Wednesday, July 23, 2008

WFMW - Cleaning Up Spilled Oil

Next time you're faced with cleaning up a ridiculous amount of heavy sticky olive oil mixed in with large pieces of broken ceramic cruet (oh wait, that was just me, hopefully your spills are smaller and easier to deal with), try using very hot water.

Step one - banish all small children (and pets too if you've got 'em) before they can begin tracking oil all over the house.

Step two - (Carefully!!) pouring boiling water on the area you need to clean lifts the oil up off the surface and makes it a lot easier to wipe up with a rag. Once you've gotten most of the oil up you can go over things with the cleanser of your choice.

Step three - go to the housewares store and try to get them to sell you just one half of the matched set of cruets.

Sigh...

Stop by Rocks in my Dryer to see what's working for everyone else this week.

17 comments:

Genny said...

Robin,
I hope I don't have to use this tip (sounds like you had *fun*), but I'm glad to know what works! LOL.
Have a great day,
Genny

deedee said...

Will this work on clothes? I am always getting olive oil on my shirt when whipping up salad dressing....

Robin said...

You know, I have no idea. I may check into it though, because I through the rags (after they'd dried) into the wash with a bunch of socks and underwear - half of which now have grease stains on them!

Unknown said...

i love the word "banish"--i'll have to start using it more often! :) thanks for the sticky tip though! :)

Unknown said...

Ugh... did this happen recently?

I just love oily messes. :)

Shannon said...

Great tip. Hope I never need to use it!

The Random Muse said...

Good tip, I've never broken the cruet, but have spilled quite a bit before.

Robin,
I've gotten good at getting oil out of clothes. I'll write about it next week. Thanks for giving me the inspiration.

Robin said...

Just last week Spaz.

Random Muse - that would be SO helpful!

SjP said...

Happy WW!

This week's WW at SjP's is dedicated to finding Namia Vaught. I hope you and your readers will have the opportunity to stop by to see if you recognize her.

Much obliged, SjP

Robert said...

Well I was hoping it was a tip you didn't need but I just read through the comments. I hope this didn't happen more than once before you found what would help.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I hate those accidents! I feel your pain. Does boiling water really work well? I don't keep oils in glass for just that reason. Mine was an antique blue bottle with a cork stopper. I'll never find a match.

Robin said...

The boiling water doesn't clean it, but it does work well to "lift up" the oil.

What a shame about that antique bottle Shelly. At least this one should be replaceable.

Claremont First Ward said...

Ugh. Remind me never to break a cruet with olive oil in it! :)

Muthering Heights said...

I hope you were able to get half of the cruets...

RivkA with a capital A said...

Yuck!

What is WFMW???

Anonymous said...

A better tip I have found is to pour oatmeal or flour on the spill, wait until it absorbs, and sweep up. This is how restaurants and grocery stores handle spills.

Robin said...

That sounds like a really good way to do it Dave, thanks!