Tuesday, November 5, 2013

I Love You Tube

Last week, I was cleaning my master bathroom, which is the farthest point away from my laundry room, where I keep all the cleaners.  So I use a bucket carrier thingy to shuttle my various chemicals, rags, brushes, and the like through the house to where I need them.  And for some reason, I set the bucket down on the (carpeted floor) when I normally put it on a table or in the bathtub.  I think I'd noticed the bottom of the bucket was slightly damp, and I didn't want to make a water ring anywhere, so I plopped it down on the floor.  Brilliant move.

Some time later, I was walking down the hall from 1 bathroom to the other carrying a spray bottle of something strong to knock out germs when I noticed the bottle had a tiny tear near the base and was leaking.  And leaving a trail of bleach spots in the carpet along the way.  I stopped breathing for several seconds.  Then my blood ran cold.  The bucket.  I picked it up and sure enough, it wasn't water making the bottom damp, it was leaking cleaner.  Which left a giant bleach spot in my carpet.  THAT'S when I had the heart attack.

One of my bad attitude triggers (OK, crazy harpy triggers) is when things are broken or damaged due to neglect, irresponsibility, or general stupidity.  I try really hard not to bark at my kids when they destroy things, but I also try to impress the point about taking care of their things (and my things, because more often than not, my things are the things destroyed).  But in this case, it's all me.  And I feel like a prize idiot. 

You see, I hate our carpet.  We installed it 6 years ago, and it has worn out way too quickly and is stained beyond all imagination by the 2 hooligans running around.  But I didn't want to get new carpet (or flooring because I don't know what I want to do next) this way.  And I CERTAINLY don't want to spend that kind of money right now.  But bleach, man, I don't know how you fix that.

I stopped by a flooring store just to price out the situation.  Good gravy, that's a horrible option.

I tried to live with it, cover it up best I could.  But those bleach spots we calling to me, taunting me, making my hate my bedroom.  No bueno.

I bought hair dye.  I figured it works on hair and doesn't wash out with repeated exposure to shampoo, so maybe?  Is this thinking out of the box?  Or just plain crazy?

And then I gave into desperation and typed "repair bleach spots carpet" into my good friend, Google.  I really didn't think I had a prayer of finding anything, save a few memes of people laughing hysterically at the imbecile staring at the screen.  But several links popped up and I started checking them out.  The first You Tube video showed someone cutting out sections of carpet to physically replace them, and no, not gonna happen even if this wasn't 6 year old carpet and I had a surplus to make swatches (actually, I would consider this if a professional did it, just not me).  And then I found a 2 minute little movie that showed someone using first red dye, then blue, and it totally blended into the beige carpet.  Hey, I have beige carpet!  Could it be this simple?

So I went to Walmart (2nd trip of the day, woohoo!) and picked up the dye (along with a bottle of brown because what if I turned the carpet purple).  And this morning, I mixed up my solutions, said a prayer, and gave it a shot. 

I will say 2 things.  Forget the spray bottle approach, because that stuff is just going to go everywhere (it only took 1 squirt and another minor heart attack for me to ditch this method).  I switched to one of the kids' paintbrushes for better control.  And secondly, I don't think the red dye step was necessary.  I did try it first (the resulting spray bottle heart attack), but the bleach spots were already orangey without it, and that was the point of the step (something something color theory whatever).  So I just dabbed a tiny bit of the (heavily watered down) blue onto a small drop spot, blotted with a rag, and... the spot was gone.  And it wasn't blue. It just disappears.  Whoa.  WHOA BABY.

I systematically dabbed at the other spots, and they disappeared, too!  Then I moved on to the 2 bigger areas, and pretty much blended them right away as well. Now the largest spot was where I'd sprayed the red first, and it still has a orange tinge to me, but it's so much better and I can work on it later anyway.  I'm just shocked that it worked.  Look.

Before (isn't that a cute little ruination):



And after:


(I still need to vacuum, sorry.)


I didn't adjust or filter anything except the size of the photos.  I realize it might not be perfect, but the bleach spots aren't taunting me anymore, and although I will never forget my supreme stupidity, I can live with this and I don't have to run out and re-carpet the house.  I am THRILLED.  And I'm not gonna lie, I feel a little bit like a rock star today.

So I got from phoning it in to hundred of words about bleach and carpet.  It's simply scintillating around here.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll write about getting my teeth cleaned.

2 comments:

  1. I had no idea you could fix bleach spots on the carpet. Crazy.

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  2. If I could go back in time and tell my middle school best friend this, she would no longer need to keep her horse's saddle in the middle of her bedroom so that her mother wouldn't find the bleach spot.

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