Something You Should Know - SYSK Choice: The Secrets of Being Fascinating & Amazing Household Hacks You Never Knew

Episode Date: July 18, 2020

You have likely been the victim of the Doorway Effect. It’s when you walk into a room and forget why you walked in there. We start this episode with an explanation of what this is and why it happens. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-doorway-makes-you-forget/ Wouldn’t it be great if people regarded you as particularly fascinating? Well it turns out there are specific ways to do that according to Sally Hogshead, speaker and author of the book Fascinate: The 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation (http://amzn.to/2BBZT4I) . Sally reveals what you can do so that others find you interesting and how to use your personal fascination to great benefit.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that whenever you cry, you get a runny nose. Why? Listen and find out. http://www.popsci.com/article/science/why-does-crying-make-my-nose-run Sooner or later – and probably sooner, you will need to clean something. And no one knows better how to keep your life clean and sparkly bright than Jolie Kerr. Jolie is an advice columnist and host of the podcast, “Ask a Clean Person.” She is also author of the book, My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag (http://amzn.to/2Df2BPL). NO ONE loves to clean like Jolie and you will love her cleaning hacks that I know you will use within hours if not minutes after hearing them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Today on Something You Should Know, ever walk into a room and immediately forget why you went in there in the first place? I'll tell you why that happens. Then you'll discover how to be more fascinating, and there's a really good chance you want to be more fascinating. We did a study of over a thousand people throughout the United States. And the findings were unbelievable. Women would pay more money to be fascinating than they would pay on food and clothes combined.

Also today, ever wonder why you get a runny nose every time you cry? And some great household hacks that'll save you time and make your house look beautiful. Oh, this is a fun one. If you have those shower, glass shower doors that get the nasty soap scum build up, a dryer sheet can be used to scrub those glass shower doors. It works like a charm. All this today on Something You Should Know. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic.

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Something you should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Hi, welcome to Something You Should Know. Hope your summer is going well, given the circumstances in which we live this summer. I want to start today with something called the doorway effect. And this is interesting because this happens to me relatively frequently, and I thought it was just me. But apparently it happens to everyone, and perhaps it's happened to you. The doorway effect is that phenomenon, for example, where you go walk into the kitchen to get something, and as soon as you walk through

the kitchen door, you forget why you came into that room. It turns out that researchers have been studying this for years and have concluded that almost all of us lose some information every time we walk through a doorway. So if you've ever forgotten why you came into the kitchen or where you put your keys, you can blame it often on the doorway effect. Experts say that what happens is our brains experience a subtle shift each time we enter another room or change environment. So it's so busy taking in this new information that it just might purge that one thing you need to remember, like why you came into the kitchen. Now, you might think that walking back the way you came might help you recall why you came into the room,

but researchers have put that to the test, and turns out that doesn't really improve recall at all. And that is something you should know. Do you know anyone you would describe as fascinating? It's a pretty high bar to set to be fascinating, but I'm sure you can think of someone. Those people are most likely the ones you would name if somebody asked you, if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be? Oprah, the Pope, any president, pastor present, or maybe it's someone you actually know at work or in your circle of friends. So what is it that makes a person fascinating? And can you make yourself more fascinating?

Probably the best person to ask that question to is Sally Hogshead, who's been researching, writing, and speaking on the subject for quite a while. Sally is the author of several books, including Fascinate! The Seven Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation. Hi, Sally. So, I think I know fascinating when I see it, but I'm not sure I can define it. So, what is it to be fascinating? Fascination is an irresistible form of attraction. And you know this feeling. You know when you're totally engrossed in an activity

or when you're so involved in eating something or thinking something or buying something or experiencing something that you don't even realize what's going on in the world around you. It's an intense, almost overwhelming type of attraction that you have in the moment. But what about people? When we find people fascinating, when they just pull us in like that, what is it about them? Are they inherent qualities that these people have? Why do we find some people fascinating and other people, you know, dull as dirt?

