Help! My housesitting job has gone horribly wrong!

[Jewel1984]

Hello mumsnetters, I’m a long time lurker but haven’t ever really posted (not sure I’ve ever got anything useful to add to discussions and I tend to ramble on!)
so my family (7 yo old, 4yo and baby) are housesitting at the moment, visiting my sister. The air bnb we had booked pulled out at the last minute, and my sister put a post on her local fb page and the owner of this house responded saying we could stay here and look after their dogs. The house is really lovely and the furnishings are quite high end. The owner seems nice (I haven’t met her face to face tho my sister has) but she seems very highly strung. She went through all the instructions about the dogs, including to take them out to do toilet before bed, which we’ve followed religiously. She also was very adamant we didn’t go into the front living room of the house (which was fine!! )
so yesterday I realised that a coffee cup left on the bench next to the sink (it doesn’t have a metal drained) has stained the terazzo worktop. I’ve tried a load of (gentle) cleaning and nothing has worked. I’ve ordered a specific terazzo cleaner product and will try that when it comes. Woke up this morning and one of the dogs had somehow gotten into the bin and chewed a used nappy, and done a big yellow wee and poo on the ‘good room’ white rug (there’s no door you can shut) and I’ve cleaned it with carpet cleaner I found in the cupboard but I’ll have to have another go. Finally, my son has broken one of her son’s toys. This all sounds as if we’re a family of brutes and that’s not the case! I’ve managed to source the exact toy in a local shop and have done click and collect for Monday (they are back Wednesday)
I am EXTREMELY anxious now - the absolute last thing I wanted to do was wreck her house!! Any tips on how to approach the subject with her? We’ll be gone by the time she gets back. Needless to say I’ll never be housesitting again, and I don’t want to cause her distress, I feel like she is the kind of person who will find this all upsetting.
I should add there are people in our house doing the same thing (though we have no pets) and I am very chill about it - though our house isn’t as high end as this one!
sorry for the Ted talk 🙈🙈🙈

What a nightmare! Can you hire a carpet cleaner?

post another anonymous thread on here on here with details of the stains, lots of mumsnetters have great advice about stains!

Oh God, you poor thing. I can just imagine the stress. Although I must admit it did make me laugh a little. Good luck with the rug and the worktop. I'm sure the stains will come out. And tbh if the rug doesn't clean up fully it's her dog who did it, if she's so precious about the room she should have a door on it.
She's got dogs so she must have had issues like this before.
Have you seen man vs bee on Netflix? Definitely watch it when you get home.

It made me think of Man vs Bee too 😊 Very mild compared to that. Mad that there's no door on the "good room". And a kitchen that you can't leave a cup down in.

I agree. If a coffee is going to stain the worktop what would red wine, tomato or curry do. How pointless as a work top.

Sounds really stressful but it does make me think of the Rowan Atkinson man versus bee series.

Can you look on YouTube for solutions? I managed to get 6 litres of milk out of a brand new fitted carpet once using YouTube tutorials.

It does sound like such hard work. The room the dogs aren’t allowed in, is there a makeshift way of blocking it off?

My ddog had diarrhea on my cream carpet, I used baking soda on it, dampen (not soak) the stain, sprinkle it on, work the baking soda in, let it dry overnight then hoover it, might take two goes.
Can't help with the worktop but good luck

Man vs Bee was my first thought too!

Sorry, OP, no help really but try to relax a little because somehow anxiety causes more of these things to happen!

It’s reasonable to expect some give and take with these situations - ie she’s not had to pay for kennels - and the good room should really have a door on with dogs around, if it’s that precious.

I hope the rest of your stay goes smoothly!

Ah thats a bugger, if the dog has eaten a nappy they do need to see a vet. Fingers crossed the cleaner works when it arrives.

Barkeepers friend for the worktops. Dr Beckmann carpet stain remover for the rug.

Sounds like a situation I'd end up in, if I didn't have shit luck I'd have no luck!

I agree with the bicarbonate, but I spray white vinegar on it - that really gets stains moving!

Don't use this on the worktop though - it will damage it further.

already recommended but to reiterate- bar keepers friend, especially the powder, gets stains out like nothing else on work tops. Probably available on Amazon.

I find vanish carpet foam in a can removes most stains successfully, there’s a pet one too. I’d blot as much as possible then spray and blot and repeat, avoid rubbing as it’ll further imbed the stain

Oh dear. To be honest two kids and unknown dogs in a posh and expensively furnished house with an extremely fussy owner sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Hopefully the terrazzo cleaner will work. For the dogs, I know you can’t lock them out of the nice room, but could they be locked in another room for the night? With the broken toy, can you just replace it? I think a lot of things can be solved if you come across right - saying ‘oh so sorry but we broke x toy but we bought a new one’ is much better than just leaving the toy broken.

Oh just reread and see you have replaced the toy! In that case I wouldn’t worry about that. The rug is more difficult - is it a carpet type rug or a soft type of one?

I know you say she’ll be very upset by it but surely when you ask strangers with small kids to house sit and watch your two dogs you accept that some accidents are possible.

Just because if the rug is carpet type material rather than a soft/shag type rug you can hire carpet cleaning machines at many places for quite reasonable prices.

Thanks so much all - I literally laughed out loud at the man vs bee comparison- that’s me! I’ll try baking soda and blotting and as for the nappy - I’ve rung the vet and left a message - Easter hours of course to add to the drama!

It does seem as if they’re the kind of people who don’t have accidents 🤷‍♀️ the rug is kind of carpet-y with a raised kind of pattern - off white in colour. I will look at carpet cleaning too - it’s the bench top I’m most worried about tbh

Are you near a Waitrose? Their own-brand stain remover pre-laundry spray gets stains out of everything, and zoflora kills poo and vomit smells better than anything else. I'd use a combination of those two on the carpet.

Can't help with the work surface, though. I hate those beautiful but porous work surfaces. A friend had one and ruined it with an oil spill the very first time she used the new kitchen. Counter tops should be practical.

I've also heard barkeepers is the go too product for this sort of work top.

You could also try pink stuff or cif - patch test it somewhere hidden first though!

As for the carpet - just shampoo. Bit pricey but you could hire a rug doctor - those things work miracles!

Again patch test any products you try.

Also, am being a pain here, it is barkeepers friend abrasive? Because if it is I won’t be able to try it.

For the stain mix bicarbonate of soda with a little water into a paste, put on and then cover with clingfilm and wait for a few hours then scrub off - always worked for me!

Sorry I should have specified for the stain on the countertop

I don’t know about bar keepers friend, but definitely not pink stuff on the worktop- took years for a mark it left on mine to fade.
Once you’ve done the baking soda, leave the rug in the sun, that bleaches away nearly all biological stains.

Two children and a baby were always going to be a bit risky in a stranger's house. Not to mention their dogs. And a coffee cip stain now. Few good tips here worth trying.

Heck I couldn’t even get halfway through that movie - the stress just watching it almost made me come up in hives! 😂