My favorite products are wiped from the face of the earth...

Many times in my life, I encounter a product that I find to be exceptional. Often I resist the temptation to hoard, to purchase huge amounts of something I clearly find great value in. But I get burned by resisting that urge, because frequently the products I love go out of stock and off the market and I am stuck searching the Internet high and low for a replacement, which is often impossible to find. This is one of those stories.....

In the summer I love to wear sandals, it keeps my feet cool and I like the open air feeling down there, like how I love convertible automobiles. But I have a big problem, my feet sweat quite a bit (it gets so bad at times they slide around in the footbed), which breeds bacteria, which after a while creates an odor that could be compared to a biological weapon. If the odor were visible, I picture a mustard green fog that envelops a 5 square foot region surrounding my feet. From doing research on the Internet, this is not an isolated problem, many of you out there have probably experienced it yourself or smelled it from someone else. It is not insignificant, and causes many to stop wearing sandals altogether.

One season, I found a product called "Paxton's Sandal Saver", which promised to clean and deodorize my footwear. I had tried a few other similar products with little success, so I didn't hold out much hope for this one either, but then I tried it. I applied it to my sandals, and it gave them a pleasant odor that at first seemed to mask the funk. But after a little while, I noticed that the lingering smell started to slowly vanish. Previously, you would smell the unmistakable sandal foot stench as soon as you entered the vicinity of the footwear, even just sitting at my desk, it would waft pungently upwards and envelop me and cause embarrasment with those who entered my space ("What is that smell?!? Is that your feet?!?!). But with the sandal saver, not only did it reduce and then eliminate any trace of the odor, it would have a continuous effect that would last for weeks. WEEKS! Odor free for over a month at a time before needing reapplication. You can not believe how thrilled I was to find such a product. I was so relieved to be able to keep wearing my favorite sandals (Keen Aruba's for the record, which are supposed to have an antimicrobial footbed, but it doesn't inhibit the smell for me at all).

Then, this year, my bottle of SS was depleting, so I hopped on the Internet to find a place I could pick some up. What happened next was nearly devastating and something I've experienced over and over in my life. Through Google I could easily find the occasional glowing review or praise for the product, but every store website that still listed it also bore the dreaded words "out of stock." I kept digging and found that the company was sold a few years ago, but nowhere could I find anyone that was still selling it or anything that sounded even remotely similar. My head was filled with the horror of having to go searching again, trying out other things and feeling that disappointment again when they don't live up to what I had with Sandal Saver. Would I have to stop wearing sandals again altogether? If only I pulled the trigger on my "hoard this" impulse and bought a case of it somewhere when it was still around. Sigh.

I did luck out a bit, however. In my frantic Googling, I also found the name of the product's inventor, Matt Paxton, and that his current business was "Clutter Cleaners," who help real hoarders (people who apply my minor hoarding instinct to elite levels) purge their piles. He even hosts a TV show about the subject (see link below). Digging further, I found him on Facebook and messaged him asking if he knew of a good substitute for Sandal Saver. While he did not offer any replacement ideas, he did offer to send me what he had left in his personal stock of the stuff. I was flabbergasted at the kind gesture and of course took him up on it.

What I will do when that runs out, I don't know. I wish I knew the formula so I could cook it up myself (I am guessing that Tea Tree oil figures prominently, but could be way off). Friends who have heard my plight joked that it was taken off the market in a "sandal industry conspiracy" like the rumor of the oil companies squashing anyone that invents an engine that runs on water. My strategy is to use the stuff as sparingly as possible to stretch it out, and maybe in that period, something will come on sale that works as well, knock on neoprene footbeds.

So thank you Matt Paxton, for inventing this stuff and keeping me in sandals, if only for just a few more seasons. And everyone should watch his A&E show, Hoarders, I know I'm going to put it on my DVR. And yes, it's quite ironic that I am writing about how I wish I hoarded certain things in this post.

Other examples of this in my life:

Q-Tips with Wood Sticks (discontinued by J&J, but there must be other fans, because I found a replacement on the net, not quite as good, but adequate). See the picture below.

Alpine Flossers w/Handle. Flossing with regular floss hurts my hands considerably. Using the little handle flossers is better, but I still find it very awkward and the opposite of ergonomic. One day I found a bag of small handled flossers, but it also came with a longer, tooth brush sized handle that you could insert them into. MAGIC - finally I could floss with ease and no hand pain, and my dentist noticed considerable improvement in tartar reduction. I ran out and went to buy more, and -- you guessed it - GONE. Nowhere to be found. I have stopped flossing regularly as a result, I know that's bad. I have found a possible replacement, also from Alpine, called the "Action Flosser", but can't find it in any drugstore yet. I will order it online if I have to. See the original product below. If anyone finds a stock of the original product, PLEASE let me know!

Wood Stick Q-tips

Alpine flosser w/handle