I hate the carpet in our house. It attracts...EVERYTHING! We are not slobs, although I wouldn't lie and say I am a perfect housekeeper, either. However, the carpet in our house torments me on a daily basis. Silly things, like the spot in the upstairs landing (you can't really properly refer to it as a hallway, but I haven't come up with another name for it, so landing it is) where Carson spilled almost an entire bottle of shampoo, nag at me every time I pass them. Since this is not our "forever" home, I try to take care of it for the next occupants, but I also feel like it is a little futile to invest tons of our money in upkeep.
I was torn, since we really don't have a firm grasp right now on what the future holds, as to what to do about the carpet. I wanted it to look decent, but when we buy a house it will NOT have carpet if I have anything to say about it. I love tile, wood, I would even deal with linoleum, but I would really rather not have carpet. I have had both, and I have to say, I prefer the pitfalls of hard flooring vs. the evils of carpet. But, since I can't replace this, I had to have a solution. I thought about hiring it done, but since 5/6ths of our house is carpeted and we have carpeted stairs, it would be expensive. Also, we had a couple of spots (like the aforementioned shampoo) that I knew would require a little extra TLC. I didn't want tacked on charges for things like that. I thought about buying a steam cleaner, but unless we got a really nice one, I didn't think it would be able to do the job. Plus, if our next house doesn't have carpet then it wouldn't be worth it.
So, that left me with renting a carpet cleaner. I had heard both pros and cons. They worked well, they didn't work well, they were cheaper, they cost as much as hiring a professional. I really didn't want to deal with someone from the outside, so I finally decided we would tackle it ourselves. Except I waited until after Joel had ankle surgery! Since we are having a party to celebrate his birthday this weekend, I thought I better just go ahead and bite the bullet. I went this morning and rented a Rug Doctor. The shoppette three blocks from our house has them.
Well, needless to say, I am not sure why I waited so long! I am not completely finished (it is a LOT of work) but I am definitely going to end up with a cleaner carpet. I pretty much removed all the shampoo (that alone took almost 30 minutes) and my stairs look great! Why am I such a procrastinator? I am thankful that even though it is very labor intensive it is not difficult. There is a lot of filling and dumping of the tank (at least every room) but other than that it hasn't been anything besides pushing either the entire machine or the upholstery attachment back and forth. I think I am covered in cleaner from head to toe, too. But I found some coupons online and with the extra upholstery attachment, stain pre-treatment, de-foamer, and cleaning fluid it was less than $45. I thought that was pretty cheap, less than 1/2 of what it would have cost for a light professional cleaning. I am feeling so good I think I might even tackle the sofa!
Not sure why I felt the need to post this, kind of boring. I guess I am just excited that I finally found a solution to my problem. Yay for clean carpet-now if we can just keep it that way for a little while!:)
P.S. I have to thank my sister, Robyn, for finally persuading me to try doing it myself. I steal all my best ideas from her.:)
I was torn, since we really don't have a firm grasp right now on what the future holds, as to what to do about the carpet. I wanted it to look decent, but when we buy a house it will NOT have carpet if I have anything to say about it. I love tile, wood, I would even deal with linoleum, but I would really rather not have carpet. I have had both, and I have to say, I prefer the pitfalls of hard flooring vs. the evils of carpet. But, since I can't replace this, I had to have a solution. I thought about hiring it done, but since 5/6ths of our house is carpeted and we have carpeted stairs, it would be expensive. Also, we had a couple of spots (like the aforementioned shampoo) that I knew would require a little extra TLC. I didn't want tacked on charges for things like that. I thought about buying a steam cleaner, but unless we got a really nice one, I didn't think it would be able to do the job. Plus, if our next house doesn't have carpet then it wouldn't be worth it.
So, that left me with renting a carpet cleaner. I had heard both pros and cons. They worked well, they didn't work well, they were cheaper, they cost as much as hiring a professional. I really didn't want to deal with someone from the outside, so I finally decided we would tackle it ourselves. Except I waited until after Joel had ankle surgery! Since we are having a party to celebrate his birthday this weekend, I thought I better just go ahead and bite the bullet. I went this morning and rented a Rug Doctor. The shoppette three blocks from our house has them.
Well, needless to say, I am not sure why I waited so long! I am not completely finished (it is a LOT of work) but I am definitely going to end up with a cleaner carpet. I pretty much removed all the shampoo (that alone took almost 30 minutes) and my stairs look great! Why am I such a procrastinator? I am thankful that even though it is very labor intensive it is not difficult. There is a lot of filling and dumping of the tank (at least every room) but other than that it hasn't been anything besides pushing either the entire machine or the upholstery attachment back and forth. I think I am covered in cleaner from head to toe, too. But I found some coupons online and with the extra upholstery attachment, stain pre-treatment, de-foamer, and cleaning fluid it was less than $45. I thought that was pretty cheap, less than 1/2 of what it would have cost for a light professional cleaning. I am feeling so good I think I might even tackle the sofa!
Not sure why I felt the need to post this, kind of boring. I guess I am just excited that I finally found a solution to my problem. Yay for clean carpet-now if we can just keep it that way for a little while!:)
P.S. I have to thank my sister, Robyn, for finally persuading me to try doing it myself. I steal all my best ideas from her.:)
