Comments on: Exxon Valdez, the sequel

By: MichelleSG

MichelleSG — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:28:20 +0000

I would say cleaning up olive oil is similar to cleaning any other kind, ie motor oil and the like. Kitty litter has been used by grease monkeys for years, we just don’t normally have that big a spill in the kitchen! I used to change oil in the vacuum pumps at work and what I found to be most useful for cleaning up every little bit of residue once the big mess was cleaned was window cleaner. Specifically (and this stuff is hard to find) the foaming window cleaner. It comes in those cans like aqua net, remember those? It does a stellar job eliminating all evidence of oil. I LOVED that stuff.

By: TMae

TMae — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:02:43 +0000

At our house when an unopened liter of olive oil met with the tile instead of using kitty litter, the cat was kind enough to mop up the spill.

No one was home when the incident occurred, and my husband was the one to find the mess. He managed to contain it with paper towels, I believe. The cat, however, had to be washed 3 - 4 times, as well as every piece of furniture he sat, laid, or rubbed on while he was covered. We still have stains from the escapade.

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:16:23 +0000

Cat litter is also excellent for soaking up motor oil (if you change your own), overflow from deep-frying a turkey (again with the oil), and getting rid of that last little bit of paint in the paint can so you can actually throw it away but not as hazardous waste. Just in case you ever encounter one of those scenarios.

By: Liz Gumbinner

Liz Gumbinner — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:31:54 +0000

Ha fairly odd mother - I finished the job, but very poorly. I could have used the help of some of the other clean freaks on this site for sure.

By: Fairly Odd Mother

Fairly Odd Mother — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:00:17 +0000

Here’s the big question: did you finish the job, or did that totally derail you—-I think that after I cleaned that up, I may have just retreated to the couch with a big glass (er bottle) of wine.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:42:16 +0000

“I kept imagining that awful warning on the dryers in our building about how cooking oil in the dryer will blow up the building or whatever.”

Yep, be very careful — one of my coworkers filled his house with smoke when his oily clothing caught fire in the dryer. Heat + combustibles = lots of smoke damage. Fortunately the house didn’t burn down, but I’ve since learned never to leave a dryer unattended.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious re: oil and water. I would totally have done the same thing.

By: Liz Gumbinner

Liz Gumbinner — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:38:29 +0000

Oh my gosh so many kitty litter uses! Who knew we had a fabulous cleaning hack at the ready all along?

I admit I was afraid to use it not because it’s cat litter per se, but because our kittens might um…get the wrong idea? And contribute to the disaster in the kitchen?

Elizabeth, the image of you with the scooper on your kitchen floor is hilarious.

Teresa I am adding Novello to the list - thanks for the tip, mama. If Fairway makes it, it can’t suck.

By: Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Teresa Nielsen Hayden — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:51:42 +0000

(And by the way, have you tried Fairway’s Novello? I don’t know how it is on kitchen floors, but it’s great on a piece of baguette.)

By: Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Teresa Nielsen Hayden — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:10:17 +0000

Oh no, an entire bottle of the Catalan Arbequina! (And hey, you shop at the same grocery store I do.)

Have you never seen driveways that have little heaps of kitty litter on them to soak up oil spills? Kitty litter and related substances are great for cleaning up nasty liquid and semi-liquid messes. Absorptive clay particles are one of the technologies used to clean up big chemical and hazmat spills.

On the home front, I can tell you what else kitty litter is good for, if you’ll forgive me telling a somewhat gruesome story.

A friend of mine who lives alone had a bad attack of shellfish poisoning. He barely managed to stagger into his tiny, cramped first-floor bathroom before he collapsed on the floor, voiding convulsively from all orifices. “A little while later my vision went black and I figured I was dying,” he told me, “so after that I got a lot calmer.”

Some while later the attack passed and his vision returned, so he crawled into the shower. That took care of one cleanup problem, but the rest of that horrendous mess was still there, and his bathroom was a pretzel-puzzle at the best of times.

What he used to clean it up: a giant-size bag of clumping kitty litter, plus a shop-vac. Lacking a shop-vac, a shovel followed by a broom and dustpan would do. The bathroom surfaces still had to be scrubbed afterward, but that was relatively trivial.

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:53:48 +0000

I don’t know what else cat litter can clean, but I can tell you that it’s great to throw on icy sidewalks and driveways for a little traction. Especially if you live in a climate where it’s only occasionally icy and so you don’t usually keep rock salt or chemical de-icers on hand.