We Don't Gatekeep: Your Tips, Tricks, and Life-Changing Product Recs for Blood Stains & Rank Footwear

I'm the hardest working lazy person you'll ever meet, let's enjoy some outsourcing!

You guys, I'm struggling through a combination of an unexpected workload and my deep and abiding laziness! So listen, earlier this year I set about addressing an issue of busyness — the writing I do to pay for my groceries, wine, and yoga pants lifestyle was steady and wonderful, but it wasn't quite enough to keep me as occupied as it's good for me to be. (An idle Joles is a very fun Devil indeed, but I'm getting a bit long in the tooth for the Satanic rituals of my younger years.) And there was a thing that was missing, for me, and that thing was Ask a Clean Person. I missed all of it! I missed you, I missed your messes, I missed the wonderful stories you shared, I missed, if I'm being really honest, the feeling of being needed.

To fill the space in my schedule and in my heart, I decided to relaunch AaCP as a newsletter and I'm so glad I did! This has been really fun. But then work kicked into overdrive in a way I didn’t see coming and all of a sudden I found myself struggling to find time for this thing I was supposed to be doing with the time I wasn't spending as a contributing writer to BHG and CNN, and now the Strategist. 

I've been fretting about this! But fretting is silly, so instead of fretting myself into paralysis I'm banging out a quickie (we love a quickie, hi) while I enjoy a glass of chardonnay with ice on my patio and I know not a single one of you is going to be mad at me for this choice. 

So here's the quickie: A few of you have touched base to share a tip, or a trick, or a favorite product with me and since we do not gatekeep I figured spreading the love and the wisdom and the etc etc etc was the right move. I also want to point you to the Reddit AMA I did a few weeks ago because it was loads of fun and there were lots of people who, like many of you, have been with me since the Hairpin or Jezebel or Deadspin days and that made my Grinchy heart swell right up.

Okay so let's get into this hodge-podge and then I'll get back to the important work of sorting through complicated expert commentary on insect control/drinking chardonnay with ice on my patio.

Reddit AMA with r/LifeProTips

The LifeProTips sub is one of the treasures of reddit, and I am absolutely biased in saying so because they've hosted me twice for an AMA but also plenty of other people think so too! I'm sharing the link to the AMA I did in May so you can check it out if you weren't able to join.

I always have the best time answering people's questions in real time, whether it's on Reddit, on radio shows, IRL, or whatever. (I don't regret quitting Twitter and I won't go back but I do miss the way it allowed me to interact with people.) I have faith that we'll form our own vibrant community in this space and so to that end, I'd ask that you use the comments section here to share whatever it is you want to share. It can be about cleaning or not! Do you have a book you NEED everyone to read right now?!? Tell us! (Okay real talk I NEED you to read All The Names They Used For God by Anjali Sachdeva and not just because the author is an Anjali and I'm an Anjolie, although truth be told the Anjali/Anjolie of it all is precisely why I picked up All The Names They Used For God in the first place. You guys … this book. It’s so good it will make your eyebrows fall off your face. In the good way.)

A Stain Stick for Bloody Messes

A reader writes!

I wanted to let you know that I found a stain stick on Etsy that is amazing. It’s from a company called The Black Sheep Soap Co. I love it! It works really well on set in bloodstains. Just wanted to share the joy!

This is the stain stick! It’s $7.50!! A bargain, go forth and remove stains!!!

A Tip for Damp, Stanky Shoes

Another reader writes!

I wanted to share a trick that was inspired by your love of DampRid. My toddler’s shoes sometimes get hella wet, no idea why. I just work here. Maybe playing outside, maybe learning to drink from a cup, maybe a little foot sweat. Wet things get stinky and then throwing them into a washing machine, shockingly, does not make them less wet.

I tried stuffing them with newspaper but then I got to thinking about DampRid, and about the little silica packets that they put in shoeboxes, and… Jolie. JOLIE! They make BIG silica packets, like a little smaller than a PopTart. And you can recharge them in sunshine, oven, or microwave. And they change color so you know when they are charged and/or need to be charged. You can pop them into a washer-damp shoe, or a rain-damp shoe, or maybe a shoe that has been misted with Lysol or isopropyl or hypochlorous acid (cousin of Bleachie, recent fav) and then they are dry in a couple of hours. Like REALLY dry, not the sneaky “dry” and then they’re secretly still a tiny bit wet (visceral?!)

Sorry to QVC at you, hope you’re as delighted by this as I am, and that you are thriving and gleaming.

Here’s a rechargeable silica packet, let’s all dry our shoes! (LADOS?)