I’ve been dreaming about something hot and steamy. No, not a Krystal cheeseburger, although oh my Lord those hit the spot sometimes, but I dreamed recently about getting our carpets steam cleaned.
Lo and behold our little community coupon pack arrived in the mail last week, you know, the ones with the dry cleaning coupons and the air duct cleaning specials and the two for one burrito deals at the corner Mexican joint. After my bout with influenza and carrying our lame Bissell carpet shampooer to its final resting place on the curb over the holidays, I decided to have someone come out and clean our carpet Saturday when temperatures finally rose to springlike highs. As hubby noted last week, I am suffering from serious spring fever and the only thing that will cure it is a few trips to Home Depot and doing some significant deep cleaning to our house, or paying someone else to do that deep cleaning.
I knew the “five rooms cleaned for $39.95” coupon was too good to be true, but honestly I couldn’t remember the last time we had had our carpet professionally cleaned. Oh sure, I’ve rented one of those carpet doctor cumbersome monstrosities over the past couple of years and our Bissell cleaner worked fine a few times before it keeled over, but it’s been a few years since I actually paid a quote unquote professional to clean the carpet for us and between two very active little girls and two dogs, the seven-year-old Berber in our den has seen better days.
The guy pulled into the driveway in a beater Saturn and yes he may very well have strategically placed a Bible in the back windshield for me to see plain as day, but he totally sold me on the before and after patch he cleaned both with and without the deep scrubbing compound as well as the sanitizing and deodorizing agent. I got him down to a reasonable price after he quoted me a price nearly six times the amount of the coupon. Granted I had also asked about rug cleaning service for Miss A’s bedroom rug and it included that fee, but still! I only slightly exaggerated and told him hubby would die (more like kill me) if I spent a fortune on cleaning our carpet and a lifetime maintenance plan when we are saving for hardwood floors in our den and kitchen. Although the final bill was $140, he worked for nearly four hours and the house, especially our downstairs bonus room slash doggie apartment, no longer smells like a wet dog or bag of Fritos if you stand in just the right spot.
I don’t think he was trying to scam me, just merely trying to make a living cleaning carpets, but I’ll admit I did a bit of evil withholding when he asked if the mystery faint stain in front of the TV was from our pets and I replied, “No, it’s not from the dogs…it’s a kid stain…you really don’t want to know what it is.”
What the carpet cleaning man doesn’t know, won’t hurt him!
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Oh the feeling of clean carpets though!
I bought an old Bissell years ago, the kind that had a separate body from the handle. It was “eh” and it only lasted a few years which is when I too began renting the famous red “doctor” for cleaning. But I’m totally sold on the new Bissell with internal steam system. It’s as easy as vacuuming and even did a better job than the professional cleaning I had done before we moved in! It was also a lifesaver cleaning out the carpet and rugs in our van before trading it in. There’s just something grossly satisfying about dumping out pure black substance from the container. How it can get that black is truly a mystery – best left unsolved I figure! Congrats on your clean carpets!
Hugs,
Holly
We have a “green machine” I think it’s called. My husband LIKES to clean carpets?? Boggles my mind. Anyway, I have very clean carpets. Always. He’s handy like that sometimes.
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He was trying to scam you…unfortunately there are many carpet cleaners out there like that. Also if he cleaned your carpets from a Saturn…you didn’t get the best cleaning for your carpets. A truck mounted extractor is the way to go for really clean and healthy carpets. I just wrote a post about choosing carpet cleaners http://cleanandhealthyhome.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/choosing-a-great-carpet-cleaning-company/ I would love to share your post on my blog. Would that be okay???
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I’ve never had professionally cleaned carpets but have thought about trying it. I’ve got some kid mystery stains of my own that I’ve been wondering if I pay a professional to come and do it how clean would they look? Did you have to move all your furniture around?
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Don’t you hate it when you get the coupon, but then the final cost is much higher than what the coupon said??
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[...] Beware of Bait and Switch Carpet Cleaners I thought I’d share a post I came across this morning at Blonde Mom’s Blog : [...]
HAHAHAHAH! Go you!! Of course he is just trying to make a living, as are YOU! Good going.
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I concur- go you! I would love to have clean carpet again! A lot of my friends are switching to all-wood floors because of this very issue!
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I am so glad you can now find a spot to enjoy that room pet scent free.
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Thanks for the reminder. I am totally due for a carpet cleaning.
You just cannot beat having it done by a pro.
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Awesome! We have a steam cleaner, and I feel like I’m using it every other month, in fact next monday while the kids are in care and Glen is at work, guess what I’m doing!
Our carpet is new enough that it doesn’t stink…yet. But it definitely has its fair share of stains!
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I wanted to add that in the past I have used Drycon and was really pleased with them. They did a great job AND did not add on a ton of “extra” services and such that I had a difficult time saying no to. I know they always have a ton of coupons floating around and they pretty much stuck to that price.
Does anyone recommend a carpet cleaning chain that uses steam cleaning? I liked Drycon, but they used a different type of cleaning.
[...] from his post. This is so funny, I don??t think I need to add anything. Enjoy! Reskepchick.orgMother Sucker I??ve been dreaming about something hot and steamy. No, not a Krystal cheeseburger, although oh my [...]
made me smile!
@Blonde Mom: There are a few good larger chains that use steam cleaning rather than the dry method, but sometimes you cant beat the quality, service & honesty you get from a small company. Google local providers or try to get a refferal from someone you know. If you’re dealing with someone new, ask for a few references. I know I’m always happy to offer such info to anyone new.
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Thanks
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I need this info for rugs buying
Thanks for providing information and prices of different variety of shopping product. I need this info because i am using online shopping services.
Thanks
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Excellent posting , You’ve definately hit the
mark with this, I just don’t think that people quite get it.
I don’t know how many people I’ve talked to concerning this very
thing in the past few days, and they just can’t get it.
I too am associated with business and it is
wonderful to see fellows associated this industry with the same mentalities and positions
Never the less, Excellent post!