Reviving Joy, One Household Cleaning Product at a Time

When I was a kid, my mom was quite the cleaning lady. She used a whole panoply of cleaning products, all for different purposes. 409 for general cleaning, Windex for glass, and her all-time favorite, Comet.

Comet cleanser was used in our house for just about anything (something couldn't be scrubbed raw enough, apparently). Tile countertops, sinks, bathtubs and toilets all saw microscopic layers porcelain removed as the Comet did its duty.

One of my favorite things about Comet is that it still comes in the round, carboard canisters I remember from my childhood. The tops and bottoms of these canisters are some type of non-corrosive metal; I'm guessing aluminum, for its light weight and economy.

For the people out there who've never used Comet, one of the magical things about it is the little piece of tape that is used to seal the lid. The lid has seven small holes in it, that you pour the Comet out through, and these holes are covered by that small piece of square tape.

When I was a kid, my favorite thing to do was to grab a new canister of Comet (with the tape still in place), shake it up and down violently, then remove the tape slowly, to see a perfect pattern of seven small circles of greenish-white Comet cleanser impressed there. Removing the tape was part of the experience, too - it's some sort of heavy-duty stuff, designed, I suppose, so the damn things don't open up in transit and spread piles of chlorinated cleanser around the back of a semi.

Today, I was helping Katrina clean house, and I opened up a new container of Comet. I didn't shake it up first, though. As I was peeling the tape off, I felt that old, familiar resistance (try it sometime - that tape is tough!), and I suddenly realized I hadn't taken advantage of the new can to get the cool little seven-circle pattern. Upon examining the tape, it appeared this individual can of Comet had a particularly smooth ride on its way to my house, as there was hardly any residue on it.

Noticing this made me think: there are so many small things one can to do keep joy in one's life. Every single one counts, and can sometimes make the difference between hope and desperation. I had forgotten this one. I never will again.


Next time you're cleaning house, shake up the new can of Comet, or Ajax, or Zud, or whatever it is you use, and see if that little pattern of cleanser stuck to the tape doesn't make you smile.