There are people who are just naturally more fascinating than others. And the reason why they're more fascinating is because they have an ability to elicit what I call the fascination triggers. There are seven fascination triggers. Power, lust, mystique, prestige, alarm, vice, and trust. And if you can activate these triggers when you're talking with somebody or marketing to

somebody or having any type of connection with them, then you're going to be more fascinating to them. And certain people are just more talented at using the triggers than other people. And the more of the seven triggers you use, the more fascinating you are? Yes, with a caveat. So Oprah Winfrey, for example, she relies very heavily on trust. We know what to expect from her. She's reliable, she's predictable. She's stable and comforting. Angelina Jolie, she uses lust, which is she draws us in and appeals to us in a more sensory way. But she also uses vice, which is that naughty way she breaks the rules and plays with forbidden fruit. And she uses mystique, which is making us curious to learn more. There's a lot we don't understand about her public persona. So Oprah uses one trigger mainly. Other people use others.

You don't have to use more than one, but you have to be really strong in at least one trigger. But do you think that people like Oprah and Angelina Jolie, they do this on purpose? Or is this just who they are? when they're in front of the camera. So for them, it's a little bit more inauthentic and contrived. For most of us, every day when we're dealing with our kids or our boss or our coworkers and clients, we need to be natural in the way that we use our personality triggers. And we all have these triggers. They're built in. They're hardwired.

It's instinctive. We can't help but use the fascination triggers that are built into our personality. Does that mean that the triggers that you're inclined to use, the ones that are part of your personality, are the best ones to use? Or might you be better using other ones? What a great distinction. Nobody's ever asked that because some people are using the power trigger way too much. Like if you've had an overbearing boss who's brilliant and talented, but they make you want to cower under your desk when they walk in the room, that's because they're using the power trigger too much and they're using the alarm trigger.

On the other hand, all of us, when we're giving a presentation or we're trying to communicate something to our children, and we're very effectively getting our ideas across, that's when we're using the triggers that we already have that are part of our natural strength. But there are some people that just don't seem to have or use any of those triggers. They're just dull. They're kind of the anti-fascination. And you said that these triggers, you're born with them. They kind of come as part of your package. Well, what happened to theirs? They're there. They need to figure out a way to start bringing those fascination triggers out. Because when you're fascinating, it's about being influential and

persuasive. So if you want the promotion, if you want to get asked out on the date, if you want to be listened to when you're standing in front of a room in a new business pitch, you have to be able to communicate your ideas in a way that makes people want to not just listen to you, but act upon what you're saying. So it's essential to figure out the ways in which you can become more fascinating. So for example, some people can come across as being very cold and difficult to connect with. And those people are that they're probably using too much of the mystique trigger and not enough of the lust trigger. The lust trigger is the one that makes us warm and inviting and human with open body contact

and a sense that people want to connect with us. It would seem to me, as I listen to you talk, that there's a difference between people who are naturally fascinating, who just happen to be fascinating people, and people who have to work at being fascinating. I mean, if you have to work so hard at being fascinating, how fascinating are you really? And those people who are naturally fascinating, you know, they don't know anything about Sally Hogshead or what it is you teach.

They just are fascinating. What do they know that the rest of us don't know? There are certain people that have just a natural charisma, a gift for connecting with others or doing things that we almost can't help but watch. And sometimes they're doing it with a goal in mind. Like people are very fascinated by Adolf Hitler. He uses the power trigger and the alarm trigger, and as a result, his actions were horribly effective. The same is true of terrorists or hijackers. They have a goal, and they fascinate people in a heinous way.

On the other hand, there are also people that want to be able to accomplish things. They have a political agenda, or they want to raise money for the PTA, but they can't seem to figure out how to get that groundswell of support. And by taking a look at the triggers that they're not using, they could probably find new ways to make their message more compelling. My guest is Sally Hogshead. She's author of the book Fascinate, The Seven Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world,

looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson, discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars.

Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts.

Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like something you should know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests,

but Jordan does it better than most. Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation. And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences, career choices, and overall behavior due to the hormonal changes it causes. Apple named The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the best podcasts a few years back, and in a nutshell, the show is aimed at making you a better, more informed critical thinker.

Check out The Jordan Harbinger Show. There's so much for you in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. So Sally, aren't these triggers somewhat situational? I mean, even if lust is your best trigger, aren't there situations where you better not be using lust? Yes, exactly. It's very true. And that's one of the great things about having this buffet of triggers, that you get to choose. You can ramp some up and pull them back. I'm going to be more relying on the power trigger by commanding authority and respect. And I'm going to use the prestige trigger by trying to make sure that I'm elevating my message so that it carries weight among the audience to which I'm speaking. But if I'm going out with my friends, power and prestige, they don't play as much of a role there.

