How [not] to clean a bathtub

My grandmother’s so-called “miracle” cleaner (2023 edition).
Not that I’m endorsing it. I’m too old to be an influencer.

My Dutch grandmother (Oma) swore by the cleaning product Vim, pronounced “Fim” in Dutch. (The V sound in Dutch is used only for W’s.) To this day, whenever I use Oma’s favourite cleaner, I hear her voice exclaiming, “Gebruik maar de Fim!”: Just use the Vim.

I’ve used the “cream” version for years to clean our bathtub. Recently, Mr. Fluffster bought the “bathroom spray” version (see photo above). Easier to apply, it requires far less scrubbing to get the job done. Much easier on my aging back!

A couple of weeks ago, with what I thought was a bottle of Vim, I sprayed the bathroom tub and tiles for their weekly cleaning. But even with vigorous scrubbing, the stuff didn’t foam up as usual. And it felt greasy. Another glance at the bottle explained everything: I’d just scrubbed our bathtub with carpet-spot remover!

Not Vim.

I immediately imagined it nibbling away at the tile grout or already-damaged tub enamel. After hosing off the carpet-spot remover, I sprayed on plenty of Vim, which foamed up and worked as usual.

Why did I grab the wrong bottle? I blame it on a recent rearrangement of our cleaning products: the carpet cleaner occupied the spot once reserved for Vim. Morning brain fog had nothing to do with it.

Mr. Fluffster laughed when I told him about it. I shouldn’t be surprised by the teasing that followed.

* Cleanser by shashank singh Noun Project (CC BY 3.0) and scrub brush by Andi Nur Abdillah from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0).