This was a good productive day at our house, a day that included tasks like shampooing the carpet and scrubbing the hardwood.
So you can figure out how I felt when I came back downstairs after a quick shower, only to find Josh had found a large bottle of glue and spread it all over the living room carpet (newly cleaned) and a big chunk of hardwood (also newly cleaned). It used to be that Josh could just sit in one place and be the best kid in this house, mostly because Jacob was the one smearing Vaseline all over the house and himself. I never thought I’d be saying “those were the days” with a chuckle this soon. But I am. Because now there are 2 of them, equally naughty.
The glue came off the hardwood quick and easy. When it was fresh and wet, it came out of the carpet without too much trouble. It was all the glue I found on the carpet 3 hours later that was a different story.
Just so you know the quick solution, and so I can get back to scrubbing: to get dried glue out of carpet, I soaked it in quick’n brite (our very favorite all purpose cleaner) until the glue got soft, and sucked up the liquid with the carpet cleaner before attacking the mess with isopropyl rubbing alcohol - just the cheap stuff at the drug store, undiluted - and rubbing with a white towel. It’s taking awhile in the spot where there was a large puddle-o-glue, but it’s coming up.
(Totally off-topic, but you might thank me one day. Last summer our dog trainer taught us the very best use for rubbing alcohol. If your animal has an accident in the house, you’ll scrub and scrub it clean, but the smell won’t come all the way out. You might not be able to smell it, but the animal will. And next time, they’ll go back to the same place. Unless…after you clean it up, pour a good amount of rubbing alcohol on the carpet - enough to let it soak all the way through. You can do a spot test for colorfastness first, but she told us that she never had her furniture or carpets bleed, and she’s had a lot of dogs over a lot of years. When Tioga was getting house trained, the trick worked great for us.)
There is an update to this post at the bottom of this one. Want to see how the carpet fared in the end? It is very good and very bad all together.
4 responses so far ↓
Jamie J // June 23, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Wow, busy day! Luckily my kid just sits glued to the tv while I take a shower. I keep waiting for something like this to happen…
Oh and once she puked on my sister-in-laws carpet and she used rubbing alcohol too. She said the same thing…takes the smell right out. Luckily we haven’t had to put that one into practice at our house quite yet.
tracy m // June 24, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Oh, I am so sorry! We haven’t had that yet, but I do remember the Vaseline pictures- whoa, those were something. Glue. Ugh.
Our biggest messes have usually been body fluids- usually copious amounts of barf… But now that I said something, Beanie is sure to find some terrible thing to do tomorrow…
Camellia // June 25, 2007 at 9:10 am
We use rubbing alcohol when the little ones forget they need to be dry at night and pee the mattress - that thing is a lifesaver.
Lei // June 25, 2007 at 10:18 pm
… always in need of a better, more effective cleaner… so thank you in advance for the tip! i am sure it will come in handy.
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