Showing posts with label carpets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carpets. Show all posts

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Steam Cleaner

Sometimes you can only live with nasty carpets for so long. Apparently my husband had had enough.

Yesterday we went to a wedding, but because I was coming from work and my husband was coming from home we took separate cars. And since he left a few minutes before I did after the wedding was over I was expecting him to be back home by the time I got there. Alas, he was not. It was then that I checked my phone and saw a text message from him saying that he was going to check out steam cleaners. So it was twenty minutes later my husband opens the door and drags in this huge box. Yes, he’d gone and bought a steam cleaner.



Normally this would be a freak out moment, as our finances are not the greatest, however, he bought it with a gift card from his mother he got for his birthday. Now typically I would be the one to get myself kitchen gadgets or household chore items so this would be perfectly normal for a purchase I’d make, but he apparently felt the need to have clean carpets and bought a Bissell ProHeat 2X Pet.

So picture if you can, two guys still dressed up for the wedding we had just attended, steam cleaning the carpets and thoroughly disgusted at the horrific color the dirty water reservoir had become. It was quite the sight, I assure. But the true test was going to be when the carpet dried completely. And the verdict (after spending a few hours at a bar with some of my family for the after party for those of us who aren’t against the consumption of alcohol)? They smell so much better and look as good as they did when they were professionally cleaned. I guess the real test will be if I can find a recipe for a solution to use in the machine that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and works just as amazingly.

(Pictures are from the Bissell website www.bissell.com)

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Considering a Steam Cleaner

When life throws obstacles in the way of incontinent or attention grabbing pets, the carpet takes the brunt of their wrath. Maybe it’s time to fight back.

Ever since we’ve moved into this house the question of whether or not to buy a steam cleaner has been brought up. Not by me, but by my husband. You see, I grew up poor white trash where the vacuums were at least second hand (if not third or fourth) and carpets were scrubbed by hand. Mind you, things did improve as I got older, but those days of when you don’t have the money to buy gadgets and gizmos but simply make do with what you can afford still linger. And the fact that we really can’t afford such a unitasking device has hindered any real chance of purchasing one. With all that being said, when is it time to throw your hands in the air and say, “To hell with it!”?

And so it was the other night after getting home from work that my husband had apparently been researching various steam cleaners. I think he must have known that the only way for me to get on board with such a device is to have it be capable of doing more than just cleaning carpet because almost every model he showed me had attachments for upholstery cleaning too, something our sofa and chair-and-a-half are both in desperate need of since my hand scrubbing and Lucy, our Great Dane, have both contributed to some areas where the fabric has ripped. Mostly Lucy’s fault, I’m sure, as her digging probably led to the torn fabric fibers in the first place before my gentle hands ever-so-softly wiped to remove the filth from the surface. Yes, I’ll blame the dog.

Now the difficult decision is do we even bother, since these carpets were nasty to begin with and after having a professional carpet cleaner come out and tell us not to expect any miracles because it should’ve been replaced at least five years prior makes me wonder if our purchase would be in vain. Then again, I’m really getting tired of getting on my hands and knees and using up all of our old towels to soak up urine and trying to clean it all, first with vinegar, then baking soda, then hydrogen peroxide and finally with borax just to have another one show up the next day in the same spot. Of course, the flip side would be clean sofas too!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Carpet Powder

When limited finances and tough odors collide, sometimes you are forced to live with the nastiness. However, it doesn’t have to be so.

I am not a big fan of smells that do nothing more than cover up other less pleasant smells. However, after living with the disgusting odor emanating from the carpet for longer than one should and after spending a ton of money having them professionally cleaned and deodorized, I decided to break down and buy a two dollar bottle of carpet powder. After sprinkling a generous amount of Glade Tough Odor Solutions on the living room and hallway carpet and letting it sit for about ten minutes, I pulled out the vacuum cleaner and started vacuuming. The smell was immediately gone and replaced by a clean scent. I even did the ultimate sniff test and dug my nose into our nasty carpets and breathed in deeply. After not detecting even a hint of grossness, and after rinsing my nostrils out completely because, ew, I think I may have found at least a cheap and temporary solution to cover our problem.


Now I suppose the next challenge I’m going to place this product under is the sofa and chair-and-a-half. I normally use Febreeze about once a week on these because, well, we have pets who use them and, even though I have pet quilts I made covering the seats and on the chair-and-a-half over the head rest where our cat Dexter likes to lay, they still smell. Hopefully it will work as well as it did on the carpet. However, the real test will be how everything holds up in a week or two.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

I Hate Carpet

There are few things in the world that I hate. Carpet is probably number one on that list.

