Look ma, no hands!

This weekend my mother-in-law is coming for a visit. Unfortunately, I don't get tomorrow off, so that means doing snatch cleaning here and there. When it comes to me cleaning, Husband can attest to the fact that I can be a bit...ah...neurotic. Hee hee. I've been noticing lately how my couches were looking a bit hairy (thank you, cat), and it was kind of skeeving me out. So on the way home from work I stopped at Home Depot to rent a steam cleaner.

This was an excellent idea in theory.

First of all, if you're going by yourself to rent a steam cleaner, you should prepare yourself for some awkward lifting. Seriously. It took me a good 10 minutes to figure out how to get it into my trunk. And I was still wearing work clothes.

Secondly, you're supposed to vaccum your furniture first. And yes, when the directions suggest vaccuming first, they really do mean it. And yes, the steam cleaning works much better after the furniture's been vaccumed. Ha! Oh, and it takes a few hours for the furniture to dry out, even when you cover the furniture with blankets, so the cat can't frolic around on the wet-ish couches and make them all furry again.

Also, you may want to think twice about taking Husband's brand new car to return the rented steam cleaner, as it is extremely likely you'll drop the steam cleaner while putting it into the trunk, because the steam cleaner is so freaking awkard & heavy-ish to lift, and you will end up scratching the crap out of Husband's new car's bumper. Crap!