Once I had planned a fun activity to do with the kids. I bought a white sheet at the thrift store and laid out plates of different colored paint. My idea was for the kids to dip their feet in the paint and then run all over the sheet--decorating it with their cute little multi-colored footprints. Sounds cute, right? Well, I guess I didn't explain it fully to the little ones because as soon as my little girl stepped into the blue paint...she took off running across the sheet...and into the living room, which was carpeted in a nice, pale shade of beige. There they were--little blue footprints all over the carpet. It took everything in me not to react, but to respond with kindness. "Oops! We were supposed to just run on the sheet!" Inside, I was thinking, 'how in the world am I ever going to get those footprints out of that carpet?'
If only the Bissell ProDry carpet cleaner had been around at the time. But, now I've got one and am SO GLAD that I do. I don't need to fret the spills, stains, and messes. I just whip it out and clean my carpet. And it really works with a busy household, too. Fortunately, the carpet takes only 30 minutes to dry so we can get back to real life. I love it! And I've got a special surprise for you. Tell me your funniest carpet stain story. The winner gets a brand new Bissell Pro Dry carpet cleaner. I've already got it packed up and ready to ship out. So give me your stories! Just post them here. But make sure you e-mail them to me as well. I want to make sure I know who to contact when we have a winner: info@totalmom.com. This give-away is open until 10/10/08. I can't wait to hear from you!!
15 comments:
My sister was using paint to make a hand print border around her 4 year old twins' bedroom. The girls got into the pain and got it on the carpet. She had them help clean it up with bucket of water and scrub brushes. As one of the got on her hands and knees and started to scrub up the mess she started singing "Sing sweet nightingale..." We about busted a gut laughing. This is the song Cinderella sings in the Disney movie as she scrubs the floor. This was the girls favorite movie at the time.
My story is this. My oldest son was in kindergarten and the stomach flu was sweeping his classroom. After a solid week of the majority of kids being absented except my son, I was spouting off advice to other parents- priobiotics, no sugar, fresh air, washing hands frequently. I may have been a bit cocky about keeping my kid healthy.
So on Friday night, we celebrated making it through the week with one of his favorite meals- black bean burritos and homemade salsa.
Yep, you can guess what happened that night at about 2am. Right on my brand new light beige carpeting. My own art lesson- black and red make purple.
And I have never bragged about the health of my children again!
Hi Hannah -- here's my story and it honestly happened just last week...
We have a finished basement/rec room covered in a neutral beige Berber carpet. We moved into our house two years ago and I just started thinking that it's probably time to steam clean the carpet down there (the rest of our house has hardwoods). So...we have a friend who was coming to visit overnight from DC. She has two beautiful (and well-trained) black labs that she was bringing with her. For the first 30 minutes she was here we let the dogs run around in our yard and fetch a ball to run their legs a little (they never even came inside!). A short time later, we were walking our friend downstairs to our guest room and smelled this stench. It had begun to loom the day before, but now it was in full effect. Our friend says, "Ahh...your basement still smells like new carpet." To which my husband and I immediately respond, "That's not the scent of new carpet...that smells like pee!" Her dogs began to sniff around to check out the place and ran straight to a spot in the middle of our rec room that REEKS! I mean, it wasn't even necessary for me to bend halfway over to smell it! My husband, on the other hand, will smell anything (and actually enjoys it in a sick kind of way)! He says it smells like cat pee. The kicker? We don't have a cat. We don't have a single pet. After many years of two dogs, cats here and there and now four children later, we're taking a 'pet break.' So how does a pet stain get on the carpet of a home that has no pets? Seriously. I have no idea. My girls were petting a neighborhood cat in our backyard a few days before, but promise they never let it inside. The blessing is that I had borrowed my mom's Bissell steam cleaner a week or two before to shampoo the horribly stained mats in our van (that's another story in itself with four kids!). It worked like a charm in our van and so I whipped it out and shampooed the 'mystery spot' on our rec room carpet. Of course it's 10:00 at night because these things are always discovered when you're beaten down after a long day! But just ten minutes later, it was done and the smell is gone! After I finished using it, I thought to myself, one of these bad boys is going straight to the top of my Christmas list! With four kids under the age of seven (two of which are two-year-old twin boys!), our family would put a Bissell ProDry carpet cleaner to the test!
