As I reached my last challenge in my year of changes, I considered my options. What have I thought of doing but not done? In optimistic moments, I’ve contemplated, and cowardly rejected, some extreme challenges. Giving up red wine, jumping out of a plane (with parachute), eating brains, wearing any colour but black, moving to Paris or Bali……all got flicked into the too hard basket.
For my final challenge of the year, I opted to tip the outsourcing scale back to insourcing. Carpet cleaning is one of those nitty gritty household maintenance tasks I’ve always outsourced. Every 6 months or so I call a carpet cleaning company and an Irish backpacker arrives with a machine and does a variable job. Oh, the convenience!
I made a fundamental mistake of choosing light coloured carpets and the wear and tear from dirty footed teenagers really shows up. I once paid a premium price for an ‘Executive Clean’. What was I thinking? I deserved the ordinary result. And I’m always mystified when the advertising flyer touts an attractive ‘4 rooms for $60’ price and the on-site quote is nothing like that because ‘ the rooms are large’ or ‘$60 is for a basic clean – the only clean that works is a deep clean’ or ‘deodorising is an essential extra’.
Have you ever stood in the supermarket queue and wondered about those blue portable carpet cleaning machines which stand banked up and looking unused near the cigarette counter? I decided to try insourcing carpet cleaning when I heard our Aussie Queen of Clean, Shannon Lush, talk about how do it yourself by hiring one of these machines.
I pondered the weighty logistics: wheeling the machine to the car, loading it, unloading it, using it and returning it all within the time frame of a few hours.
Queen Shannon made it sound easy. For the cleanest carpets in the neighbourhood she had the magic formula of hired carpet machine plus topping up the commercial cleaning solution with eucalyptis oil, bicarbonate soda and white vinegar. Worth a try.
VERDICT
‘My idea of superwoman is someone who scrubs her own floor’ Bette Midler
The challenge here was to get it done and what got me over the line was curiosity and potential cost saving. After some fiddly paperwork at the supermarket, I hauled the cumbersome machine into and out of my car. Back home, I got the hang of it and in a couple of hours my carpets looked (and smelt) new. It was quite hard work but certainly cheaper (about $40). Notwithstanding the effort and time, the results were fine and I’ll definitely be bothered do it again.
NEXT WEEK: THE END OF MY CHANGE CHALLENGES?
Change Challenges 