In those cases, I'm going to want to be using the trust trigger and communicating to my friends that they can rely on me and feel comfortable with me. Or the vice trigger by maybe telling an unexpected joke or doing something that isn't the same old conversation. But when you say triggers like vice and lust, I mean, people think naughty things. Think of brands using something like lust, like you lust for chocolate or you lust for a sports car. It's that craving that you have when you want to be close to something. At its heart, Fascinate is a marketing book, and it has application to personal

brands, but it's really about making companies and organizations more fascinating. And these brands need to find new ways of communicating outside of the way they normally do. So the vice trigger is one that a brand that's coming into the marketplace that needs to kick up some dirt and surprise people and do something fresh, they're going to have to use some sort of way to compete against the 800-pound gorilla in the category. And the vice trigger is the one that they should use to create a message that is not going to be the same old thing that people have always heard. These seven triggers that you've come up with, where did they come from? Is this the result of some research, or are these things you developed, or what's the source of the seven triggers? When I was developing this concept of how do we create

more persuasive messages, that was the theme of the book that I wanted to develop. And I began to realize that there are very instinctive reasons why we do the things we do, why we make the decisions we do, why we have seemingly irrational behaviors. And as I conducted the research, we did a study of over a thousand people throughout the United States. It was conducted by a research firm. The findings were unbelievable. Women would pay more money to be fascinating than they would pay on food and clothes combined, $388 a month. That's how much they would be willing to pay in order to be the most fascinating person in the room. And as we started looking at the traits that people described and how they wanted to fascinate

or what fascinated them, we started to create these buckets, these seven pillars. And we tried a few different combinations. It took about a year to get the combination of triggers into something that very clearly defined categories. And any behavior, any decision can be parsed into one or more of these seven triggers. Doesn't everyone want to be more fascinating? Everybody needs to be more fascinating if we want to persuade others with whatever our message is, whether it's keeping your kids off drugs or lobbying for a new job. The problem is that we don't know exactly how,

because we don't know how to create more, make ourselves more persuasive or make our brands more persuasive. The only people who don't want to be more fascinating are those who need to fly under the radar. For whatever reason, they don't want to attract any attention to themselves at all. Those are very few people because we all have to get attention for our message, whether we're talking to a gate agent at a flight that's totally sold out and we have to sweet-talk our way onto the plane, or we want to have a closer relationship with our own family.

We all need to persuade people. It all comes down to marketing. Yeah, but that sounds so inauthentic and manipulative that it's all marketing. But it is all marketing. It is, and not in a superficial way. As human beings, we need to be able to connect. You know, when you were born, at the moment that you were born, you had a very limited number of instincts. One of those instincts was the instinct to smile.

And as soon as you were able to smile, you began to do that at your parents because you wanted to captivate them so that they would continue to take care of you and change your diaper and feed you, even though you probably had a nasty habit of doing things like crying in the middle of the night. And the reason why you did that is because relationships are essential, and they pivot on one person's ability to transfix the other person. And you've got this whole amazing dashboard of instincts specifically around how to make eye contact, how to read somebody else's facial cues, how to project your body language so that other people would understand that you weren't trying to eat them or attack them, that you wanted to socialize with them. of years because they enhance our survival. And we use them today without even knowing it, even though there's a lot of electronic communication and phone communication,

it still comes down to these seven instinctive triggers. Can you give me an example or two or three of a company or brand or product that has used some of these triggers effectively? Sure. What Apple's done that's revolutionary is that they brought the lust trigger into the category of MP3 players and phones. When you hold an iPhone in your hand or when you look at it, there's something about it that is sensual and appealing, and it makes you want to interact with it. When you go into their stores, they're beautiful. They feel powerful. They use the power trigger and the prestige trigger.

They've developed an incredibly strong base of people because they have mystique. They use vice because they took all the rules of the category that were developed by Dell and IBM, and they tweaked them. They found their own way to interpret it. And they also use trust because we know that when Apple comes out with a product, it's going to be incredibly good, and it's going to have a very creative way of seeing the world. Give me another one, because Apple's always in that list of companies that do things better and differently and with excellence and all, but how about another example? Godiva. Godiva uses lust brilliantly because it takes

all of the senses and it incorporates them in pulling us into its stores with scent and touch and sound. And it uses prestige because it's more cherished than a lot of other chocolate brands like Hershey's. Are you familiar with the drink that is named Jagermeister? Sure. Well, of course. I mean, everybody's had a night or two of Jagermeister in their life. The brilliant thing that Jagermeister does is even though most people despise the taste of Jagermeister, the brand continues to grow because everybody wants to know what is Jagermeister

