Is scraggy a word? Firefox isn’t flashing me the wiggly red line of doom…

When we moved into this house (the ‘omg mega debt’ house) there were carpets throughout. We made the decision to rip out the carpet in the front room and replace it with cheap vinyl; we did this for two reasons: 1) because the previous owners had a dog and the carpet was thick with dog fluff and 2) because with small children, the idea of scrubbing bodily fluids out of the carpet on a regular basis left me feeling a little nauseous.

Unfortunately we couldn’t afford to replace the carpets house-wide (see above: omg mega debt) so settled for cleaning those upstairs. Except that even borrowing Karl’s mum’s mega expensive Vax didn’t do much for the ancient, crusty carpet in Izzy’s room:

(Clearly I have no shame, sharing these with you…)

So anyway, when I was asked if I wanted some Vanish spray for carpets & upholstery to review I figured I could give it a shot. Worst case scenario I have to do some cleaning (shudder) but best case I get rid of the dodgy stains for free (and free is my favourite price).

Back to the stains… I tried to use the stain removal advice that they’ve got on site (trying to do this properly, right?) but because I am not entirely sure of the origins of the stains I wasn’t sure what to pick (and for the record, I think they’re missing a trick not listing wee / poo / vomit on the guide as that’s what I spend most of my time cleaning up, I swear. ETA: they do! Under ‘body fluids’. Nice.) Enough brackets, where am I? Oh yes, stains.

So I don the rubber gloves and equip myself with the big squirty bottle & at this point I’m feeling all Kim and Aggie but I can’t find any feather boas to stick to my gloves :(

I applied the spray, waited about 1 minute (you’re supposed to wait 5 but I don’t have all day) and gave it a quick scrub:

No more carpet grot, no more ominous stain. Of course now the only problem is that the rest of the carpet is shown up by the clean patch. I’ll just have to make Karl finish it off, and then he can use the coffee stains guide to tackle the old sofa…

Karl and I have spent all weekend cleaning and moving furniture. Perhaps I’m just being stereotypical/sexist but it’s obvious the flat hadn’t seen a woman’s touch in at least a year. We blasted the shower ‘cubicle’ thing with the steam cleaner and old hair shot out the bottom. Now that was just ‘eww’, and I’ve… read full entry »

Having had my root canal done on Monday to try and fix my dodgy tooth, I’ve been sticking to soft foods all week to give it chance to settle properly. Decidedly hungry I got the bag of frozen chips out the freezer, and happened upon some onion rings too. I stuck the chips in the… read full entry »