Today is Chinese New Year’s eve. Apparently, one of the things you are supposed to do to "celebrate*" is scour the entire house. A and I are somewhat opposed to this notion because the Cleaning Gnomes are scheduled to come on Tuesday and we pay them good money to scour the house.
A came up with the idea of cleaning things we don’t usually bother cleaning so the good luck would have some shiny clean places to stick. He cleaned out the cars and took them to the car wash. I tackled the mountain of laundry AND washed all our bedding (trust me, you do not want to know how long it has been since the last time I did that).
In the process of this unusual cleaning, I took a good look at our living room rug. Dude, that rug was NASTY. It needed more than a good vacuuming. It needed to be WASHED.
What followed that thought was possibly NOT my best moment of judgement. I dragged the 8X10 CHENILLE rug outside and doused it with the hose. Anyone want to guess how much water a chenille rug can soak up? About a TON.
Once I managed to get myself soaking wet, I came to my senses and realized I had made a big mistake. Right about the time A came outside and started pointing at me and laughing. I decided then that I had better go to the store and get a rug cleaning machine to suck out all the water and really clean the rug. I also realized that 50 degree weather was not going to help the water evaporate much so I dragged the soaking wet monstrosity down to the basement.
So far, I have spent about 3 hours sucking water out of that damn rug and it is still very very wet. Chenille is very absorbant apparently. I unhooked the drier vent so hot air (and LINT) is blowing into the basement. I also have a fan and a space heater blowing things around.
At this point, I am doubtful that the rug will be salvageable before the mildew smell gets it.
If this is a sign of things to come, it could be a very very long year.
(Post tomorrow about what we actually did to celebrate besides cleaning)
*I don’t know what kind of "celebration" involves CLEANING. That is no celebration if you ask me.
I haven’t laughed out loud like that in a long time! Love you blog. I just started a blog a week or two ago. You can check it out at http://www.colemanchan.blogspot.com. It seems you and I have a few things in common – both have Chinese husbands, a biological daughter and are adopting from China – very cool.
Hmm….wow. I so totally would do something like that.
Suggestion that might help, use some sort of sturdy stick/piece of wood to prop up one (short)side of the carpet. If necessary weight down the perimeter to help it all stay in place. Place a fan in front of the hole created by the s tick/wood and let it blow through the “tunnel”to help dry it. This is “sort of” how drops are dried in theater after they have been painted.
Worth a shot, I would hate for you to loose your rug.
Hope the rest of your celebration went well. Happy New Year!!
Hmm….wow. I so totally would do something like that.
Suggestion that might help, use some sort of sturdy stick/piece of wood to prop up one (short)side of the carpet. If necessary weight down the perimeter to help it all stay in place. Place a fan in front of the hole created by the s tick/wood and let it blow through the “tunnel”to help dry it. This is “sort of” how drops are dried in theater after they have been painted.
Worth a shot, I would hate for you to loose your rug.
Hope the rest of your celebration went well. Happy New Year!!
I am sorry A, but I am LMAO…
I’ve dried a rug the way Tink described after my house flooded. It worked well, except one corner wasn’t weighted enough and it is now curled upwards…
I admire you for not throwing it away, because that is how lazy I am. I would give up and head to the Pottery Barn outlet.
This was hilarious!!! I do hope you can salvage the rug…
Do you have a dehumidifier? If you turn that sucker on near the rug, you might be able to save it.
I only know these things because I’ve lived through three floods. Fun times.
I am not laughing about the rug…mainly because it really sounds like something I would do.
As for What kind of holiday involves cleaning? Passover.
That was funny! I hope your rug is salvagable. My DD isn’t home yet from China, so I’m kind of using that as an excuse not to really clean. That and I’m lousy at it anyway!
I would have done that, only once I realized I was in too deep, I would have tossed the rug and bought a new one. Because I would have been too lazy to renta carpet cleaning machine.