It's funny that you posted this today on your blog. Today is my twins' 8th birthday. I was just recalling some of the crazy stunts that were just surreal at times. I am so thankful that I kept this day on my computer so I can reread it. This below happened February 29, 2004. My twins, Matthew & Sarah, were 3 1/2 when this happened. Boy, did I wish I had that carpet cleaner then! Enjoy! Mom to four blessings, 1996 singleton boy, 2000 b/g twins, & 2005 singleton boy ~Stacy
I remember when I was expecting my twins and I would hear these stories of the mischief their twins had made. I thought "oh surely it won't be that way". OK WHATEVER!!!!
On Thursday, my twins decide that while mom is painting their room (I am painting Sarah's room now; Matthew's room is ready but he doesn't know that yet) they decided to attack the refrigerator and unwrap a brand new stick of butter and smoosh it all over themselves, the lamp, the end table, the wall, the carpet, and a part of the couch! Then they grab a can of sprinkle cheese (similar to macaroni and cheese powder) and smoosh it into their masterpiece. This happened within a 15 min time period as I kept checking on them because they are VERY BUSY 3 YEAR OLD TWINS! I cried and began to clean it up and my first thought was, " at least they didn't get out the eggs"
Well, we survived that episode, BUT WAIT....
On Saturday, Daddy had some errands to run, I put them in their room for a nap. Matthew gets out of his bed several times and each time I put him back. Finally, I go back downstairs and load the dishwasher. This takes about 15 min or so and then I go back up to check on them because it eerily quiet. Matthew had found the can of paint that had 1/4 in of paint left in it (which I forgot was under Sarah's bed.) and opened it with the "key" that Lowe's gave me, poured paint into a plastic empty paint liner he found and found a new stir stick and then became Picasso! He finger painted the carpet, the dresser, the wall and when he heard me coming he hid in the closet!!! Thus, spreading even more paint on the closet contents and doors. (his sister watched the whole thing but she can't climb out of her crib so she was saved a lot of yelling) He was covered in paint head to feet! I wanted to just close the door to room and forget it was a part of the house. But, you can't! How much can one mom take in 48 hours??? I called a friend of mine for advice on how to save the carpet (as I cried again) and she offered to come get the children for the evening!!! What a great friend! I turned her down because I just didn't want her to have these crazies in her home!!! I began to clean the boy (who was soaking in the tub with no toys...he wasn't there to have a good time.) when there she was ready to help clean! (Mitchell let her in) She, too, considered we just forget the room and wasn't sure where to start. (HA HA) I grabbed a box of those "magic erasers" I had picked up from Sam's club on Friday (while they were at Parents day out) I didn't know if they would work but I was desperate and it amazed me but they cleaned the paint off the dresser and really worked on the carpet. I also used Woolite Carpet cleaner foam and together the carpet looks better. It is in no way perfect but much better. Now, this carpet is not new so if I ruined it trying to clean it didn't bother me but you can't have brown carpet with pink paint in it. Needless to say, this is the spot her bed will now be placed when it ever becomes her "big girl" room. Well, I am off to sand the wall for the 4 foot wide 2 foot tall section of 'finger' paint so I can repaint that wall, again!!!
So, when you hear these tales of multiples, don't blow them off as "my kids won't be that bad!" You just never know. There has to be a special place in heaven for mom's of multiples!
Hi Hannah,
I have to tell you.. We have 5 children ranging in ages from 13yrs to 3 yrs and on top of that I run a licensed family child care out of my home. So on a typical day I am caring for anywhere from 6 to 10 children a day. So of course you know that means MESS!!! Lol.
