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Not The Way I Like To Wake Up

This morning I was awakened by my 3-year-old son, Mr. B, with the following: "I'm sorry, Mama, I colored on the carpet in the family room."

A work of beauty, isn't it? When we bought this house we knew that the lovely (and I do use that term loosely) white carpet would be a nightmare with two little kiddos. We were right. Unfortunately it hasn't been in the budget to replace it yet. We rent a steam cleaner every few months because it gets SO bad. It would have been better if we had bought our own steam cleaner!


So I googled some carpet/crayon remedies today. The first one sounded so easy...I should have known it wouldn't work!

The idea was to put a brown paper bag over the area and then use an warm iron to press over the bag and the crayola would somehow *stick* to the bag and lift off the carpet. Apparently the person that this worked for had actual chunks of crayola in said carpet--not a drawn work of art! Didn't even begin to work!

Then I found this remedy that sounded not-too-hard (I mean, some of them had like 15 steps and used about 5 different types of cleaners!) and used products/items we already had. This one required only an oily lubricant (it suggested WD40, but we used Goo Gone), a scrubbing brush, some Resolve and a little bit of elbow grease. Hubby fit the bill perfectly for the elbow grease:)




It actually turned out pretty well. At least you aren't greeted with blue crayon colored carpet right when you walk in the door.
Now it's back to the lovely dingy white.
Let's hope Mr. B just asks for a pop tart in the morning!

Comments

Kari said…
lol poor Vince! And I guess now I can say "Poor B!" Hope the chin's ok.
Kayren said…
Crayola Color Wonder is looking better all the time! We had a multi-colored wall in our NJ quarters courtesy of a two-year old Buddy. Since they had to repaint anyway, we were off the hook. Whew!

I guess this is why someone invented carpet squares too...
Betsy Brock said…
I laughing...but only because I have 4 boys! :)...and we bought the carpet steam cleaner years ago...so I can totally relate.

I always call The Mister when 'elbow grease' is required, too! :)
Betsy~
You'd better be glad we're not neighbors because I'd be borrowing your steam cleaner all the time-ha!:)
Nancy said…
Wow! I have been so fortunate to avoid all such incidents with Little Miss...I'm sure I have my fair share coming with Little Man! Did The Princess ever do anything like that?

Awesome info on getting crayon out...thanks!

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