Hi Sars,

I have boys in sports and bleach is the worst thing you can do to nylon sports equipment (like football pants, turns them yellow-grey and it never comes out). I’m afraid the same thing may have happened with the bleach pen. What we use is Mexican detergent called Foca, or a similar brand that has “oxy-cleen” in it. I don’t know why it works better on the white nylon than American detergents, but it does. Maybe the water in Mexico is harder so they use different cleaning agents? I live in South Texas so it’s easy for me to get these products in almost any grocery store, but Puma could try a Latin market in her area. Warm water and a pre-soak does a great job.

J

Dear J,

Thanks for the tip!Other ideas appear below, with multiples asterisked.

Use bleach or OxiClean, but let the shoes soak
Paint over the nylon parts with acrylic paint
Whitening toothpaste

Hi Sars!

I am coming to you for some advice on books. I don’t think you and I read the same stuff, but I’m hoping your readers will have some suggestions for me.

I love reading fantasy series. I have read and absolutely adored “The Axis Trilogy” (the first three books of The Wayfarer Redemption, as it was sold in the U.S.) written by Sara Douglass. I also loved The Dark Tower by Stephen King, the Xanth series by Piers Anthony, the Harry Potter books and of course the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I am looking for series because I like to know that I still have a few books to read with the same characters/environment if I like a book.

I don’t really feel comfortable browsing a book store and choosing at random, so I’m hoping some of your readers like fantasy books and can help me. I read French too and would love to have suggestions in that language if your readers have some.

Many thanks,
Bookless in Montréal

Dear Bookless,

I don’t read that genre, but I feel utterly confident that my readers will have suggestions for you.

Readers, let’s do it.Email subject line: “fantasy series”; two suggestions per email only, please.

Hey Sars,

I love your Ask The Readers Fridays — I’ve gotten lots of useful tips myself, just from reading other people’s comments.Now, I’d like to see if I can get some more direct advice from you and your wise readers.

After spending nearly ten years in and out of apartments, I’ve finally settled into an actual house (a rented house, but a house nonetheless).The landlords, location, and neighbors are all great; the problem I have is the floors.There isn’t a scrap of carpet anywhere in the house.Instead, I have Mexcan Saltillo tiles in every room.The tiles are about ten inches square with just under an inch of space between them, and everything is a swirly terra cotta color.The tiles do have their benefits — cat barf wipes up in a jiffy, and there’s endless entertainment in throwing a fuzzy mousie the length of the house and watching the cats slip and slide and bounce off of each other trying to get it.

But overall, I hate having tiles.That whole sweeping/mopping process is my cleaning archnemesis.Running the vacuum is quick and easy, but with sweeping, you have the dust pan and the dirt piles and the cats attacking the broom and then diving into the dirt piles…ugh.I have never been a regular sweeper — remember, I lived in apartments.My kitchens were large for apartment kitchens, but they were still apartment kitchens — I still had very little tile to care for.If I cleaned up spills when they happened and swept/mopped the whole floor every few months, I was good.But now, with a whole house full of tile, I feel like I should adopt a more regular cleaning schedule.

Is there any way to keep tiles clean without sweeping and then breaking my back bending over with the dustpan?And without spending forever sweeping this four-bedroom house?I have some area rugs down, but I still have a lot of sweeping left.Also, the house is in Phoenix.I just moved here from Ohio, and I’ve been constantly bested by the desert dust that’s all over every damn thing out here.The floors look clean, but there’s actually a fine layer of dust on them; when I sweep, the dust just kind of swirls into the air and finds its merry way either into my lungs or back onto the floor.

Is there a handy cleaning apparatus that will help with dusty tiles?

Thanks for listening and for your awesome writing,
Never Thought I’d Be A Dusty Phoenician

Dear Dusty,

I don’t live in a dusty climate, but I do have a tiled area in my apartment and I feel you on the pain-in-the-ass factor.I use a Swiffer — first the dry pad, then the wet version.The wet ones (hee…ew) usually come with a little scrubby strip on the side, so you can flip the Swiffer to the side and clean the areas between the tiles, although mine are spaced closer than yours.For stuff that still won’t come out of the in-between spots, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works wonders, but you don’t have to do that every day; for daily cleanup, a big push broom or a dry Swiffer should do it.

With that said, what I know about “daily” cleaning of anything wouldn’t fill a doll thimble, because I am lazy and a crap housekeeper, so let’s see what the readers have to add.Readers?Email subject line: “tile floors.”

[12/8/06]

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