But honestly....the story that comes to mind for me is the most recent one... my husband and I just recently bought our first house and the living room, dining room, Master bedroom all have this very very light colored beige carpet. Almost a cream color. Well, I had an infant that I took care of and he wasn't very mobile so I would put him on his tummy for some tummy time....and of course you guessed it.....he would spit up! It wasn't just regular spit up from breast milk or formula it was sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach you name it.
Well anyway, he was cruising on his tummy all over my living room and would just make a trail of spit up. I would clean it as soon as it happened and thought it would be ok. Well recently the spots that I wiped up from a year ago now look brown. As though someone walked through dirt or took a scoop of dirt and sat it on my carpet. My husband kept asking what they were and I could not figure it out for the life of me..until one day we were headed out the door to football practice that I said, "you know what, I think that is where the baby spit up". It all clicked..here we were wondering where the spots came from and all along they were from the baby. My husband had been getting upset with everyone about it! Especially since the living room isn't used much. The children have the family room and I have a private room for my day care.
But then when you go into the dining room same colored carpet.. it has so many stains and marks I really don't know what they have come from. Because the dining room for us is used on Sunday meals and when the family comes over. Other wise we all eat in the kitchen. Well, once again my DH asks where these stains are coming from and I once again do not have a clue. All I know is that they keep showing up. I used the scenario from one of those crime shows where all of a sudden blood stains from months ago start seeping through. I know that that is not what is happening here I was just using that as a scenario since I do not know where they are coming from. I don't know what came over my husband but for some reason he felt the need to explain to me that that is not what is happening here..."that is not blood coming through the carpet" and I would respond to him "I know I am giving an example" "I know that there isn't anything literally seeping through the carpet".
But they are obviously from food or shoe marks (even though everyone is to take there shoes off when they come in the house. LOL I laugh because we are serious but yet it is almost a joke because kids are sneaky...and test your limits.
Either way my husband doesn't find that scenario as funny as I do. So I was on my hands and knees trying to get rid of those stains. I have used Resolve which did not work...I have used bleach water and it worked (very very little). So I am hoping that with your help Hannah that I can win this steam cleaner...with the amount of children and traffic I have not to mention the day care children.... I could sure use it. H.E.L.P.
Thank you ,
Carrie P.
OMG!! These are great! Keep them coming! Also, don't forget to send your story to me in an e-mail so that I have a way of contacting you:
info@totalmom.com
Hannah,
As I am reading this blog, I heard my 6 year old who came home from her father's yesterday with a stomach bug.
She has been up most of the night, puking, can't keep anything on her stomach. She didn't make it to the toilet when the projectile vomit released from her body. It was everywhere: walls, rugs, shower curtain, cracks and crevices. What a nightmare! I muster up the courage to put on gloves and attack the disaster, 45 minutes later, I come out the winner. I now have a bucket beside her bed to make things easy for her. I change it frequently.
Then she tells me she has to poop and goes to the bathroom. As quickly as she went in the bathroom, she comes running out to her bedroom, where I find her stooping over her bucket puking again. You know what came next, she had runny poop all down her little legs and all over our cream shag carpet.
After cleaning her up and get her back into bed, I get out the Mrs. Meyer's All Purpose Cleaner (Lavender, kills germs and calms my nerves) yet again. On my hands and knees, I began scrubbing as thoughts raced through my head, "God, I wish I had a machine to help me."
As for the surface of the carpet, the poop is out, but it has traveled to the depths of the carpet pad, HELP!
Thanks for reading my rant, I know you know the drill.
I had gone down to the basement to get some stuff done while my 2 year old was upstairs taking a nap. After a little while, I went back upstairs to look for something and as I'm going upstairs I start smelling this very strong odor. At the top of the stairs I find my child sitting on our brand new carpet 'painting' her toenails! Only it wasn't just her toenails - it was just about every part of her body!!! She had this super dark brown polish all up and down her arms and legs!!! And of course had dumped the bottle onto the floor! There was this big round spot of brown polish on our beige carpet!! I kind of freaked out. I wasn't sure how to actually get it off of her without eating her skin off with acetone!! I got most of it off but she had to run around for a while looking like she had some rare disease! I was able to get most of it out of the carpet - just a hint of pink left behind!
