Monday, August 19, 2013

Safety in the Bathtub

Whether you are a senior or a teenager, keeping something on the floor of the bathtub is essential to prevent falls while in the shower.  Nobody wants to take that fall.  And why should you when there are a multitude of items on the market that you can use to prevent such.

A couple weeks ago I tossed a bathmat which had been in the bathtub for sometime.  It had become stained and was just generally unattractive.  So I put it out with the recyclables and I found these cute little round circles made of out some type of textured rubber with an adhesive back.  I thought they would work perfectly in the tub, so I bought them.  The instructions said to clean the tub and then wait 12 hours before adhering the circles to the tub floor.  I did that.  I placed them where I wanted to place them with the protective backs still on them.  Then I peeled off the protective paper and stuck them to the tub.  Within 2 weeks, this is what I had.


You can see they have already started to lose their grip and peel off the tub.  I was rather disappointed in this.  I have used these round adhesive pads in the past and eventually they end up doing just this.  But not usually within two weeks.  I was especially disheartened since I followed the directions on the package exactly and they still curled up.  So, I removed them.  I decided I was not going to fiddle around with these.  I pulled every one of them up which left me with circles of sticky adhesive on the tub floor.


But I have Goo Gone.  This is the best product ever manufactured.  I sprayed the tub floor generously and let it sit for 5 minutes.  I returned and, with a safety razor, was able to remove all of the adhesive.


It made a mess.  A swipe of a Clorox Wipe and this mess was all cleaned up.


So, we went back to a regular bathmat in the tub.  This one is not fancy.  It is not treated so that it will not mildew.  It cannot be used as a scrubber to clean your feet.  It is just a plain old bathmat.  But even though it is just a plain old bathmat, it will serve a valuable purpose and that is to keep me from falling while in the shower.  It will eventually get stained and wear out, and I will replace it with another.  But for right now, I have a nice clean, fresh mat in the bathtub and that makes shower time just a little more pleasurable. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh, clean bathmat to make your day just a little nicer.

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