Monday, February 10, 2014
Sunday, February 09, 2014
Fixing The Mop Instead Of Garbaging It
I like my red mop.
It hangs up on the hook on the door of the downstairs bathroom, loaded with soap or vinegar and ready to clean as easy as can be.
But it has a flaw: The velcro that attached the cloth heads to the plastic spreader pulled off. The detachable cloth heads are great, because they launder easily and by having two, I always have one clean and ready for action. But gradually the mop became unusable as the velcro strips tore of the spreader.
One approach is just to toss the thing and buy another. It's not much money, and there's plenty more where that came from.
But that is wasteful. It's irresponsible to throw things in the trash if I can avoid it, and if a repair is inexpensive I would save money too. It turns out that this repair took not much more time than buying a new mop, and a lot less money.
I wandered around the hardware store ... which is always entertaining ... until I was directed to the INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH VELCRO. For about 3 bucks, I got the smallest package, which looks like 10 years supply for this particular application (although now that I have it, maybe I'll think of uses.)
Fixing the mop could not be simpler, although I did find a way to screw it up. I cut pieces of velcro and stuck them to the spreader bar - not all six pieces at once, because I was being cautious and wanted to feel my way ahead. But in about two minutes I had the job done.
Or so I thought.
One of my super-powers is, if there is a way to do things backwards, I do it backwards first. Therefore I used the velvety side of the velcro, not the hook-and-eye side. When I tested the repaired mop by sticking the cloth on, it didn't still: velvet-to-velvet doesn't stick!
I carefully pried all the new velcro off. This was the longest part of the project, because they ain't kidding about INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH! I hadn't even let the glue cure for the recommended 24 hours, and it still took about a minute to pry each up.
Once the head was clear, I attacked ONE piece of hook-and-eye and then TESTED! (This is a basic principle: test BEFORE you think you're done!) It worked. The other pieces went on in a minute or two and the mop is as good as new, or better.
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| Guys: Get One Of These. The Women You Live With Will Approve! |
But it has a flaw: The velcro that attached the cloth heads to the plastic spreader pulled off. The detachable cloth heads are great, because they launder easily and by having two, I always have one clean and ready for action. But gradually the mop became unusable as the velcro strips tore of the spreader.
One approach is just to toss the thing and buy another. It's not much money, and there's plenty more where that came from.
But that is wasteful. It's irresponsible to throw things in the trash if I can avoid it, and if a repair is inexpensive I would save money too. It turns out that this repair took not much more time than buying a new mop, and a lot less money.
I wandered around the hardware store ... which is always entertaining ... until I was directed to the INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH VELCRO. For about 3 bucks, I got the smallest package, which looks like 10 years supply for this particular application (although now that I have it, maybe I'll think of uses.)
 |
| Showing plastic spreader, with 2 of six pieces of velcro attached |
Or so I thought.
One of my super-powers is, if there is a way to do things backwards, I do it backwards first. Therefore I used the velvety side of the velcro, not the hook-and-eye side. When I tested the repaired mop by sticking the cloth on, it didn't still: velvet-to-velvet doesn't stick!
I carefully pried all the new velcro off. This was the longest part of the project, because they ain't kidding about INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH! I hadn't even let the glue cure for the recommended 24 hours, and it still took about a minute to pry each up.
Once the head was clear, I attacked ONE piece of hook-and-eye and then TESTED! (This is a basic principle: test BEFORE you think you're done!) It worked. The other pieces went on in a minute or two and the mop is as good as new, or better.
- Total time: about six minutes, including fixing the initial screwup, plus time wandering around the hardware store which really counts as entertainment.
- Total money: $3 for the velcro, although I used less that 1/4 of it. I can stash it for use next year, or maybe come up with other applications.
- Waste: Almost none!
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