September 16, 2010

OxyClean Saved My Marriage or Ruth Doesn't Need Stitches!

We sat down to paint our toes. We put the old brown towel on the living room carpet like we always do. Ruth picked to paint her toes orange, so we painted hers and mine orange. Then as I began painting my fingers, Ruth grabbed the pink bottle of nail polish, broke the top off and shook it all over herself and the carpet. My poor, poor carpet. My first thought was, "Brad is going to KILL me! He already hates the smell of nail polish and he'll be so annoyed that I was doing this in the living room!"

Happily I dealt with this situation really well, didn't yell at her and cared more about her being okay than the fact that my carpet was ruined. I ran her to the bathroom and realized that in the process of breaking the bottle open she sliced her thumb open too. I was worried she was going to need stitches because by the time I realized this her hands and arms were covered in blood. Luckily, after a few minutes of pressure the bleeding stopped. Unfortunately she was still covered in nail polish...that would have to wait until I dealt with the carpet.



My computer wasn't on yet, so I turned it on. While I was waiting for it to load I grabbed my nail polish remover and poured the entire bottle on the spot and started scrubbing. I needed more so I called Shirlaine who brought some over. This is a picture Ruth took while I was talking to Shirlaine.


The internet was up and Shirlaine left, so I looked up what other people had done. Someone suggested vinegar. I tried that, and it did nothing. Someone else...actually quite a few people...suggested Windex. Tried that-nothing happened. I called Judy McCurdy (our realtor who is also in our ward) and she said she'd bring over some carpet cleaner that works wonders. She didn't get to our house for about an hour, so before then I read that someone had used OxyClean. The previous owner of our house had left a huge box of the stuff so I ran to the basement and grabbed the box. I mixed a quarter cup of it with a cup of hot water, mixed it up, and poured it all over the stain.

Relief! It was finally working, the stain was really going away and I had to look for it to be able to continue the cleaning. Judy got to our house and her cleaning product did the final trick and took the last tint of pink out of the carpet.

When Brad got home and I told him the story he walked around the living room looking for the stain. He even lifted up one of the chairs to see if it was under there!

4 comments:

nison (nic + allison) said...

I remember spilling dark, dark red on our tan carpet when I was a sr in high school. haha Not sure what my mom used, but I'll keep in mind that OxyClean works wonders! Glad Ruth is ok!

Steve Lents said...

Don't you remember the movie "My Greek Wedding" or something like that, Windex only works on pimples. Anyway I am glad Ruthie and your carpet are ok.

Paula Laws said...

Don't you love "mamatrama"!? It's better than the movies. Love you and glad everything worked out.

Tia Laws said...

I feel your pain. Acetone nail polish remover and plain old tooth paste did the trick. (Weird, I know.)