actually made of? Does it really have opiates and valium in it? Does it really have quaaludes or some other type of crushed drug dissolved inside? There are all these great urban myths that make people want to drink it because it makes them feel like they're doing something that's more mysterious when they're experiencing the Jagermeister brand, even though they hate the taste. How about a brand that's a little more everyday, maybe a little more mundane, like McDonald's? Okay, McDonald's is fantastic at using the trust trigger. There was a study done that they put branded Chicken McNuggets, meaning Chicken McNuggets in a McDonald's container in front of children,

and then they took the exact same nuggets, McDonald's Chicken Nuggets, in a plain container. And overwhelmingly, three-year-olds said that the ones in the McDonald's container tasted better because they trust that brand and they know that brand and they have a very strong response to it. McDonald's also uses the vice trigger when it tempts us with the fat and oil and sugar in its food. And we know we're not supposed to eat it when we're on a diet, but we crave it anyway. And it uses lust because it makes us, we want to taste that cheeseburger and that chocolate shake. So brands work at being more fascinating So brands work at being more fascinating, celebrities work at being more fascinating, and really everybody can work at being more fascinating

using these seven triggers that you outline. Sally Hogshead has been my guest. She is author of the book Fascinate, The Seven Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation, and there's a link to her book in the show notes for this episode of the program. Hey, everyone. Join me, Megan Rinks. And me, Melissa Demonts, for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? Each week, we deliver four fun-filled shows.

In Don't Blame Me, we tackle our listeners' dilemmas with hilariously honest advice. Then we have But Am I Wrong?, which is for the listeners that didn't take our advice. Plus, we share our hot takes on current events. Then tune in to see you next Tuesday for our listener poll results from But Am I Wrong. And finally, wrap up your week with Fisting Friday, where we catch up and talk all things pop culture. Listen to Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Do you love Disney? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown. I'm Megan, the Magical Millennial.

And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and family-friendly show, we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. There is nothing we don't cover. We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts. Whether you're a man or a woman, young or old, there will be a time in your near future when you're going to have to clean up something.

Because life gets messy, and nobody knows better how to keep things clean than Jolie Kerr. Jolie writes a cleaning advice column, she has a podcast called Ask a Clean Person, and she is author of a book called My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag. Hi, Jolie. So how did you get to be this cleaning guru? I was always a clean person, even as a child. I was kind of an odd child, and I'm definitely an odd adult. And I just really love cleaning. It's just a thing that I've always been into, oddly enough. That's very weird. Yeah, I know. Well, compared to a lot of the other people who write about and give advice about cleaning, I mean, you love this topic. I mean, it does seem a little weird. Anyway. You might be right about that. I've actually never thought about that.

I mean, I'll tell you that I am a pretty joyful person in general. And I think that bringing a positive, upbeat attitude and lots of laughter to almost any situation is a very great thing to do. I just think it makes life better. Okay. So, yeah, that's the way I look at cleaning. So let's get into some nuts and bolts here and have you give us some of your favorites or some of the, gee, I never knew that kind of cleaning tips

that will dazzle people. So, yeah, one thing that I think people tend to be surprised by is that white vinegar is a magic product that can be used for everything from removing mold to as a glass cleaner and an all-purpose cleaner. It's an odor eliminator that can be used in laundry. So it's just an incredibly versatile product. It's also really inexpensive and it's non-toxic. So it's basically a perfect cleaning product. And the running joke in my column is that the answer is always vinegar. So that's one thing that surprises people. Then I have other weird, weird tips like using foodstuffs

to clean. So tomatoes and ketchup will clean copper, make it bright and shiny, which is kind of a weird one. Um, another thing, you know, when you set a glass down and you forget to use a coaster and it leaves that white water ring on your wood table, um, mixing a little bit of ash, either cigarette or cigar ash with butter to make a paste will take those white water rings up from wood. So people tend to really like those kinds of weirdo tricks that I have. Yeah, give me some more of those. I love those. Couple more. Use a piece of sliced bread to pick up glass.

