It wasn’t intentional, but I accidentally put OxyClean in my eye. I’m OK, but it wasn’t a very pleasant experience. This post is to openly state my stupidity, and maybe act as a friendly reminder to the future you.

It started with something simple: using OxyClean to clean the white mesh of a dirty second-hand HomePod mini I acquired last night. I put a little bit in a small cup with some water, then used a microfiber cloth to lightly clean the outside of the HomePod. It worked great!

Afterwards I rinsed off my hands. I immediately realized the residue on my fingers so I rinsed them good. Just not good enough. About an hour later I rubbed my right eye and almost immediately felt something wrong. I guess there was still some of the chemical under my fingernail or somewhere on the tip of my finger.

We were running errands, so we pulled into a nearby CVS and picked up this Soothing Eye Wash. By this time my protective eye shield (whatever it’s called that starts to cover your eye) was getting thick, redder, and larger. My vision was fine, but it really started to hurt.

This product was a lifesaver. It comes with a plastic eye cup (didn’t expect that), which I immediately filled about halfway, put it up to my eye (wide open) and moved my eye around in the eye wash. My eye immediately started feeling better. I did it one more time, then headed back home. A few minutes later I did the eye wash again. Boy did this stuff work great!

The photo you see above was taken just before I started writing this post, about 4 hours later. It’s still quite red and not happy, but less bothersome. My vision was never affected.

I should have washed my hands more thoroughly, or worn gloves. Just let this be a lesson to my future self (or you) — when doing a simple DIY project like this: always remember to be safe. The outcome was not fun and could’ve been worse.