Week 33 of the 52s...The List

I make a list, sometimes Sunday nights, usually Monday mornings.  The List is to keep me on track with chores, appointments, whatever, but it's also a way for me to get a sense of accomplishment because with every task done, I get to cross it off.  Some weeks certain things don't get done, so must carry over to the next week.  Depending on my priority/procrastination level, one or two items might appear for weeks on end. 

Like the last thing on this week's list....

I have this really lovely Berber carpeting throughout the house.  It was very pricey back in the day.  I know this because it's at least 20 years old and is just now starting to show a bit of wear in the high traffic areas.  The carpet was cleaned when we moved in, but that's been over two years now and it's time again.  Rather than have rug cleaner guys come in, I did some serious research into finding a machine I could buy to do the job myself.  I settled on a Bissell, with a most excellent rating on every site I reviewed and bought it about six weeks ago.

It's not only been in the garage since then, but "carpet cleaning" has migrated from list to list for weeks.

When I made this week's list on Monday, I had two other carry overs, besides the carpet cleaning, amongst my chores.  I decided I was going to finish every last thing on The List this week, no matter what.

And I did.  I was down to one last thing today.

There was a big piece of carpet that the previous owners had used by the front door; it was dirty and awful.  When we had the carpet cleaned, I had the carpet guys also clean this remnant, then I put it downstairs in the laundry room which leads out to the garage and the back yard.  It has collected a vast amount of dirt and grime, which made it a perfect test piece for me to not only try out the Bissell, but to see if the cleaner lived up to all the ratings.

This afternoon, temps in the high 90s, I'm going to strike off the last bloody item on The List and start the weekend free of all tasks, so I drag the carpet piece into the garage; my reasoning being if something goes awry with the machine--or the operator--I won't have a big mess to clean up in the laundry room.

My new carpet cleaner...

For some reason, the dirt isn't apparent in this "Before" shot, but believe me, two years' worth of dogs and rain and mud and wind and laundry fluff and whatever else we don't want to know about, really made this carpet gnarly--something my mother would have clucked her tongue at, then given me the look for my crap housekeeping skills.

"After" and two complete tanks of carpet shampoo later (I said it was dirty)...a spotlessly clean laundry room carpet:

I'm ready to do a commercial for Bissell.  Really.  Though it took two efforts, I can't complain, considering what I started with.  The machine is lightweight and very easy to operate, and the clean-up afterwards consisted of just three parts which snapped out and snapped back in with no hassle at all.  It was good to experiment first so I know exactly how to clean the main carpet.

This might not have been a fun week for the 52s, but it was definitely a new experience.  Not only do I feel really good having totally finished The List, but I have a nice, clean carpet in the laundry room, and know how to operate my new machine for the real cleaning to come.

At some later date.

Because right now I'm going to savor the No List moment...