I grew up in a house were it was "no shoes in the house" policy and that continued in my home. Years ago when my oldest son was playing he decided he needed something from his bedroom, since he could not see me and this would only take a second he decided not to take his shoes off, so up the stairs he went down the hall in to his bedroom, back through the hall and down the stairs. Little did he know that he had doggie doo doo all on the bottom of his shoes so need less to say it was up the stairs, down the hall in the bedroom, back down the stairs. Needless to say when I saw this I was so upset, lucky for me I had a friend who had owned a carpet cleaning company that came and took care of it. I cannot image if that happened to me today, since I don't have that connection where I live now.
I have been racking my brain trying to decide which story is the best carpet stain story. There are so many. With three kids 6, 5, and 3 and three dogs there is never a dull moment or a lack of spills, mishaps, throw-ups, or just plain disasters. As a military family we’ve moved four times in six years. Each place I can think of a stain or a spill that brings back so many good memories of fabulous friends and great adventures we had in that place.
But I guess the greatest story is upon moving into our first home. We’d finally made the decision to buy knowing we may not be there long but aching for somewhere to really call home. We found a ranch on an acre and a half and we got started. We bought it knowing there was a lot to do but the carpets were in great shape. Or so they were, the day after we moved in and we’d already knocked down a wall and gutted a bathroom, my husband was having a morning cup of coffee in the living room. He committed the cardinal sin and left it unattended with children in the house. Thankfully it wasn’t hot but our three year old decided to have a sip of daddy’s coffee, oops, that sip slipped out of her hand and onto the floor. She is the one that tries to make everything right, she hates to be in trouble and cries if you look at her crossly. A complete opposite of our two boys who would make a mess and probably spread it around. But there it was in the middle of the living room carpet a huge cup full of coffee, the stain that would haunt us for the next two years. I was so angry I could only blame one person, daddy, but first I had to comfort my little girl with alligator tears. She was pacified with some Dora, but daddy was going to hear about it for a long time. I tried renting carpet cleaners, and we had one, but nothing worked, the stain would lighten and then like a bad memory it would just start seeping back into view and we would start all over again. Just about the time all the home improvement projects were finished it was time to move again and I never changed the carpets, they were how they were meant to be kid friendly. Now we are in the middle of nowhere Montana building a home. I’ve opted for lots of wood floors but can’t live without carpets in the bedrooms and play areas, so I’m sure there will be more spills, but bring them on because spills bring memories, lessons, and they are just a part of life. A life full of spills is definitely worth having.
Hey Hannah I sent you mine through email.
Lisa Santana
Sorry this is kinda' late, but my story just occured! I saw the contest when it started, and racked my brain trying to think of a good carpet stain story. Nope! Nothing! Just the normal ol' boring stain stories. So, I was very excited when this happened (when have I ever been excited about a stain?!) Anyway, I'll share...
Last week, my mom went somewhere with us, and brought iced coffee along (she makes the best!) Haydn, my 6-year old son, jumped in the front of the van at our destination to tell her something- hit the cupholder- spilled some iced coffee on the carpet in my van. Whoops! End of story? Not hardly.
I knew that there was milk in the coffe, so later that day, as soon as I got home, I got out my arsenal of stain-removers and went to work on the stains. I know what happens if milk doesn't get cleaned up! (: Satisfied with my work, I called it a day and headed inside.
Fast forward to the next morning when I went out to the van to take the kids to school. I noticed a little bit of a sour smell. What? I was sure that I took care of the problem. Just to be safe, I reapplied all sorts of treatments to the affected area. Good. Done.
The smell in my van turned quickly from a slight odor to "OH MY GOODNESS, I CAN'T BREATHE IN HERE!" Wow. It was odiferous, to say the least! I swear there was a green fog following us around. Yes. It was that.bad.
