This past Saturday I’d scheduled a company to come in and clean the carpets in my house. Six years ago I really thought it was going to be okay to have carpet that was sort of light because it was a longer, softer style of carpet and had little darker flecks throughout it that would “hide” any little mishaps. Now I know that unless it’s roped off like a museum, I never want to live in a home with carpet again. Wood and tile floors, you are my dream. Even if it is darker carpet, it will still get dirty. This drives me nearly insane, and, as you might guess, makes me really unhappy. There are few things that give me inner peace the way a very clean floor can.
So Saturday I was up early moving everything out of the rooms to be cleaned preparing for my floors for their annual redemption. I piled everything I’d need to walk out after the cleaning on a table near the door (which is on tile) and tried not to gag as I looked at the bare room and the tracking marks that have appeared between my strategically placed throw rugs. How one person, one dog, and occasional house guests can make that kind of mess is beyond me.
But all of that is not really the point of the story. The point is that the carpet people showed up ready to clean, and while I mostly stayed out of their way, I walked by occasionally as I stood in the corner of a room on tiled floor and watched television. You see, though I’ve never watched it before, I got sucked into an episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Please, don’t say it. It is possible I already know what you’re thinking right now anyway. So I’m standing in the corner watching this show and oh, the thrill, there are like three episodes on after this one. Hello, weekend cable TV marathons! I love you!
The people from the carpet cleaning company are finishing up and the guy comes over for what I assumed was to get payment, but I can’t be sure because I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the TV. So I ask him, careful to not look away for fear someone would talk smack and I wouldn’t hear it, “have you seen this before?” He tells me yes, and that he and his wife have also watched the other Real Housewives shows. I just shake my head, in awe, and before I know it the carpet guy and his wife and I are all standing in the corner of the room all “oh my gosh, did you see that?” and “does she realize what she just said?”
About twenty minutes pass and just as I’m about to offer Jim and Amy (you get on a first name basis with the carpet people once you’ve bonded over ridiculous television) a drink, there’s finally a commercial and we all come out of our trance. Because, wow. Who. Even. KNEW? For lack of a more articulate phrase, I guess some things are for some people and other things are for others.
But I still think there’s nothing like a clean floor.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my, the Atlanta ladies are even more over the top than the other shows! I love how they all say that men are intimidated by their success. Uhm, sweetie your only success was marrying an uber-rich pro athlete and taking all his money.
Also, I too found it necessary to clean my carpets this weekend
Although this time around we just rented our own cleaner instead of hiring someone. I agree though – never again will I own light colored carpet, especially with a black lab.
I am so ready to get rid of my carpet!! I love tile but it can be so cold… and therefore am leaning toward wood. Anything, anything, just as long as it isn’t carpet!
I live in an apartment that is all hard wood and I am so grateful. Now if the damn hallways of the building could be not carpeted, I’d be one happy manager.
I hate our carpet more than anything in the world! Carpet is evil and harbours disease, I am certain of that.
But I have never even heard of this show that is evidently the tv equivalent of crack. I suspect I should be grateful.
See what happens when you get all stoned on carpet cleaner?
Oh no, you want more of a Old English wood cleaner high for good tv watching.
That is awesome. I completely hear ya on getting sucked into those bad reality TV shows. One glimpse on a weekend morning and you’re sure to be watching the entire marathon.
Damn you Bravo, what with your trashy TV and your marathon episodes on the weekends. This is how I got sucked into Top Chef, Flipping Out and the 1st Real Housewives. I feel your pain.
So, since I’m a one handed juggler who has no time to watch tv…I have no idea what show this is or when it would even air. My tv is a very large dust collector. But it sure sounds interesting!
Anyways…I have pergo throughout. I’d prefer real hard woods because they don’t have the hollow sound when you walk on them (and they’re much prettier)…but the thing I really don’t like about un-carpeted floors, is that my place is COLD. I do have rugs scattered here and there. And pergo is a DREAM to clean up with a little bitty toddling around. But I’d love to know how to keep my place warm without killing my electric bill and until I can afford to put the heaters UNDER the floor. That would be fantastic.
I actually met one of the Real Housewives of Orange County (the originals) at a holiday party last year. Meh, they are better on TV!
We have had both hardwood and carpet and I have to agree…the carpet gets too skanky too quickly. Like, how the hell did I spill all of those little droplets of coffee that I don’t remember spilling?
Is there a trend developing here?
First there’s “But If the Bathroom Started Cleaning Itself, I Sure Wouldn’t Mind” followed by a post about the carpet being cleaned.
Does your obsession with cleaning rise when the temperature falls? Just a theory.
Spend more time on the beach and less time at home. The carpet will stay cleaner.
You and my daughter would truly get along!
Too funny.
I hate my dirty carpet too…I so want to replace it, but since I love sitting on the floor in front of the TV I could never do hardwood everywhere…I love cushy carpet.