So, I was cleaning the house today, and I really started wondering about something.  Why does bleach cleaner not bleach out sponges but it does everything else?  I mean, the one thing I don’t care if it bleaches is apparently the only thing that it doesn’t.  This is quite disturbing.

A few weeks ago, we were getting ready for holiday parties at our house.  I have a small powder room off the living room, and we painted it a nice light purple over the fall.  I bought a purple bathmat, toilet mat, and hand towel.  The former took me about five seconds to find.  The latter about five stores.  I had to get just the right color, and I finally found it after quite a long time of searching.  I also paid about $8 for the thing.  I’ve only had it for about two months, and our daughter cleans the bathroom as part of her chores.

You can probably see where this is going.

I was going to wash the towel (which I’ve done several times since buying it), and I pulled it off the towel bar.  It had a huge bleached stain on it.  I was mad, pissed off, and just downright angry.  I had put a lot of time and effort into finding this particular towel, plus it wasn’t inexpensive.  So, I asked the cleaner if she had used bleach.  “It wasn’t me,” was the answer I received.  It’s amazing how much stuff gets broken, bleached, or torn up around my house by that phantom person, “Not Me.”  I should be able to claim Not Me on my taxes he does so much damage.

So, I went and bought another purple towel, although it’s not nearly as fluffy as the first one, or as nice.  The old one also has a funny wear spot on it, where the bleach ate into the fabric fibers.  So, I know that Not Me really did a number on it. 

So, today I was cleaning another bathroom.  The now-bleached-out purple towel now makes a good kitchen towel, so all was not lost.  It was laying on the counter when I went to get the cleaning supplies from under the sink.  It looked at me, I looked at it.  I know the poor towel was probably thinking what losers we are for only having it for 2 months and then relegating it to KP.

When I was cleaning the sink in our bathroom, I used a product containing bleach.  As I was scrubbing the sink with a blue sponge, it occurred to me all of a sudden that the blue sponge, or any of them for that matter, don’t bleach out when I use them with bleach.  They cost about 5 cents each, go figure.  But, my $8 handtowel, my shirts, sweatshirts, and pants all have bleach stains if they get even one drop or even a whiff of a drop of bleach on them.  This is most annoying.

So, the question I now have is why?  Why does a cheap-o sponge not bleach out but everything else does?  I’m sure it has something to do with the cellulose fibers or the open holes in the sponge.  I don’t really care, either way.  I’m just annoyed. 

Oh, and all of the stuff they’ve broken, stained, or ruined in some way, what happens to it in the long run?  It becomes theirs when they move out.  I’m going shopping the day they leave to buy new stuff that they can’t ruin.