Hate is a strong word and one that I was taught as a child never to use. We could say practically anything except, “I hate you!” to each other, which is probably why my vocabulary is, well, colorful. Let me just clarify that I am typically okay with area rugs, since these are much easier to keep clean, but carpeted floors are a different story. With two guys and three animals roaming the house, it doesn’t take long for crappy carpets to look (and smell) crappier.

Here is the deal with the carpet in our house; it’s bad. I mean really bad. Like maybe it should’ve been replaced five years ago bad. It is mostly one, large matted mess that whenever it gets a little damp a new stain appears, signs that the pad beneath is filthy. I mean, I know we had them professionally cleaned and the guy used a ton more solution than normal as well as spent about three times longer than he would on a normal job, but even he was doubtful that was enough to do the trick. It also seems to have taken on a disgusting odor as of late, one that just does not want to go away. I can handle stains, but the olfactory assault is a little too much. Okay, a lot too much.

So while I was at the grocery store yesterday I wandered into the cleaning supply aisle and decided, what the hell, I was going to get a bottle of deodorizing carpet powder. I plan on sprinkling some down today and letting it sit for a good ten minutes before vacuuming it back up. Something tells me it will be a little more difficult than that, but at the same time, even if it only helps a little bit I’m okay with that.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Smells

With us having friends over for dinner tonight, it means we will need to clean. And make the house smell like anything other than what it currently smells like.

We have animals, and with them comes their peculiar odors. Between the cats and their cat smells and the smells that are associated with their litter boxes, and our dog with her dog smells and various skin allergies and all the smells associated with that, along with the fact that this carpet is ass-nasty and still has a funny smell after being professionally cleaned and deodorized, our house is full of randomly unpleasant smells. There is only so much Febreeze one can use on the soft surfaces.

And so now the dilemma is to locate the candles and various other nice smelling devices to counteract the not-so-nice smells that were probably hastily packed away without reference on the outside of the box as to what lies inside its cardboard compounds. Nice. Although this could work to our advantage as there shouldn’t be too many of those boxes left in the garage. Perhaps a quick peek will unveil the happy smells. I hope, anyway. Wish me luck.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Carpet Game

Oh, how I despise carpet. Or maybe just the carpet in our house.

Old, dingy, once gray carpet that has seen better days throughout the house. Of course, those better days were eleven years ago when it was installed. I mean, it’s great that it really doesn’t matter how much more damage the carpets withstand while we are here because they will have to be replaced, and I completely understand his hesitance in replacing carpet while our landlord is renting out his house because, well, it’s his house he plans on moving back into. Honestly with Great Dane and two cats, it probably is for the best the carpets are in as sad of shape as they are.

So, what should we do? Live with them or get area rugs like our original plan? I guess the thing is that I like the idea of an area rug, just not the cost of one. And of course, once the cost isn’t an issue, it is finding one that we actually like, which, let’s be honest here, my husband and I can sometimes have differing views on decorating. After all, figuring that I pretty much hijacked the last house on choosing paint colors for the walls so I let him choose from a variety of neutrals, bought the paint, painted the walls, and he already wants to repaint some areas and we haven’t even finished painting all the rooms yet!

I’m thinking that, although the carpets are disgusting looking, they are clean. I’m also thinking that should the time come when we can afford to get an area rug that I’ll just pick one out based on colors or patterns we already have. I suppose they may not look so disgusting if I also vacuumed them once in a while too, huh?

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Vomit

This morning our dog decided to vomit all the grass she’s been stress eating since we moved in. It’s been a while since removing bodily refuse from carpet.

All the animals seem to be, well, freaking out. All except our bipolar calico cat, Tuesday, who has been positively sweet and loving since we moved. Our Great Dane, Lucy, has been ultra itchy and even more in the way than usual. And Dexter, our long-haired possible Main Coon mix has been even more, well, rambunctious and bordering on annoying with his sudden habit of sharpening his claws on our couch. But seriously, finding fresh vomit first thing in the morning beats all that.

Now, this isn’t all that unusual for Lucy to eat grass, especially during times of great stress. Certainly this whole moving adventure has been quite nerve-racking for her. However, vomit on carpet is much different to clean than carpet on hardwood floors. Ugh. It seems that no matter how much I blot it never wants to all come up. With solid surface floors it was simply a matter of wiping.

Fortunately we had some Oxy Clean Laundry Stain Remover on hand, so I sprayed down the sites (yes, plural) and let them sit for a few minutes before blotting some more. It helped, but I have a feeling it didn’t get all of the stuff up, even though the towels weren’t showing any of the off-colored liquid. Oh well, at least the carpets are so incredibly stained that I don’t think it’ll make a damn bit of difference if another stain or two gets added the mix. Then again, looking at the floors now I don’t see anything so perhaps we did get it all. I suppose only time will tell.