I actually find it quite hard to put into words the feeling I get when my house is really and truely clean. I'm not a natural when it comes to housework (and pesky things like a full working week, running and blogging get in the way) so cleaning always seems to take me forever... which means that the big jobs get put off. This weekend I cleaned the carpets. Something I only do about once every two years, if I'm lucky. Now my house feels like it has a whole new lease of life - this is the refreshing, cleansing feeling that people seek when they attempt a big spring clean.
VAX understand that the mammoth job of spring cleaning the house can seem like an insurmountable mountain so they challenged me to find out whether it would become any more bearable given the right tools for the job. Even though our cream carpets throughout the house are in massive need of replacement, I just can't justify replacing them until Holly is more reliably toilet trained, the girls are less liable to pour blackcurrant squash all over them, and the cat is less likely to bring in muddy footprints. Right now, cleaning is the only sustainable option for me and the VAX Dual Power Reach Carpet Cleaner has come to my rescue.
The biggest challenge in our house is the living room. This is the highest traffic room of the house and the most susceptible to to spillages. The carpet is a really low pile and has some fairly unpleasant almost-permanent stains and has born the brunt of two rounds of potty training so we do like to wash the carpet when we can. This weekend, the living room is where I started my big spring clean. I gave the room a really thorough hoovering before washing the carpet with the VAX Dual Power and yet you can see the disgusting blackness from the water after washing! Ick! Maybe I need to wash the carpets more frequently!
Washing is fairly easy with the VAX Dual Power. Into the top unit you place warm water mixed with a carpet cleaning solution. As you move the washer forwards over the carpet you gently squeeze the trigger with your hand to release the solution into the carpet. As you pull the washer back it sucks the water up... all the while it is brushing the carpet to really get in among the pile. After washing, I left the carpet for a few hours to dry before putting back all of the furniture. The room oozes clean now. It smells fresh (that'll be the cleaning solution) and it looks noticeably brighter. It took me two tanks of water to get the living room clean, and about 20 minutes in total. Now that the feeling of clean-ness is fresh in my mind, I am promising that I will do this more frequently. In fact, I might do it again next weekend to see if a second treatment makes it even better!
For now, I'm on to the rest of the rooms in the house. I've started doing one room every evening and it is quite astonishing the results. Interestingly the worst room of the house is our spare bedroom which seems to sit and collect dust... however frequently we hoover, we obviously can't get it clean enough because the effects of washing the carpet show that it had really dulled without a regular wash to keep on top of things.
Having used both personal and professional carpet washers in the past, I'm really impressed by the VAX Dual Power. It is easy to use and very effective (I'd say 90% as effective as when I've hired a carpet cleaner). It has a great long cable which stores easily looped around the back. I do however find that it is a little unstable both when full of warm water (before washing) and when both water tanks are absent (during cleaning) and it has been known to topple. On the plus side, I've found the water tanks to fit much more securely into the unit than any washer I have used previously which means less drips and leaks.
The VAX Dual Power is so named because it also features a cleaning hose for long-reach jobs for instance when washing the carpet on the stairs or when cleaning upholstery. You clip the hose into the front of the unit and can unclip it for storage in a handy hanging-bag.
The VAX Dual Power kick-started my spring clean but I'm hoping that actually it doesn't only come out once a year but becomes part of our regular cleaning schedule. It costs around £200.
Disclosure: I was sent the VAX Dual Power Carpet Washer to perform my review but the words and opinions are my own.
