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Tell Cif about the most annoying mess you've ever had to clean – you could win a £250 voucher! NOW CLOSED

229 replies

MichelleMumsnet · 19/09/2013 15:21

Cif has asked us to find out what Mumsnetters think about cleaning up their LO's mess. In particular, Cif want to find out what the hardest or least fun to clean mess your DCs create are.

Here's what Cif have to say, "We all know that children see the home as a playground, and playgrounds get dirty. But we also understand how difficult it can be to clean up after your child, so we want to help make that process as easy as possible."

So, what do you find the most painstaking cleaning task when it comes to cleaning up after your DCs? Is it the crayon drawings they leave on the table or on the wall? Or is it the jam they accidentally splatter over the kitchen counter?

Maybe you refuse to clean up after your family? Or is it your family that has to clean up after you Grin?

Whatever it is, we would love to hear about the worst mess you/your family have ever had to clean.

Everyone who adds their comments to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £250 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

OP posts:
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WahIzzit · 19/09/2013 21:01

I think I am very lucky that dc1 (who is 3) is exceptionally clean, dirty clothes straight in the laundry basket, hands washed before and after eating with minimal food dropped on the floor etc. At the moment he can be quite lazy tidying away toys, which we are working on.

I feel the most difficult mess I cleaned has got to be when we were toilet training him. Poo-covered undies the dozen times he missed the toilet and did it on the floor. oh and how can I forget the time he knocked over and spilt a big tub of cooking oil all over the kitchen floor. Took absolutely AGES to remove the slipperiness, and I learnt my lesson to keep such things out of reach.

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NomadMomDiary · 19/09/2013 21:49

In our house the worst messes are usually the result of the kids deciding to 'help' mummy clean up. For example, they recently decided to clean the bathroom floor for me. This involved filling the toilet with copious amounts of toilet paper and then mopping the floor with the resulting mush. It took ages to get the 100's of pieces of toilet paper out of the bathroom rug. Thank god for Cif - I felt like I needed to boil and sterilise the entire bathroom after that activity.

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AndHarry · 20/09/2013 10:20

The worst mess ever was when DS was left alone for 5 minutes as a crawling baby. He took off his nappy and smeared poo over the walls, between the rungs of the stair gate, rubbed it into the (cream) carpet and, when I came back, was sat in the middle of his room eating another lump of it. I just didn't know where to start.

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Deflatedballoonbelly · 20/09/2013 10:21

Easy, Weetabix (dried) off a glass door. Its like CEMENT!

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MeteorShower · 20/09/2013 10:26

It has, without any doubt, to be the time my then 2yr old and her 3yr old friend served up a poo to each other on the plastic tea party set. They'd sliced it and everything.

I had left them playing happily while I hung the washing outside, and came back to a scene of poo carnage.

Every single bit of the extensive tea party set had to be washed along with the floor and the children.

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PollyPlummer · 20/09/2013 10:38

Another poo related one.
Dts were around 10 months when I decided to give them a bit of no nappy time, I left them alone for a couple of minutes to get a towel in case they did a wee on the floor. Hmm
I came back and skidded across the floor on something warm, soft and stinky, leaving a lovely foot/poo print on the floor.
Dts were rubbing their poo all over the cream walls, brown leather sofas, in to their hair, ears - I strongly suspect they ate some as it was round their mouths.
I honestly didn't know where to start - it was everywhere, and I just made it worse by leaving poo prints behind me. Urgh, I am heaving a bit just thinking about it, as it was caked between my toes and under my toenails [boak]

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PollyPlummer · 20/09/2013 10:44

Oh yy bloody Weetabix, it should be used to fix po holes. Its impossible to get off.

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PollyPlummer · 20/09/2013 10:45

by po holes I obviously mean pot holes.

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turkeyboots · 20/09/2013 10:54

Another tale of "helping" mummy. DS carried in 2L bottle of blue fabric softener and somehow managed to open lid and drop it onto the carpet. Nice cream carpet. Which was blue for sometime afterwards.

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Jakadaal · 20/09/2013 11:07

Orange fanta fuelled vomit was a memorable one and 3 years on, 2 professional deep cleans later there is still a faint auburn hue to the carpetSmile

Most recent is a pet produced one whilst getting a kitchen fitted - think of a cocktail including cocoa powder, cake decorations and a full packet of pudding rice. Pebble dashing at its best!

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DanglingChillis · 20/09/2013 11:53

When DC2 was a newborn she did a projectile poo during a nappy change, all over her 20 month old sister. That resulted in me arriving at my friend's house rather late that day!

