Context: I currently have a back injury and as such my sleep schedule has been destroyed. There are days that I simply cannot get comfortable no matter where I sit/lie.
The other night I was restless and couldn’t get comfortable but was feeling tired. I wanted to brew myself a cup of tea but as luck would have it we had run out of fill-able tea bags. I pulled out the metal tea infusers and found that due to an improper cleaning at last use and who knows how long they had been sitting idle they were absolutely disgusting. Some had mold spots and one appeared to be rusting (how aluminum rusts I don’t know).
I REALLY wanted my tea so I busted out my cleaning tools and got to work. She woke up to use the restroom and heard me in the kitchen and made it a point to call me out for being weird and that no one in their right mind would be doing what I was doing.
Is that a fair assessment? I only spent about 50 minutes cleaning them.
Out of context, that’s not normal.
In your context, there is no normal, but your actions were rational.
Hope you recover quickly, friend, and get the cup of tea you deserve.
Yeah it’s not “normal” in the sense that it’s probably only happened a couple of times in history, but there’s nothing wrong witht he though process. Although 50 minutes to clean the infusers is a real long time, but if you had no other option, might as well
Not normal. But also not a problem. You couldn’t sleep, needed something to occupy yourself.
Dude, dremels are loud. Don’t use them while people are sleeping
In my defense the kitchen is as far from the bedroom as you can get in our apartment and it’s an variable speed electric so you can run it relitively slow for (again, relatively) quite operation.
Can confirm, low speed Dremel isn’t loud, especially from another room. 👍
I’m with the others. It’s not normal, but it’s not an issue.
My boyfriend likes to come home around 11:30 at night, have some coffee, and maybe play a bit of a video game while he eats.
Seems weird. But he also works an over night shift from 7 pm to 7 am. So it makes sense in that he’s awake at night. He sleeps a lot during the day. At first, seems weird. Once explained, not so much. At that point most people are understanding.
It’s only not normal because the equipment doesn’t require a deep clean very often. And major back injuries are also not normal but who’s connecting all those dots at three in the morning?
Time of day is a matter of cultural tradition and coordination with other people. For me it’s always been a relative matter to when I woke up. Got up at 8 am? I expect to go to sleep 12-1 am. Get up at 3 am? Normal to go to sleep at 6 pm. Get up at 4 pm? Totally normal to be cleaning tea strainers with a dremel at 3 am.
Only thing I would have done different is use a nylon brush instead of brass. Brass often leaves its own residue on other metals, even if only miniscule.
Regardless, I’d say carry on. I’d rather a tinge of brass flavor than obvious mold.
I started with a acid brush, and then moved onto a nylon. The residue was being very stuborn which is why I moved onto the brass brush and dremel.
I finished outt which a fabric wheel in the dremel, the idea being to help wipe away any brass or residue that got left being in the final cleaning steps.
Try drain cleaner (or whatever the proper term for anti-clogging goo is). 10% drain cleaner, 90% cooking water, let it sit until the water is cold, and it will look like new.
Yes, it sounds weird, but it’s almost impossible to properly clean the mineral buildup in the tiny holes otherwise.
Before we move to fillable bags we would soak the infusers in vinager overnight every week or two. They stayed nice and sparkling clean.
That may work with your water and filter. My water is basically a saturated mineral solution and my filter has very very small holes. I’ve got the weird brown tea mineral buildup on everything that comes in contact with them tea.
