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You know, sometimes just a little bit of change makes a big difference. Here in our household we are all excited about my new cleaning tool purchase: It's a vacuum! It's a Swiffer! It's both! 
It's 2 cleaning tools in one!
The kids actually fight over who gets to use it next. My floors have never been so clean. Those are Susie's legs there in the picture - see? So easy, a 4-year-old can do it!
And, yes, it is a little worrisome that I can be so enthused over a household appliance without even being paid to endorse it. Without a doubt, I need to get out more.
It's 2 cleaning tools in one!The kids actually fight over who gets to use it next. My floors have never been so clean. Those are Susie's legs there in the picture - see? So easy, a 4-year-old can do it!
And, yes, it is a little worrisome that I can be so enthused over a household appliance without even being paid to endorse it. Without a doubt, I need to get out more.
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And now, a conundrum that needs solving, folks. The laundry detergent I currently use (the cheapest High Efficiency perfume-free stuff I could find) has a bottle with a maddening design. You know how you pick up the detergent bo
ttle and unscrew the lid so that the spout will be pointing away from the hand holding the bottle?
No? Well, it's true. Go ahead, try it. I'll wait....
See? Well, this particular bottle is driving me crazy, because I cannot tell (when the lid is on) which way the spout will be facing. What's more, every single time I open the bottle, I get it wrong.
Now, how can this be? Every single time? The Law of Averages dictates that I would get it right approximately 50 percent of the time. Every day - 3 times a day - I pick up the bottle, waste time trying to divine where the spout is hidden under that lid.....and I still end up having to turn the darn thing around.
Here - you try. Tell me which side the spout is on. And figure out a good way for me to get it right....
ttle and unscrew the lid so that the spout will be pointing away from the hand holding the bottle?No? Well, it's true. Go ahead, try it. I'll wait....
See? Well, this particular bottle is driving me crazy, because I cannot tell (when the lid is on) which way the spout will be facing. What's more, every single time I open the bottle, I get it wrong.
Now, how can this be? Every single time? The Law of Averages dictates that I would get it right approximately 50 percent of the time. Every day - 3 times a day - I pick up the bottle, waste time trying to divine where the spout is hidden under that lid.....and I still end up having to turn the darn thing around.
Here - you try. Tell me which side the spout is on. And figure out a good way for me to get it right....
I tried, I can't. My best guess would be common sense would lead me to believe the spout is on the right (in the photo), however guessing that product designers don't have common sense it might pour on the left (in the photo).
ReplyDeleteUgh...I was no help.
grab a sharpie, draw an arrow on the bottle going towards the spout.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing as I look at the photo that it's on the left. And if I'm right, I'd suggest telling yourself that the Stupid Spout is on the A side. So that the A has the Stupid Spout.
ReplyDeleteOh, I need that swiffer thing. definitely.
ReplyDeleteno idea on the spout. I'd guess what Jane guessed. I bet they did loads of research and focus groups on what sort of bottle your average housewife likes best. They just should have asked YOU.
I was going to suggest a sharpie also. Or maybe the spout turns as you are twisting the cap?
ReplyDeleteI'm hooked on some wonderful detergent (powdered, though) from Amazon---it comes to my door! It's called Country Save. I live in the country and it saves me money---see why I like it?
ReplyDeleteSo, if you can't fix your detergent problems, you may want to switch to something new entirely. (And no one paid me a cent to say anything.)
http://mamasminutia.blogspot.com/2009/05/pounding-pulpit.html
My guess is on the right - our right. Where the bottle has that upward sweep toward the cap, the side the word "All" ends. Urgh! I say open it and mark it with a Sharpie. If want more of a mental challenge, memorize whether you need to have the front or back towards you when you open it.
ReplyDeleteSee, that Sharpie suggestion? Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI want a Swiffer vac. Is it as wonderful as it seems it would be?
ReplyDeleteI use the same detergent. I currently have a bigger bottle (with a different design), so I can't check to be sure, but as I recall, it should be on the right in this photo. You can tell because that ridge at the top slopes towards the spout.
ReplyDeleteI can't guess, so I immediately thought of a Sharpie. I love my Sharpie! (Maybe those people should pay me for a post?)
ReplyDeleteAnd I SO wish my kids would get excited about a cleaning tool. Last time that happened, my youngest was in preschool. He's in 4th grade now. *sigh*
And hey, if you are done with the patches on your scout uniforms, SnakeMaster needs his patches taken off his old shirt and sewn onto his new shirt... by tomorrow night. I've been putting it off all summer. Perhaps you would like to do it for me? I hate (HATE!!) sewing patches.
There is no right answer! More than once I have had the spout fall back into the detergent container . . . turns out the damn things spins when you twist the lid back on!
ReplyDeleteI am SO going shopping for one of those Swiffer things . . . anything to get my 4-year-old to clean!
I use the same stuff, and have the same problem...you never know which way is up. You can grab hold of that spout and turn it (while risking hurting your hand!)and it should stay, or you can be like me and just ignore it. Though I have to say, I have more of a 50/50 chance in getting it right!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Sharpie.
ReplyDeleteAnd instead of anarchists, maybe you should be raising seamstresses.
It's amazing how simple household items get me excited too. Like my new hot water kettle for canning--$16.99 at Fleet Farm and the way I carried on you'd think I bought the Hope Diamond..
ReplyDeleteSharpie.
ReplyDeleteI want one of those as well.
Does it deal well with dog hair?
I want a swiffer vac.. They don't have sell then here!!!
ReplyDeleteLove the Swiffer. The Sharpie idea is genius. When I was really desperate to get those patches on in a hurry, I would staple them on with my heavy-duty stapler, then take a little hammer and pound the staple ends so they wouldn't scratch the skin. I know, that's lazy. Yes it shows a bit, but the dads in my son's troop weren't observant enough to notice and the moms in my daughters troop totally seemed to sympathize with me. MIME
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of when my 3rd child was learning to put her own shoes on. Every single time she got it wrong. I used to think the law of averages would have to mean she'd get it right at least a few times, but no. Each and every time she would put her shoes on the wrong feet.
ReplyDeleteI was going to suggest the Sharpie as well, looks like a dozen or so folks beat me to it.
ReplyDeleteI passed a little yarn store today and thought of you. The sign in the window promised that I could come in and learn to knit my troubles away...of course it was closed!
Maybe it does spin? I get it wrong every time too!
ReplyDeleteThe floors. Beautiful. And getting your 4-year-old to clean? Priceless.
ReplyDeleteI would think the spout is on the left. Because when you're looking at the logo, you pick it up with your right hand and pour it away from that hand. But, since you get it wrong every time, they obviously designed it wrong! Now I'm dying to know! Where's the picture of the open bottle?? ;)
ReplyDeleteThey make an HE ALL? is it without perfume and colorings?
ReplyDeleteWe buy the monster 300 washes container at Costco and just use less in the front loading washer. I haven't seen the HE in a large size. We do at least 3 loads of laundry a day in the Sears HE3 washer and dryer we bought 7 years ago. When these die, the new ones they make are a larger capacity.