Cleaning Day

 Hi there

Last week, I was cleaning the bathroom which included the toilet.  I grabbed the toilet brush by its plastic stick handle, and fiercely plunged it down into the water.

Perhaps I brushed too fiercely.  With a - snap! - the bristle head of the brush broke off completely from the stick and got jammed in the tight bend of the toilet.

I prodded that hedgehog's bristles with the stick of the brush, trying to move it.

Nothing happened.  That thing was sooooo stuck.

I figured my salad tongs would be too lightweight to pull out the bristle head.  I couldn't think of anything else.

I jittered around the house for about fifteen minutes, coming up with a dozen ways to get that brush head out from the toilet, none of them practical.  It was late at night, just past my mates' 9 pm deadline for receiving wailing phone calls.  What to do, what to do....?  There was only one answer.

I ... would have to go in.  With my hand.

Sigh.

Finally I decided on swathing my hand in a plastic bread bag.  I discovered a rubber band in my 'anything' drawer and secured the bag tightly at my elbow.

Then .... ugh, yuck...

Down into the toilet water, I plunged my hand.   Well, at least I knew the toilet was clean.  I had used enough Dettol on it thirty minutes before to kill surely any germs in the vicinity.  Hopefully.

I tugged...  And tugged.  And tugged at that bristle hedgehog.  And tugged a lot more times.

Finally .... the bristle brush-head popped out from the bend.  I breathed out slowly, evenly, happily; everything was well in the world again.

 I bought a new brush the following day.  I stood in Bed Bath and Beyond for ages pretending to bend and pull the heads of all their toilet brushes.  I settled on one with a wooden stick instead of a plastic one.

Let's hope the toilet brush never again breaks on me, ever....

**

However, I did discover, via You Tube, that there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people who have had the same problem. There are whole stories on how to get that jammed bristle head out from the toilet.  Some people use a plunger, some pull the entire toilet out from the wall, some call a plumber.  Guess I was lucky.