If you've shattered glass on your kitchen floor, say, grab a piece of sliced bread and just use it to pat that glass right up. Same thing with a cut potato. A cut potato will also pick up glass shards, so that's a nice trick to have. And then I guess sticking with the food theme, if you cut a half a grapefruit or a half a lemon and sprinkle it with kosher salt, that can be used to scrub the interior of a bathtub. So the combination of the citric acid and the sort of sloughing power of the salt will take soap scum and that kind of stuff up off of a tub.

Better than cleanser? Better than Comet? I mean, it's different from Comet. It's much gentler than Comet. Comet's very harsh. I mean, I love Comet, but I think that people can tend to overuse those kinds of harsh powder abrasives. The other thing that's really great about the grapefruit or the lemon trick is that it's totally non-toxic. So if you have a household with kids and they're often taking baths, you might be hesitant to use a product like Comet because it can leave a residue that then is still in the tub when, you know, Junior goes in for his nightly bubble bath. So using natural products is a big thing, especially for a lot of parents.

Great. Keep going. Sure. Oh, this is a fun one. As long as we're on the subject of the tub and the shower, if you have the shower, glass shower doors that get the nasty soap scum buildup, a dryer sheet can be used to scrub those glass shower doors. It works like a charm. I actually just told a reporter who was interviewing me about that, and she emailed two days later and said, oh my gosh, I tried that,

and it worked. I can't even get over how good my bathroom looks right now. So that's always exciting to hear those little tricks. Another good one with dryer sheets is to use dryer sheets for dusting. Not only will they pick up dust, but they also leave behind a thin coating that will help to repel dust for just a little bit longer. It's not going to prevent the dust, but it's going to extend the life of your dusting effort just a little bit longer, which is a good thing. What about, um, I know it's a problem for lots of people is when you try to do your best to finally get out and clean the windows, the streaks, when the sun shines through, they get all streaky. What's your advice? Yeah. Yeah, well, first of all, don't clean the windows on a sunny day, which I know is frustrating because oftentimes it's that sunny day that makes you realize how dirty your windows got, especially during spring cleaning time.

But wait until you have an overcast day and clean the windows on an overcast day. The sunshine actually will contribute to the streaking. Another really good thing to do is to use newspaper instead of paper towels because a newspaper is lint-free, so it's not going to leave behind any lint on the windows. If you don't like using newspaper because it gets the ink on your fingers, which a lot of people don't like, grab a copy of the Wall Street Journal because they spend a little bit of extra money on a kind of ink and printing process that doesn't leave the ink on your fingers. Oh, great. Yeah.

There's a weird one for you. Buy the Wall Street Journal. Yeah. What about stuff around the stove and the oven that gets burnt on, you know, like the burners get burnt on stuff and it's like impossible to get off. Oh, I know. It's really a bear, isn't it? A little bit of a cream cleanser or a powder abrasive like Comet. Comet might be too harsh if you've got glass or enamel stove tops. So I would use something a little gentler, maybe something like Bon Ami. And there's a product called Adobe Pad, D-O-B-I-E, that's made by 3M. And it's a sponge

that's covered in a kind of special 3M magic netting that won't cause scratching, but is an excellent product for getting things that are stuck on up off of surfaces. Yeah, I've used those for years. I like those. Yeah, I love those. They're a great product. What is, you know what our cleaning lady uses something called Barkeeper's Best Friend or Bartender's Best, do you know what that is? Barkeeper's Friend, yeah, absolutely. What is that?

I'm going to tell you something. It's very similar to Bon Ami. So it comes in both a cream and a powder formula. People swear by Bar Keeper's Friend. They love it for cleaning their stainless steel pots and pans, for cleaning everything in the kitchen, for cleaning the bathroom. I have to tell you that I have never had good luck with Bar Keeper's Friend. And so I resent it terribly because I am a cleaning expert and it doesn't work for me and it makes me feel bad. But other people love it. So yes, I will bite my tongue and mention it, that it is a pretty good product for most people. So talk about the car, because people stain things in the car, and the car smells, and talk about the car. Absolutely. The car is a mess, and we tend to forget about the car being a mess.

So there are a couple of different things that happen. One, the staining. What you should use if you have upholstery, it's really mostly a problem when you've got upholstered seats. A product that's used to clean upholstery, like a foaming upholstery and carpet cleaner, will go a long way in bringing that upholstery back up. It's also going to help with some of the smell issues. Also a good idea from time to time to vacuum the car out.

