Sunday, December 04, 2011

Puffed with pride

A long time ago, over a dinner party that was several bottles of red and several hours old, the question of who was a scruncher and who was a folder came up.

Toilet paper usage might be something you consider a private matter, but it so happened that the friends of ours who were asking had actually made a movie about it. No, I haven't seen it yet, but someday there'll be a Flemington reunion and I'll be asking to see more than just their holiday snaps.

Anyhow, memories of that conversation came back to me as I took a shower this morning.

We're shower (OK 'douche') gel users in this house ever since being told by a plumber that fats from soaps are really difficult to scrub off tiles and glass. Instead of being forced to blob it into our hands and randomly slap i

t around our bodies before it slides down the plughole, we use 'puffs' to make it go further.
Bear in mind that I don't normally adhere so strictly to stereotyped male and female colour schemes, but at 6:30am in the morning it does make it considerably easier to reach and remember which puff belongs to which scruff.

It also, as I just realised, indicates just who in this bathroom is the folder and who is the scruncher.



12 comments:

River said...

The fats in soap is the cause of that impossible-to-remove soap film?
I'd heard it was the body fats combined with soap and hard water.

I can't believe people would lie to me like that, just so I'd buy all those "it works, it really works!!" shower cleaners.

How is Sapphire? Bacterias thrive in alkaline conditions, it might help to have Sapph. drink apple cider vinegar mixed with honey and stirred into hot/warm water, a couple of glasses a day, to neutralise her body.

Anji said...

I use one of those - mines pink and i'm a scruncher.

Unfortunately shower gel doesn't stop limescale forming on the tiles...

Elephant's Child said...

I am a folder. Himself is a scruncher. And limescale is a complete pain.

Hannah said...

I honestly had no idea scrunchers exist. Isn't there more risk of... contact that way?!

Plastic Mancunian said...

Bonjour Kath,

I'm shocked to admit that having seen the photo, I now know what that weird thing is hanging up near our shower.

I've been too scared to ask Mrs PM in case absolutely takes the pee (she needs no excuse).

Oh the shame!

Thanks for that.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Anonymous said...

Scrunchers use three times as much paper as folders, by my observations.

Vanessa said...

Totally agree with soap leaving much more mess to clean up.
Ummm, are we all supposed to use our own puffer? Haven't for ten odd years. Is that vile?

Kath Lockett said...

Anji you are correct - scrubbing still needs to occur but at least it's not that fatty stuff.

EC you and Himself are our opposites :)

Hannah, I'm not sure - as a natural 'scruncher' I always thought that folders put themselves at risk of providing a much smaller surface area....

Glad to hear that I'm an educational resource for you PlasMan!

Andrew, my father used to get sick of hearing our metal toilet roll holder go 'Brrr brrr brrr' as my younger brother David kept spinning it, so he instituted a 'Four Square' rule for number ones!

It might only be 'vile', Vanessa, if the puff is used to take care of the bits down south, perhaps?

Wally The Walrus said...

Hmm. LOVE those 1980's tiles. (Shudder).

Folder, me.

Oh and a simple way to avoid shower scum build up whether you use soap or that gel stuff is to have a aqueegee in the shower, and the last person wipes down all the walls, the glass thingy AND the floor with it. By doing this, suddenly the shower needs a jolly good clean about 1/4 as frequently.

Wally The Walrus said...

aqueegee = SQUEEGEE.

Oops. Typo after a couple of glasses of wine.

franzy said...

Do you know what's even cheaper than douche gel?

Water.

I used the last of the soap bar about a year ago and haven't bought anything since, shampoo and conditioner included. If I'm mega-gardening dirty, I'll use a squeeze from the soap pump, but that's it.
My hair's never felt smoother, nor my skin cleaner.

The only drawback is that now people who use soap tend to stink like chemicals to me now.

Kath Lockett said...

Wally, those gorgeous tiles are from 1970. Just as objectionable are the orange-flowered ones in the kitchen!

Just water, Franzy? Really? I'm too wimpy to try it - addicted to froth, foam and scents.