Is This You? Talking a different Game of Thrones

Will there ever be an age when we get to, or can, stop taking advice? Not the good kind of loving advice that’s meant to make our lives easier by making our days smoother and safer. No. I want to address advice like say, how to clean a toilet. OK, here’s the story. You’re on the edge of your seat, aren’t you? Hope it isn’t the toilet seat!

I’ve been cleaning toilets for as long as I can remember. I’ve tried a bathtub load of cleaners. They all seem to clean about the same, but they all clean. Some bubble up and cause a stink. Some just cling and wait to be coaxed to clean. Some turn the water a delightful blue that’s supposed to make you think you need to hop in a boat and skim across the top of the water in the bowl. I have no idea who would want that, but there it is, refreshingly blue and in someone’s eyes, inviting. Not!

Then all of a sudden I read this article put out by a guy who purports to be a master plumber who says all the hundreds of bucks I’ve spent on cleaners across the years was a waste of money. Really? So, anxiously, I read faster to find out just what the secret was to keeping the unmentionable sight from getting more unmentionable.

The toilet bowl brush. Yep, that’s apparently all it takes as per this “advicefull” advisor. Let’s just take a closer look at this little tidbit of knowledge. So you go into the bathroom armed with a brush and good intentions. I should say here his advice included the instructions to be sure to do this every day. Right off I can tell you I don’t know anyone who has time to scratch toilet cleaning into their daily schedule. Maybe we can all train ourselves and the others in our families after they’re done on the throne they’re to turn around and brush the bowl. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that might last, like, two days at the most! I can just imagine what a 6-year-old with a bowl brush along with an unflushed toilet could create. Sloshing on ...

Why, you may be asking, does this recommendation come from the mouth of a master plumber? Well, first off, I would hazard a guess he got burned at some time buying some toilet cleaner company stock that tanked (Pun intended!). His advice is the chemicals just don’t do as good a job as the brush. And he goes on to say the cleaners may cause a clog! Oh, come on! Moreover, he says drain cleaners aren’t your friend, either. A good ol’ plunger is your best bet — unless you have a drain snake. But the use of a snake may cause damage to your pipes, so if the plunger fails, call a plumber. Man, oh man!

So enough of my new plumbing friend. I finally decided he was full of it. Using just a brush wouldn’t get near enough of the stuff out of his bowl full of — advice!

In reality, there’s wonderful advice out there to give and get. Like getting served food in a Mexican restaurant: Don’t touch that hot plate, you’ll get burned. But of course we all give the plate a little push! How about you better lace up that boot before you go out to shovel the snow or you might fall down and break your crown? That one is, of course, also from personal experience.

How in the world do you know which advice to take to heart and which to take with a grain of salt? I would say, common sense, but there seems to be less and less of that around. Maybe experience really is the grand teacher. But what if you’re just coming on line to the housework world? How could you know a bowl brush just isn’t going to “cut it?” The same way you learn you don’t go outside when it’s thundering and there’s lightning dancing the La-Bamba around your house. The same way you learn everyone isn’t right when they tell you to jump off the roof into the pool — unless you’re a circus high-diver. Then, oh, this one is a biggie: The same way you know not to eat yellow snow.

Take advice from trusted people around you. The chances are they learned whatever they’re advising you about in a way you don’t really want to know.

Trina lives in Eureka, Nevada. Share with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com. Really!