You know, you can go to a car wash and use the shop vacuum that they have for rent. If you have your own shop go to a car wash and use the shop vacuum that they have for rent. If you have your own shop vac or a handheld vac even, that's going to make the car look a lot better, vacuuming the floors and the upholstery and so on. For the smell, you want to use an odor-eliminating product. So not something that's going to mask odors like the trees that you hang from the rearview mirror because that's just going to make the car smell like pine and french fry. So instead, it's better to find a product that's an odor eliminator. Activated charcoal is a great odor eliminator.

It's actually the product that's used in most kitty litters to control odor. So if you think of a litter box as needing odor control, the same kind of product is going to work to control odors in your car. Great. Well, we've talked about some of my favorites, so pick some of your favorites. A couple of my favorites. We'll tell you one that my readers come to me all the time about, yellow underarm stains. The thing to know about the yellow underarm stains is that it's caused by two different things. One, the sweat, obviously.

We think of those as sweat stains, but actually the other contributor to that is the deodorant and antiperspirant that we're using. It contains aluminum, and there's a chemical reaction that goes on that creates that yellow stain. What you don't ever want to use on that is bleach, oddly enough. People think, oh, I'll just bleach out my white shirt. No. Bleach is going to make that kind of

stain, which is a protein stain, sweat is a protein stain, render more yellow. And so you don't want to use it. Instead, what you want to use is something that has an enzyme in it, so an enzymatic-based cleaner. I really like OxyClean, but there are loads of other products out on the market. And the thing is that once you've gotten into that yellow staining territory, you're going to need to do a little bit of work. So you're going to need to let those products, the stain-removing products, work on the shirt before you launder them, so either by soaking them or by using a spray treatment

and letting it sit for 30 or so minutes before laundering. So that's a big one I hear all the time. Do you think that good cleaning contains an element of preventiveness? I think so, yeah. I mean, the thing is that the more frequently you clean, the easier it's going to be. And the less time overall you're going to end up spending. I know that sounds sort of odd to say the more frequently you clean, the less time you'll spend.

But if you let things build up, you're going to have to put so much time and work. Physical energy, cleaning is a very physical thing that we do. It's just going to be really exhausting. Whereas if you just kind of stay on top of it and do a little bit every day, every week, you're not really going to be looking down the barrel at these major hours-long cleaning tasks. One more. One more tip? Yeah.

All right, let's talk about bloodstains because we all get bloodstains. The good news about bloodstains is that there are a lot of ways to remove them. So some really common things that we see are hydrogen peroxide is a go-to, and that's also very cheap, very readily available. Also salt and saline solution. So if you're on the fly in your contact lens wearer and you have saline solution, saline solution will help to remove blood stains. Again, just like our pit stains, an enzymatic cleaner is going to be great on blood. Here are two that are really weird. The first is unseasoned meat tenderizer will remove blood stains. You mix it with a little bit of water, rub it onto the stain, wipe it off with a damp rag or a sponge, and it'll take that stain out. The last one is kind of so

gross, I don't really want people to use it, but it does work. So I'm going to tell people that saliva will take a blood stain out. If it's a fresh blood stain, if it's an older one, you should use something like an enzymatic cleaner. But if If it's a fresh blood stain, if it's an older one, you should use something like an enzymatic cleaner. But if you've got a fresh blood stain, your own saliva will take that blood stain out. Excellent. Excellent. Well, you're now my go-to cleaning expert.

Jolie Kerr has been my guest. She is the host of a podcast called Ask a Clean Person. She has an advice column and she's also author of the book My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag. I love that title. There's a link to her book in the show notes for this episode.

Thanks, Jolie. When you cry, you almost always get a runny nose, and that can make things even more upsetting and embarrassing. So what causes that? Why does your nose run when you're crying? And the short answer is overflow. We all generate tears all the time. They're a mix of oil, mucus, and water

that are secreted from different glands and cells around your eye. Tears serve to keep the eyeball surface lubricated. If your eye gets irritated or if you're feeling sad, tear production ramps up until your eyes fill up and overflow. Each eye can hold about 7 microliters of fluid, according to Penny Asbell, who is an ophthalmologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.

When this threshold has been crossed, then the tears start dribbling down your eyes and down your cheeks. Excess tears can also go down the back and flood the drainage ducts that lead to the nasal passages, and then you get a runny nose. And that is something you should know. That's the program today. I'm Micah Ruthers. Thanks for listening to Something You Should Know.

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