT -5
So, I got waterproof mascara on my eyeglasses. (I have long eyelashes, i don't wear much make up but bought it to experiment with)
I am allergic to windex, and other similar things.
I would have used my environmental all purpose cleaner, but that would have been the SENSIBLE thing to do.
The first thing i saw on the shelf was nail polish remover.
1) it did not remove the mascara.
2) it removed the colour on the front of my navy blue plastic frames. they now appeared to be tiedyed blue and white. they are less than a year old, there is no way I can afford (or would have needed) new ones for at least a year.
Please amuse me with your own disasters.
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Post by def6 on Apr 13, 2010 18:31:18 GMT -5
Mine is one that we have all done ...bleaching articles of clothes that should not be and drying things where they shrink up to nothing. If I could learn to be more careful on these two things.
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 13, 2010 19:09:01 GMT -5
Wow, Puppybox, I have so many to choose from, I don't know where to begin. I sometimes feel like the Diva of Disaster when it comes to clothing, jewelry, glasses, etc.--anything that's difficult or expensive to replace. If you think a bull in a china shop can do a lot of damage, imagine what happens if you take a dragon into one.  Now, this isn't a cleaning disaster, but it's similiar to the accident with your glasses, so I hope it will give you a chuckle: Several years ago, I was a bridesmaid in a wedding. The bride insisted we all have our nails done in the same color to match the dresses. Since my nails were very short (I was a photographer and doing a lot of dark room work at the time), she wanted me to get acrylic nails--which I did. However, while putting on my dress--which could have doubled as a float in the Rose Bowl Parade--one of the nails popped off. After a frantic search on the floor for the wayward nail, one of the other bridesmaids gave me a bottle of nail glue so I could reattach the nail. The problem was I had never used nail glue before, so I didn't realize what an exacting process it could be--or just how adhesive it is. All of the makeup tables were being used, so I had no choice but to find a corner and try to fit the accursed piece of plastic back on my nail. I ended up accidentally gluing my finger to my dress. It was a nightmare of epic proportions. Everyone became hysterical in a way that only occurs in bridal parties. I swear, you'd of thought I'd slept with the groom and told the bride that her dress made her look fat. If I could've hidden out in the bathroom during the ceremony, I would've done it, except for the fact that I knew I couldn't fit the entire bridesmaid ensemble into a stall. Since using acetone to dissolve the glue would've discolored the dress, they had no choice but to make a small cut to seperate my finger from the dress. My mother, who is an expert seamstress, was able to quickly mend the tiny hole and then do a few loose stiches to move one of the many folds of the skirt to hide it completely. No one ever knew and fortunately no one noticed that I went thru the entire ceremony and reception with a piece of my dress still glued to my finger. The groom, a close friend of mine, thought the entire episode was hilarious. The bride, however, never completely forgave me. |
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Post by eagle on Apr 13, 2010 19:26:39 GMT -5
Do not mix bleach with vinegar. Do not mix bleach with amonia. I haven't done this myself, but one of our dishwashers did when we owned the restauarant and I about had a fit when she told me. Both Hubby and I told her it creates a toxic gas and she was lucky she hadn't passed out. She immediately called her mom to demand why she had never been taught this.
I have done some other pretty dumb things, though.
Do not put liquid plumber in the dishwasher. I did do that in my condo a few years back. It did not turn out well.
Do not wear long hair in a pony tail and lean forward over your upright vacuum clean while it is still running. Caught my hair in the beater brush bar. This is pretty hysterical in retrospect, but at the time, I was bent over while my hair was being pulled shorter and shorter as it wrapped around the beater brush bar. I had to reach backward and upward behind me with one hand to find the off switch while holding my hair at the base of the pony tail with the other. Awkward, scary and totally unwise.
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panicked
New Member
Joined: September 2009
Posts: 64
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Post by panicked on Apr 13, 2010 19:38:59 GMT -5
Disorganizeddragon, I literally  'd at your story. Too funny. Mine qualifies as a candidate for the Darwin Awards. Last August/September I was doing serious decluttering and cleaning of my kitchen. It occurred to me at some point that my hood fan hadn't been cleaned in...a long time. Ahem. The first time I tried to get the grease off, my regular cleaner wasn't really making a dent. So I went to Home Depot the next day and bought some super-strong orange-based degreaser. After dinner, I sprayed the hood down, and let it sit for probably five minutes while I filled a bucket with Top Job and hot water in the kitchen sink, so I could wash the floor too. Then I grabbed a rag, leaned backwards over the stove and looked directly up at the hood to wipe it. Whereupon a huge drop of degreaser dripped directly down into my left eye. I couldn't get at the kitchen sink to rinse it because I could barely see, my eye was burning badly, and there was a bucket in it. The downstairs bathroom was occupied, so I ran up the stairs to the other bathroom. I flushed and flushed and flushed my eye till I could kinda see, then stuck my head into the tub and flushed it some more with the handheld shower. After about ten or fifteen minutes of that, when I figured I could see enough to actually read, I went downstairs to look at the degreaser bottle. It told me in case of eye exposure I should SEEK IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION. Oh. Okay. So I went to the ER. And there I told the nice triage lady, "This--this--is what I get for cleaning." She agreed cleaning was probably a bad idea all around.  All my friends were torn between genuine concern and laughing their butts off when they heard. I won't suggest what won out, but my gentleman friend helpfully told me what aisle they sell the goggles in at Home Depot. |
