The Dangers Of A Mother's Excessive Cleaning Habits!
By Janey1966
@Janey1966 (24170)
Carlisle, England
April 23, 2010 6:36pm CST
My Mum is 63 years old and still works in a school kitchen that she has been in charge of now for about 10 years. She has worked in school kitchens since 1974 so is one of the longest serving members of Blackpool Council.
Anyway, when she gets in the house about 2pm she generally flies about for a bit and makes tea for herself and my Dad for around 4pm.
Yesterday though, something was amiss that she was very unhappy about. Well, throughout the house is a combination of laminate and carpet on her floors. All her carpets are light in colour...like a biscuity-shade. She noticed there were blobs of black, paw-marks all over the carpets as though her own cats had been chasing a stray that does come in through the window from time-to-time trying its luck with their food. My Dad would be in the front room so would not notice all the commotion.
Mum told me on the telephone that she kept looking at the offending marks last night at 8pm and decided to do something about them...even though she was shattered after working and performing all her tasks.
She was put out that she had no 1001 Carpet Mousse which is invaluable in these situations so had to resort to dabbing the marks with a combination fo water and WASHING-POWDER! Please be aware she was very tired when she was doing this so wasn't thinking straight!
After that she got her Steam Cleaner out, a cumbersome machine at the best of times but she Steam Cleaned the areas she had just dabbed.
Tonight she told me that where she had dabbed and the areas that weren't dirty are now different colours to one another so she is now more stressed out about that than the original offending marks!
I asked her why she didn't wait until Friday so she (or my Dad) could go to the shops for some invaluable 1001 Carpet Mousse and she said, "Well, I kept seeing the marks out of the corner of my eye and they were doing my head in so I had to try and get rid of them. I couldn't sit there all night and not do anything!"
Therein is a lesson in patience my friends.
I dread to think how many hours she will now have to put in with her Steam Cleaner to get the carpets back to how they were before.
One thing I know for sure, if it doesn't work she will buy more carpet!
She can't claim either as she has already done this with her old television that had water leaking into it from outside (don't ask) lol.
Has this ever happened to you? Have you become so fed up looking at a stain then regretted your actions afterwards because the cleaner you were using..er..didn't work?
Anyway, when she gets in the house about 2pm she generally flies about for a bit and makes tea for herself and my Dad for around 4pm.
Yesterday though, something was amiss that she was very unhappy about. Well, throughout the house is a combination of laminate and carpet on her floors. All her carpets are light in colour...like a biscuity-shade. She noticed there were blobs of black, paw-marks all over the carpets as though her own cats had been chasing a stray that does come in through the window from time-to-time trying its luck with their food. My Dad would be in the front room so would not notice all the commotion.
Mum told me on the telephone that she kept looking at the offending marks last night at 8pm and decided to do something about them...even though she was shattered after working and performing all her tasks.
She was put out that she had no 1001 Carpet Mousse which is invaluable in these situations so had to resort to dabbing the marks with a combination fo water and WASHING-POWDER! Please be aware she was very tired when she was doing this so wasn't thinking straight!
After that she got her Steam Cleaner out, a cumbersome machine at the best of times but she Steam Cleaned the areas she had just dabbed.
Tonight she told me that where she had dabbed and the areas that weren't dirty are now different colours to one another so she is now more stressed out about that than the original offending marks!
I asked her why she didn't wait until Friday so she (or my Dad) could go to the shops for some invaluable 1001 Carpet Mousse and she said, "Well, I kept seeing the marks out of the corner of my eye and they were doing my head in so I had to try and get rid of them. I couldn't sit there all night and not do anything!"
Therein is a lesson in patience my friends.
I dread to think how many hours she will now have to put in with her Steam Cleaner to get the carpets back to how they were before.
One thing I know for sure, if it doesn't work she will buy more carpet!
She can't claim either as she has already done this with her old television that had water leaking into it from outside (don't ask) lol.
Has this ever happened to you? Have you become so fed up looking at a stain then regretted your actions afterwards because the cleaner you were using..er..didn't work?5 responses
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
26 Apr 10
How frustrating. But I leave carpet cleaning to the husband. Guess I'm eventually going to have to learn how to do it though.
Now yesterday, my frustration was with Naomi's laundry. Something got into it and left magenta stains all over everything. I tried to wash some of it again to see if it was a washable color and nope, lots of nice things ruined. Whoopee... 
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157551)
• United States
26 Apr 10
Maybe you can "tie dye" some of her things. Also, there is a brand of cleaner called Carbona, that might work if you know what caused the problem in the first place. It has all these little bottles, like you can get one for coffee and tea, one for grease, I think one for when color bleeds out from another garment.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
26 Apr 10
We were laughing at the fact that her tie dye shirt didn't go through that load. But I don't know for sure what did it. There was no trace of a pen or anything in that load. I assume that something melted, but I have no idea what it was.
@GardenGerty (157551)
• United States
26 Apr 10
I cannot think of anything, but that is because I have been really fortunate. I had a job where I cleaned lots of things with bleach based cleaners, though and ruined clothes from brushing against counters that had cleaner on them.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
26 Apr 10
Oh dear
As for Mum's carpet, she told me in an update on Sunday night that her carpet hasn't improved, despite steam cleaning the whole of it this time. What was she thinking of using washing-powder? She must've been REALLY tired to use that. Ironically, she went mad at me when I stayed at her house the other week and knocked a cup of tea onto the carpet and she told me that she's managed to get that stain out through hard scrubbing! If she'd done that with the black marks I reckon it would be fine now.
As for Mum's carpet, she told me in an update on Sunday night that her carpet hasn't improved, despite steam cleaning the whole of it this time. What was she thinking of using washing-powder? She must've been REALLY tired to use that. Ironically, she went mad at me when I stayed at her house the other week and knocked a cup of tea onto the carpet and she told me that she's managed to get that stain out through hard scrubbing! If she'd done that with the black marks I reckon it would be fine now.
@hofferp (4734)
• United States
24 Apr 10
I just did that with my carpet. To fix my "fix", I had to re-shampoo the entire rug. That worked. If it hadn't, I doubt I would have gone out and bought a new rug. One, because I don't think I could find another like it, and two, I'm not sure I could have afforded it.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Apr 10
Yes, I have a feeling my Mum will do something like that. I won't find out until tomorrow night, however, when I ring her again. I hope she sorts it out OK though because it's a nice carpet.
@kedralynn (980)
• United States
24 Apr 10
It's happened to my clothes before! I'll get something on it, freak out about ruining it, try something on hand to get it out and ruin the clothes. At least that's cheaper to replace than carpet. I learned my lesson and now keep Shout wipes in my purse ;)
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Apr 10
That's a very sensible idea my friend! If Mum had a supply of 1001 Carpet Mousse she wouldn't be in this mess now.