Wednesday night, the kids we were taking some friends to church, which meant that we needed to put back in the extra seat that we usually take out. I ran out to the van to do so in the afternoon. When I crawled in the back. Under the seat, I found a surprise that my mom stuck in the van before we left her house (sometimes she tucks little treats in without us knowing). This time she blessed us with a container of cut up cantaloupe. On the way home, it slid under the seat, tipped over and opened. Um. Yeah. All along, I was fighting what I thought was the problem, and here it was. This rotting mound of gnatty cantaloupe yuckness!! I took care of THAT carpet mess, and the rest is history!
Well Hannah here is my story. I have a precious little 5 month old puppy named Sandy. One night while I was blissfully getting my REM's in my poor little puppy wasn't feeling so blissful. Infact upon my wake I hear my boyfriend ranting about Sandy puking all over the carpet....he stepped in it..oops! As I got myself out of my comfy bed I knew I had something to clean before I had to go to work. What a way to wake up!! Anyway it turned out that there were 5 spots where my cute little pup had lost her stomach. So, I immediately step into Miz Clean it and started on my disgusting task of getting the upheavel off of the carpet and any stain that could possibly be left extinguished before the set in. My boyfriend trying to be helpful looked to me for guidance as to how to help me to clean up this mess. I told him to grab something to get the puke off of the floor and continued on working on the two spots in the back bedroom. I came out to get some water to use before I put any type of carpet cleaner onto the spot..to find Johnny standing over the spot in the hallway looking perplexed. I tell him to try to get the stain out with some water and then we would spray some carpet cleaner to finish the job. I went back to my duties in the back bedroom only to come out and find johnny with the Windex. Yes, Windex! The only thing that came to mind was " My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Apparently that is what came to his. I asked him if he was planning to give the stain a shine! Needless to say, it was time to get to work and there is a shiny stain in my hallway!!! Winning a carpet cleaner would really be a unique way to bail me out of my current domestic environmental issues!! Besides everyone else is looking to be bailed out these days...why not me?
Well Hannah here is my story. I have a precious little 5 month old puppy named Sandy. One night while I was blissfully getting my REM's in my poor little puppy wasn't feeling so blissful. Infact upon my wake I hear my boyfriend ranting about Sandy puking all over the carpet....he stepped in it..oops! As I got myself out of my comfy bed I knew I had something to clean before I had to go to work. What a way to wake up!! Anyway it turned out that there were 5 spots where my cute little pup had lost her stomach. So, I immediately step into Miz Clean it and started on my disgusting task of getting the upheavel off of the carpet and any stain that could possibly be left extinguished before the set in. My boyfriend trying to be helpful looked to me for guidance as to how to help me to clean up this mess. I told him to grab something to get the puke off of the floor and continued on working on the two spots in the back bedroom. I came out to get some water to use before I put any type of carpet cleaner onto the spot..to find Johnny standing over the spot in the hallway looking perplexed. I tell him to try to get the stain out with some water and then we would spray some carpet cleaner to finish the job. I went back to my duties in the back bedroom only to come out and find johnny with the Windex. Yes, Windex! The only thing that came to mind was " My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Apparently that is what came to his. I asked him if he was planning to give the stain a shine! Needless to say, it was time to get to work and there is a shiny stain in my hallway!!! Winning a carpet cleaner would really be a unique way to bail me out of my current domestic environmental issues!! Besides everyone else is looking to be bailed out these days...why not me?
I guess I'm a couple of years late for the contest. But congratulations to the winner. Oh, well, let me go ahead and give you my carpet stain story. I actually have twins and they would play around the house tirelessly. Well, to cut the long story short they end up both peeing in our newly installed carpet. Thankfully, my mom suggested this reputable company that offers carpet cleaning, Kansas City MO based. They did an excellent job with the overall carpet cleaning. Kansas residents are fortunate to have such reliable service men. Well, thanks again for this excellent post Hannah! I had fun reading your posts.
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