The most horrifying thing ever

just happened to me a bit ago. Prepare to be grossed out. I got out the black light to look for the spot the cat pee smell is coming from and I happen to walk through the kitchen. I cannot believe all the little glowing yellow splotches that showed up all over my cupboards, floor, walls. Like they have never been cleaned or something because they look clean when you have the normal lights on. Then I happen to turn the blacklight on my barefeet and I am really grossed out at the glowing splotches on my feet! I am disgusted. I feel like I live in a pigsty. What is all this "STUFF"!! all over my apartment??? How much of it is from me and how much from the previous tenants???!!! UUGGGHHHHHHH I can never walk around barefoot again!!! EWWWW!!

I am cleaning EVERYTHING this weekend!!!! EVERYTHING!!! I will buy a steam cleaner for the carpets, antibacterial industrial strength cleaner for the walls, I don't even want to see what the bathroom looks like!!

Not sure what it would be - but don't lots of things appear under blacklights (not a rhetorical question, I'm not really sure what exactly you can see with a black light)? I mean, you can never keep anything perfectly clean. . . . That probably would freak me out too, though!

I shudder to think about what I would find. There's a damaged spot on my hardwood floors from the previous tenent and some splattery looking damage on the cupboards, both of which I have used EVERYTHING to try any clean up, to no avail. I really don't even think I WANT to know what it is. THere's also stuff between the fridge and the counter top. I know because I dropped a cat food can cover (the plastic kind) down there, so who KNOWS what else is lurking...

I'm just like you...I'm a complete neat freak.

I'm with sweetiecat3. I think lots of stuff shows under a black light, but even so......That would make me clean my whole house too! I would do a search and see if you can find out what all they show.

If you REALLY want to be grossed out, try bringing it into your bathroom. No matter how well you clean, you will find splotches.

Meh. I'm reasonably tidy and of course make sure I'm very careful with e. coli (bathroom) and stuff like salmonella (raw chicken/other meat in the kitchen), but I don't know that it would freak me out too much. There's a lot of other stuff sharing this planet, after all. We are literally surrounded with it. Heck, you wouldn't even be able to digest food if your intestines weren't colonized with good bacteria.

Or, as my grandma used to say, "God made dirt, and dirt don't hurt."

That being said, I really hate those crevices like between the fridge and counter where stuff falls and dust collects but it's really hard to clean out.

Yeah, as hard as it is to accept, we are all surrounded with little colonies of various organisms. We even each have our very own brand of bacteria! Still, I wouldn't want to put myself or my apartment under a black light....

As a collector of fluorescent minerals I give talks to kids about them and about ultraviolet lamps. I like to show them other things that do fluoresce such as the soap you wash and launder with! Lint is another fun thing, always coming off fabrics.

It's possible what is on you isn't all filth.

For a fun time with your blacklight get some petroleum jelly (like Vaseline) and smear it on you!

I certainly get how you feel. My wife and I are going in with my dad to buy a house two doors down the street from my present home, and the previous owners had some questionable housekeeping habits, to say the least. I took vacation so I could help her get the place ready, and we have been furiously busy cleaning and painting. New carpet is coming on Thursday. It will likely never be perfect, but we will definetly take better care of it than the last ones!

I remember way back in college during my bacteriology class I had mentioned to the professor about this rash/infection on my thighs. I was a wrestling cheerleader and I'm sure I picked up something on my hands from the floor and transferred to my legs. He took a black light and my legs were "glowing"!!!!

It may not be anything gross at all. I know that laundry soap will luminesce under a black light...maybe dish soap will too?

Originally Posted by Miss Mew

It may not be anything gross at all. I know that laundry soap will luminesce under a black light...maybe dish soap will too?

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Well I sure hope that's all it is!

Originally Posted by Miss Mew

It may not be anything gross at all. I know that laundry soap will luminesce under a black light...maybe dish soap will too?

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Of course! I can't believe I didn't think of that. Laundry detergent is full of phosphors so that your clothes will glow (since the sun also emits UV light). Dishwasher detergent is mostly a particular kind of phosphor that is used as a water softener. I'm sure many different kinds of soaps, including whatever you wipe down your cabinets with, Jen, are full of phosphors, which in fact are the only substances that glow under a blacklight.

DON'T CLEAN!!! You'll only make it worse!!

Originally Posted by evnshawn

DON'T CLEAN!!! You'll only make it worse!!

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HAHA, I will never clean AGAIN!!

No what I was seeing was like drips and splotches. When I sprayed The Works on it and scrubbed at it, the splotches came off. That is what freaked me out and made me want to clean! And as far as the glowing on me, it was just on the bottoms of my barefeet after walking all around my apartment on the dirty "glowing" floor.

Originally Posted by Jen

HAHA, I will never clean AGAIN!!

No what I was seeing was like drips and splotches. When I sprayed The Works on it and scrubbed at it, the splotches came off. That is what freaked me out and made me want to clean! And as far as the glowing on me, it was just on the bottoms of my barefeet after walking all around my apartment on the dirty "glowing" floor.

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Ah, well. That could be drips of cleaner, or it could be urine. If it's urine, at least urine is sterile. It stinks, but it won't make you sick.

Before I started training to become a vet, I wanted to be a laboratory technician and I used to do a lot of experiments with black lights. I would say that most of the glowing stuff is probably a cleaner of some sort. Also I'm willing to bet that if you use a cleaner on your cupboards and then turn on your black light you would be blown away by a flourescent yellowish green glow all over your kitchen.

Originally Posted by TigerOnTheProwl

Also I'm willing to bet that if you use a cleaner on your cupboards and then turn on your black light you would be blown away by a flourescent yellowish green glow all over your kitchen.

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I am so gonna try that.

Have fun with that.
P.S. You will probably be able to see it best when the room is very dark. Then the black light will illuminate it very well and you will see a very vibrant and bright flourescent yellowish-green color.
P.P.S. Most cleaners will work well but the best ones are anything with bleach in them.

Oh shivers. That would be enough to freak me out too!

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW I dont even want to imagin what is in my house....ingnorance is bliss..I'm going to pretend I didn't read this thread LOL