The Wroth of the Steam Cleaner!

Originally, this was going to be in the same post as my previous one, so I could have the title "Flea the Wroth of the Steam Cleaner", which I loved, but alas, my verbose style of writing did not allow for a manageable post length , so I had to split it up.

We've had a hard time housetraining Monty. We get to a point where we are SO close, and he decides he needs to relieve himself inside again.... I've been doing my best to keep the carpet clean despite this, but we don't always catch him, or see it, so it sometimes sits until it turns... colors.

I still thought it was ok, because I would scrub it with fabric soap, then rinse it really well. I really thought I was doing alright, even of it wasn't perfect. I would borrow my parents' carpet cleaner when we finally got Monty completely housetrained and it would be pretty again.

Then we came home from Church on Sunday and there were... Odors.

I immediately fell into a state of CHAOS (Cant Have Anyone- not even myself- Over Syndrome) and decided I had to get rid of it. Now!

After much deliberation with myself, and checking my wallet... I decided I had to use stuff we already had in the house. I was rolling up my sleeves, preparing to grab a bucket- and every towel in the house- when I remembered- the steamer!

We bought it to pull the wallpaper of the walls, and it more than paid for itself by doing that, but I am of the school of 'use it 'til it dies!', so I've been finding uses for it since we've had it (One of my favorites is breaking up that nasty grease that builds up on the oven hood.), so I decided to try it on the carpet.

I pulled it out and put it together. I managed to find my floor extensions and tool. When it was ready, I got up and started scrubbing. Since I've never used both extensions, I was unsure how they would work. This was how it went.

Pass one- "Well, that seemed to be ok. I hope it really was"

Pass two- "Yeah... that was alright."

Pass three- "Ok, this will definitely wor-" CRACK!

Apparently, you're not really supposed to scrub when you're standing up. One of the extensions broke right at the seam where they met. Oh well... I went back on my hands and knees.

The rest of the cleaning went fairly well. I methodically ran the tool over the rug and would stop and scrub whenever there was a 'spot' until it was not noticeable anymore. There were a lot of invisible 'spots', one of them was even laundry detergent I missed rinsing once, and a few sections of... Pine sol of all things. But no matter. Nothing could escape the wroth of me and my mighty steam cleaner! "One last square foot and the entire carpet will be clean! Mwahahaha..... Wait! You can't run out of steam now! I'm almost done!"

"Sssssssssssss...........          "

So, I had to wait for it to cool down... And refill it... And wait for it to heat up again. I went into the living room to wait.

There were, not one, not two, but THREE new spots in the living area. I was too furious for words. I must have grown to three times my size, because Monty took one look at me and ran- without even looking back- to the bedroom and under the bed, where he sat in the most defensive mood I'd ever seen him in.

Did I care? Oh no! He was going outside. It would happen. "Snap at me if I so much as look at you under there? Guess what? The mattress is movable! HA! Now there's nowhere to hide, Monster!"

After much more posturing and chasing and ridiculous antics on both of our parts, I managed to get him into my arms and out the door. I now realize that last time I vacuumed, he had gotten almost run over by it, and the steamer had several of the same qualities as a vacuum. Marking territory to make a statement is not cool, but at least I have a reason behind it now, and someone's not allowed to chase the vacuum anymore- lest it happen again.

I managed to get the rest of the house steamed over and cleaned up and the difference in the look, feel and smell of the carpet has been amazing. Monty still has his 'spots' but they're no longer in the same places- which means the scent was destroyed to a point that even he cannot smell it anymore. And now I have a low-cost, low- work, low- time clean up routine for when they do happen.

Definitely worthy of a burn here, a little waiting there, or some rather offensive... 'odors' for a few minutes. Facing the wroth of the steam cleaner is beyond worth the fuss it takes.

God bless and see you soon,

Joelle