Monday, November 17, 2008

yesterday i learned a valuable lesson

some days i am amazed at what an idiot i am.

yesterday was one of those days.

i don't know how many times i have put bleach in my bathtub to soak while i cleaned the rest of the bathroom, then scrubbed the tub. but yesterday i did it, then started scrubbing my toilet, and disaster struck.

a disaster that could have been MUCH worse than it was.

i was using a new kind of toilet bowl cleaner, and apparently the fumes from it and the fumes from the bleach don't jive. some deadly kind of awful chemical reaction occurred. within two minutes, my throat was burning and i couldn't breathe. the baby was in the crib, had just woken up. so i ran in the nursery (which is just down the hall) grabbed the baby and ran downstairs. i put him on the floor in our living room, held my breath, and ran upstairs to open all the windows and turn on fans, then drain the bleach water from the tub and flush the toilet to get rid of the cleaner. then i ran back downstairs to open all the windows there as well.

the house started to air out, but i had a terrible headache and was feeling pretty lightheaded. luckily, the baby seemed perfectly fine. i think because i was able to get him downstairs before the fumes really reached his room--it's a good thing i reacted so quickly! after i got dizzy, the baby and i went outside to sit on the front porch until my husband could get home from work.

hubby checked out the bathroom. the majority of the fumes had dissipated, but the smell of bleach was still very strong. he set up a big box fan, and we left the house for a couple of hours. upon coming back, it was much better. the bathroom still smells like bleach, but it isn't nearly as bad as it was yesterday.

when i realized what had happened, i was terrified. i (in my ignorance and stupidity) didn't think that the fumes mixing would cause a problem. i have cleaned my bathroom this way for years and years. i knew mixing chemicals was a no-no, but i'd never thought about the fumes. i will NEVER do that again. we are very lucky that we're both okay. i'm sure i lost a bunch of brain cells, which sucks, since i don't have a whole ton left to my name. i'm just so grateful little buddy wasn't hurt.

so learn from my idiocy. when cleaning bathrooms, use one chemical at a time. and my advice? never use bleach to clean a tub. use something else.

i won't be using bleach in my bathroom again, that's for sure.

14 comments:

Cheryl said...

Add this to your experiences learned! :)

I'm glad you're both okay and that you were in the right frame of mind to get the heck out of there! One way to clean your bathroom is to do what I do...ummm...do it only when the desire of bleach outweighs the current smell of yuckiness...? Yeah, maybe not.

JAG said...

Scary!! Glad you guys are ok!

April said...

Oh my heck! How scary!

All I know is that you are NEVER EVER supposed to put bleach in the toilet because when ammonia (from pee or other cleaners) and bleach mix, they create a harmful/deadly gas.

Good thing you got the baby downstairs!

Oceanchild said...

yikes this is scary! I'm glad you guys are okay. I swear I do the same types of things so this was a good reminder.

tiki_lady said...

clorox is one of my biggest addictions and cleaning. When I do this I am really careful about what products I am using. glad you are all ok

Kaylynn said...

At least you learned the valuable lesson!

Blog Stalker said...

sounds like you had a close call. Glad everyone is okay! What an experience, thanks for sharing. Who knows, you may have just saved someone else's life.

Have a great day!

Rachel Ann said...

Thanks for stopping by today!

I'm glad to hear that you and your baby are ok. I know how you feel about this...one of our young guys did this at work and we had to evacuate our offices for a few hours..it was awful.

April said...

So glad you dropped by my blog and entered my giveaway...good luck!

What a scary thing that happened to you! I'm happy to know that you and your little one are alright!

Hope you have a great day!

Buttons and Dots Photography said...

I am glad you are OK! And you just reminded a whole lot of people to never do the same thing! You may have just saved more than your own life! Thanks for your words of encouragement on my blog post yesterday! I have never met you but I still think you are a great friend!

black betty said...

OMG!!! how frightening! i'm so glad that you and babe are alright. thanks for stopping by my blog. xoxo

Danyele Easterhaus said...

oh my goodness...glad ur ok.

MammaDucky said...

See, this is why I don't clean. It's FAR too dangerous. Tee-hee. Much bloggy love.

Valerie said...

I think all of us has learned valuable lessons the hard way. Most of us with our kids present. I had a grease fire in my mom's kitchen once with my little girl directly in the next room. It was very scary. I screamed for her to go to the neighbors. Your first instinct is to get your baby out of harms way. I am so glad that every thing turned out ok. Chemicals can be very dangerous.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'll be sure to come back to yours. Have a great day!