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Purplemonster · 20/09/2013 12:04

It's a toss up between the unopened 2l bottle of Ribena and the four pack of Guinness. Both stolen from the work top and chewed by the most destructive dog in the world. Undiluted Ribena is thicker and gloppier than you might realise if your kitchen has never been dripping in it, really quite hard to clean...but then the Guinness cans had exploded, the splatters went right up to nearly the ceiling.

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ChutesTooNarrow · 20/09/2013 12:04

First week of preschool for some reason I had car when picking up DS. He came out clutching a big sodden mess of a painting that was dripping paint. Except I didn't realise and my car was covered in it. And my new at the time coat. I have no idea how to get it out, the paint appears not to be washable. I seethe every time I see it Angry

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StillNoFuckingEyeDeer · 20/09/2013 13:01

When I moved out of halls into my first student flat, my mum came to help me clean it before we moved in. It was disgusting. The inside of the toilet was stained dark brown, the walls of the kitchen were greasy, the floors were sticky and there was a thick layer of dust throughout the flat. The worst bit was the fridge. The previous tenants had left something in a carrier bag, which was possibly meat at some point, but had become unrecognisable. There was an evil stench that had us retching as soon as the door was opened. It took over an hour to clean up a black pool of something rotten from the bottom of the fridge and I have never seen anything as disgusting since.

So far my own DC have not given me anything worse than the usual poonami, vomit or baby led weaning messes, although those can prove challenging with wooden floors and cream sofas and carpets in rented accommodation.

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Lurleene · 20/09/2013 13:35

We came home from a weekend away in May to find that DD and 20 of her friends had been using our house as party central. Up to today I am still finding evidence - I just found a dried on drink explosion under the stairs! The carnage included filthy walls and floors, broken glass, several (unused!) condoms, odd shoes, and the best bit was finding that little DS's school uniform had been used to mop up vomit.

If I win a £250 voucher I might feel a bit less bitter about the whole experience. Wink

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gazzalw · 20/09/2013 13:46

A couple of Christmases ago both DCs decided to be sick early into Christmas Day morning (we're talking the dead of night).....DD was sick all over her bedroom and DS managed to almost make it to the bathroom but not quite....Two very sleepy (and slightly hungover) parents having to clear up that mess - yuk, yuk, yuk.....

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JustBecauseICan · 20/09/2013 14:05

Mine is not child caused.....though it was child who spotted it.

It being the long gone off squid slime slowly spreading all over the bottom of the fridge.

Reader, I boaked.

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MadMonkeys · 20/09/2013 14:24

Mine was when DD1 pulled a bottle of wine out of the wine rack when my back was turned - it went for miles and the bottle shattered the full length of the kitchen... Needless to say the wine rack was been empty ever since, DD wasn't hurt and my floor eventually became cream coloured again!

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Tee2072 · 20/09/2013 14:27

Any time Wheatabix or porridge gets left on a high chair/table/floor. You could build a house with that stuff once it's dried.

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Happiestinwellybobs · 20/09/2013 14:33

Possibly the time that DD's nappy exploded, all over my rug, the wooden floor, then all over the bath.

Or cleaning up dog vomit...Or puppy diarrhoea... Or dried on weetabix off the high chair, floors, work top...Or the orange paint when we made autumn trees last week....

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GiraffesAndButterflies · 20/09/2013 14:51

I was babysitting and the children 6 and 4 had been playing with playmobil toys at the kitchen table. Put tea on table, washed up while they were eating was scared of their posh dishwasher, came over to the table and found the playmobil people were all encrusted with baked beans and ketchup. It looked like they'd been massacred!

It wasn't actually that hard to clean but was definitely the least fun ever, as I was worried about what their mum would say if I couldn't remove all the traces! Of course now I realise she had probably dealt with far worse Grin

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iwantavuvezela · 20/09/2013 14:56

The time of messiness was for me the whole weaning stage! Exacerbated by living in a smallish flat, so the table was part of the living room. I hated it! All the food on the floor, constant crumbles and bits needing to be swept up. Then following that the High Chair. Who knew food could be so difficult to get off, how it would linger in any cracks in the chair. There were times i would go out to eat at lunchtime or eat in the park specifically to avoid this!

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Methe · 20/09/2013 14:57

Rotten potatoes by a country mile!

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CMOTDibbler · 20/09/2013 15:18

DC related: sudocreme.

Non dc related. dponys molasses based, garlic flavoured lick which had been left with its lid off in the car on a hot day and melted, ran out and went into the carpet

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DesperateHousewife21 · 20/09/2013 15:22

Where to start? The congealed goo which I think is sauce but I cant be sure left on the dinner table nearly every night. Sticky handprints on the telly, crumbs under the telly just too far under to get with the hoover.

However I think the worst was trying to get blue crayon off of cream walls. We used an eraser (surprisingly effective) but we had to keep stopping as it made our arms ache. It wasnt a small patch either, about a foot squared.

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