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hopehope
Banned
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 3,815 
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Post by hopehope on Apr 13, 2010 23:32:10 GMT -5
'I ended up accidentally gluing my finger to my dress.'  |
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Post by CaringFriend on Apr 14, 2010 0:13:22 GMT -5
Oh my, disorganizeddragon!!!!  Are you related to Lucille Ball? ! That sounds like a scenario in one of her TV shows!  |
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 14, 2010 0:26:40 GMT -5
I wish I could blame it on someone to which I was related. No, truth be told, I am utterly uncoordinated when it comes to anything having to do with appearance or fashion. I don't wear eye liner because I'd probably end up blinding myself. I have never once put on mascara without getting it in my hair. During the big glittery makeup phase of the 1980's, I could never get it on evenly and instead of having 'shimmering' eyes and cheekbones, I looked as if I was radioactive. You get the idea. I guess I should add that if anything in my home ever needs gluing, I'm obviously not the one that does it . |
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Post by Script on Apr 14, 2010 6:28:17 GMT -5
Auntie Duck steps forward with her favourite disaster, in a lifetime of un-co-ordinated klutziness: MORE THAN ONCE I inadvertently turned my DearHubby's underwear PINK. I used to have the bad habit  of not really separating laundry: lights, darks, whatever. Everything into the wash together! In the old days, I also had lots of bright-coloured nylons nightgowns. The dark red one ALWAYS ran in the wash.............DH went totally NUTS when he saw his Pink Jockeys.........I was able to bleach them back to white.... Now, I am a fanatic about separating laundry. I eventually tossed out the red nightgown. I am still a klutz. ps: the bridesmaid dress story is hysterically funny |
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Post by eagle on Apr 14, 2010 7:43:03 GMT -5
In my youth I used to boil new fabric in a vinegar bath (mixture of water & vinegar) in order to 'set' the colors. This was before laying it out to cut out a pattern for sewing garments. As I recall, nothing ran in the wash after the vinegar bath boil.
I have never tried it with store bought garments, although it would probably work just as well. Except I don't think anyone wants to boil their fine lingerie.
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Post by howardsgirlfriend on Apr 14, 2010 11:34:39 GMT -5
If you're out of dishwasher detergent, do not use the dishwasher. Dish soap and laundry detergent are not acceptable substitutes. Trust me.
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Post by fluffernut - now Jannie on Apr 14, 2010 12:52:42 GMT -5
Here's another disaster story. We completely remodeled our bathroom in 2006. All new fixtures, plumbing, tiles. Then my Goth daughter left a bottle of black nail polish open on the counter. I bumped injto it and somehow sent it spinning to the floor. Black polish went in every direcxtion. I wiped up most of it, luckily it didn't sink into the faux marble stone top or the laminate drawers. But it DID sink into the grout between the floor tiles. Black nail polish. No matter how hard I rubbed with nail polish remover, and later with nail polish remover pads, the black stains remained. That was three years ago. The black stains are still there. Only now they just look like dirt between the cracks. Nothing removes them. Not ammonia, not bleach, not Mr Clean erasers. By the way, if you spot a spider in the middle of the night, grab any can and start spraying. I have used Raid, spray startch, and hairspray. They all stop a spider. I think the last two just glue the spider together so it can't walk.
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Post by eatingbonbons on Apr 14, 2010 21:14:07 GMT -5
Wow! Ya'll have some really good stories here! 
This past weekend I was cleaning my critter cage and I decided to soak it in the bathtub. It took up about 2/3 of the tub. I was sitting on the edge of the tub, leaned over to scrub the off side, lost my balance, and, plop, fell right into the tub. So here I am flailing butt-down in the back 1/3 of the tub with my legs dangling over the sides. The water temp is 140F and hot water is still pouring out of the faucet. I can't reach the faucet to turn it off because the cage is in the way. I can't drag myself out of the tub because my butt is wedged in by the cage. I'm laughing hysterically but, still, I know my butt is going to be getting hotter and hotter if I don't make a fast exit. Lucky for me, I had a quick response to my hollers of "I need some help in here!!!" Chris walks into the room, stares at me, and says, "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning, Chris. I'm cleaning."
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Post by homesteph on Apr 14, 2010 23:12:02 GMT -5
Oh this is a brilliant thread! What awesome authors too!
Disorganizeddragon, I am so glad they opted to cut a tiny bit of the dress instead of a tiny bit of your finger. Sounds like it could have gone either way!
I can share one story, didn't happen to me personally, but it is family legend.
My parents were going to have a new years eve party. They had not yet disposed of the dessicated Christmas tree. My dad decided to shove it into the fireplace, intact, projecting into the chimney, in spite of my mother's advice to the contrary. Whoosh, the chimney becomes a roaring flamethrower, and the backwash blackens the living room wall. After the fire was put out, painting was added to the list of cleaning chores before the party.
So the legend goes.
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 15, 2010 6:48:11 GMT -5
I just love the "disasters" posted on here! Homesteph, you are so right about the decision to cut my dress as opposed to cutting my finger. I think the mother-of-the-bride briefly considered cutting off my entire hand! Fortunately, the thought of having someone that looked like a victim from a bad horror movie at her's daughter's wedding put a stop to any threat of serious mutilation. And the Christmas tree story! Is your mom still holding that over your dad's head each time he wants to do something questionable? I know I would be. |
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