While doing a load of laundry here at the office last week I noticed something peculiar. Yes, other than the fact that we have a laundry facility at work.

On the shelf—just above the washer—a bottle of Avalon Organics Lavender Bath & Shower Gel, no doubt a sign that someone ran short on detergent and reached for their favorite vitamin E infused skin scrub as a replacement. I can't help but wonder who it was. In this instance, it wasn't me.

Avalon Organics make great products and have been nice enough to share some of their offerings with us in the past (thus my quickly recognizing their bottle). In fact, there's a bottle of their shampoo in my shower as I write.

I simply wonder if all the delicacies their gels offer transmitted to the clothing appropriately. How did they feel? How did they smell? Do tell! Clothes undoubtedly need essence of Panthenon and Arginine too—right?

I'm not judging at all—we've all done it. Asked a consumer product to do the dirty work for their unavailable cousin. Used bath gel as shampoo, non-toxic spray-on tile cleaner as toothpaste, over-done toast as an in-shower exfoliate'r—it's all the same really. But those uses all fall within the same family of uses—shower time. It's when we ask our home care products to go cross-functional that we can run into trouble.

I'm reminded of the first (and last) time I used liquid dish soap in a dishwasher, way back in college. I was young…I needed the education. I understood there was a suds'ing differential between 'soap' and 'detergent,' so I made sure to use what I thought was an 'appropriate amount' of soap. Well, a half hour—and a waist-high room-full of suds—later I learned the world and I share differing ideas on 'appropriate.'

Any similar tales to tell, oh Lavendizer of Laundry? If you read this, I'm at extension 111.