Planned obsolecence

Yesterday, I wore out the sponge on my mop. Naturally, either entropy or Murphy’s Law (or maybe both) had something to do with it because I had just completed the Spic n Span layer. When I went to the basin to get the rinse water, the sponge split and became unusable. “No problem,” I says to myself. “I’ll just take that one off and buy a new one.”

Since we are only 1.5 miles from the nearest WalMart, I decided to shop for the replacement there. I got a parking spot really close to the door leading to the housewares section of the store. After some 10 minutes of winding back and forth on every aisle of that section, I finally asked a worker where the mops might be. She sent me to aisle 10 in the grocery section of the store. “Now why didn’t I think of that?” I wondered.

After that 1/2-mile hike, I was relieved to see an employee stocking that very shelf. She really wanted me to take the yellow sponges, but I knew exactly which one was needed to complete the task. When I arrived home, I went straight to the laundry room to install the new sponge only to discover the new one had two protrusions the old one was missing. Thinking maybe we could get some good metal cutters and make it workable, I went to ask the resident expert on the subject.

He pointed out to me that the old sponge had a threaded screw that was missing in the new one. So, I set that activity aside until tomorrow, which is now today. The refund was easily obtained; they did not even want to know why I was returning my purchase, And, sure enough, there was nothing that even came close to being the right piece. And now we know that Target also does not carry the item. I could buy a completely new mop for only $2 more than the cost of a refill, but what does one do with a perfectly good plastic stick? Even Goodwill will not take that donation.

My hubby thinks we can find exactly what we need by checking every store that could possibly carry mops. Meanwhile, our shoes stick to the floor reminding us of the urgent need to solve this problem. It’s a good thing I have a good collection of rags.