Last weekend Mini Monster and I were sitting at the kitchen table talking about making the turkey for Thanksgiving.  I got her to agree to make the mashed potatoes, by the way.  She’s only 6 so they should taste interesting 🙂  During the discussion I told her that we were probably going to need to get rid of the area carpets we had in the kitchen.  Without hesitation, Mini Monster stated she would be sad if we didn’t have our carpet under the table.  I immediately assured her that we could get another one.  Again, without hesitation, Mini Monster asked how much we spent on the carpet under the table.  When I told her it was $300, her eyes nearly popped out of her head and she asked why we couldn’t just clean the ones we already own.  I was embarrassed that I didn’t think this was possible; at the same time, it was a VERY proud parenting moment.  Smiling from ear to ear. 

It’s The Holiday Season

It’s no secret that it’s the holiday season.  Woot woot!  I absolutely love this time of year.  We always jump on the opportunity to host our friends and families for both Turkey Day and Ho Ho Day.  This year is no exception.  We were out early this morning, fighting the crowds to pick up all the fixings for our Thanksgiving feast.  Along with that, we’re also doing a little ton of holiday cleaning in preparation for the weeks ahead.  I mean, this is serious stuff.  We cleaned behind the refrigerator yesterday AND repainted the entire kitchen.  Edging.  Two Coats.  The whole shebang.  Now, instead of seeing a hideous orange kitchen (like the one in the background of Mad Money Cat at the bottom of this post) you’ll see an ultra sophisticated silver color adorning our walls.  Really makes the hardware pop, too!

Decisions Decisions

After my convo with Mini Monster last Friday night, we all decided to take a trip to Lowe’s to see exactly how much it would cost to replace our current area carpets.  Mini Monster was so right.  I forgot that I had spent (pre-frugal days) $400+ on our current kitchen carpets.  The problem was that they used to be semi-white.  And, although I cleaned them before with the shampooer, they just always seemed dingy.  Our kitchen (like most kitchens) is a high traffic area.  Also don’t forget, we have 4 animals.  At $400+ to replace our current carpets, we just couldn’t justify the cost.  Decision made.  We were going with Mini Monster’s half-baked (not really) idea of actually cleaning our own carpets.  We’re on FIRE, after all!

A Little Elbow Grease

For a second we considered taking them to a carpet cleaner.  But, like I said, we’re on FIRE.  So we did what any frugal jerk (joking) would do.  We asked Google!  It went something like this…  How to shampoo area carpets?  Did I mention we’re borderline geniuses?  😛  Google did not disappoint.  Within a few seconds we had options coming out of our butts.  We didn’t even need to purchase high-priced shampoo cleaner.  We used mild dish soap!  We soaked them with the hose, hand scrubbed each inch, and soaked up the remaining water with our shampooer.  All told, we were done inside of 2 hours.  Impressive, if I do say so myself.

Voila!

Check out this awesomeness!  This is the one that sits underneath of our table.  Mini Monster is ecstatic that we made it look like new again.  🙂

How do you whip your abode into shape on the cheap?

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