I Am Turning Into My Mother... Only a Little

Although my mother is a great lady and anyone would be honored to be like her, I reserve the right to retain my own identity. However, glimpses of my mom have been peeking through lately and they manifested last night in one fell swoop as I, "just could not take it anymore!"

Recently my house has smelled "dusty" to me. You know the smell, I assume (please tell me you know the smell or I just may have to jump off the roof!)? The not so clean, just needs a good scrubbing, kind of smell? All of my friends kindly assured me that I was crazy and my house did not smell, but I knew. And then it happened. I asked Mr. Clean.

This is a man who can only really smell "man style" smells. An electrical fire, a wood fire, bacon, cookies or a Miami Dolphins player anywhere within a 30 mile radius. His olfactory system is simply overloaded with testosterone. Regardless of knowing this fact about my beloved, I asked him if he thought the house smelled dusty. He said yes! Yikes! It was time to sell the house and move away from the problem.

My first reaction (after selling) was to bring in the hose and spray down everything. Then I came back to reality and pulled out the next best thing. My trusty carpet cleaner that probably sees action once every 2.3 years. After all, if the dust is not on the visible surfaces, it must be hiding in the funky fibers we call a carpet. And since I have been walking around for two weeks now sniffing various places in my house, I know that it cannot be any other culprit.

My house is only 6 years old. When we bought it almost 4 years ago, the carpeting in our family room was not in the best of shape thanks to the previous owner, but was not that bad. Three kids and two dogs later, it is, shall we say, a petri dish? I have cleaned it before but it just did not seem to satisfy my need for clean. Mr. Clean and I have discussed ripping up the carpeting in that room and running the Pergo that adorns the kitchen floor into the room, but time, cash and a general desire to be lazy in the evenings have prevented this project from happening. So back to the carpet cleaner.

I found a bottle of Hoover carpet spray a.k.a. "Miracle in a Bottle" (no, not Excedrin) and went to town pre-treating every stain I could find before I started. An hour and a half later (I am a little anal about the way I steam clean and go really slow), I was done and went to bed.

This morning, I do believe I heard the hallelujah chorus from the heavens as I walked into my family room. The carpet looks almost brand new. I had to resist the urge to lay down on it and make "carpet angels". I was that excited. I am my mother.