A thing going on in my life right now is painting. I’m painting a few walls. A thing going on in my life because of that thing is that I have a lot of paint-y water on my hands, from rinsing the brushes I’m using to paint the corners and the areas around the blinds. I know I’m not supposed to just dump paint-y water down my apartment drains (I clogged those at the old place with matchsticks, and we’re working directly with personal landlords now instead of with a big rental conglomerate, so clogs are way more embarrassing than they used to be). For a while there, I was on board with the idea promoted online that you should just let your rinse water sit until it all evaporates and then peel the paint off the inside of the bucket. Upon reflection, though, this seems like it could take a troublingly long time. I left a bucket out all weekend and less than an inch boiled off. So, I’m buying cat litter. This could be a great or terrible idea.
What I want to know is how absorbent cat litter is. I’ve got three buckets of water. They’re all small—there’s maybe a gallon in each. Can I just buy a bag of cat litter, pour my paint-y water in it, throw that bag in the trash, and move on with my life? Or am I setting myself up for an absolute disaster of a mess?
To answer the question, I’m of course turning to Google while I write this. Specifically, I’m googling “cat litter paint water.” Give me a second.
*you wait*
*I google*
*I look up*
*you ask what I learned*
It looks like people do this.
There aren’t a ton of instructions—nobody is saying, “Hey, if you’re an NIT blogger painting a few walls in your apartment and you have paint-y water to get rid of, here’s the exact cat litter you want to use and the exact container it should be in and the exact amount you’ll need for three one-gallon buckets of water”—but it does seem like I’m not so off-base that I’m going to create a chemical reaction which blows up the neighborhood. This isn’t ammonia and bleach, or dynamite and fire. How much cat litter is this going to take? Unclear. I’m probably going to have to experiment. Is this going to be cost-effective? I have no idea. My parents always bought the cat litter growing up (it was for the cats, not for my paint-y water). Should I buy litter in one of those plastic tubs instead of the big ol’ sandbag-style stuff? Probably. Thank you. I appreciate that suggestion. I was going to flood my balcony with muddy, paint-y cat litter, and everyone knows all that does is attract muddy, paint-y stray cats, which would have driven my dog mad. I’ll get a plastic tub and start testing.
More to come. Unless it’s really unremarkable. Or if it’s really remarkable, I guess. If it’s remarkable you may only hear about it on the news.
