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

[MichelleMumsnet]

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 ?

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

[fishandlilacs]

My dd once managed to spill a full four pint of milk into the fridge. I thought I had cleaned it all up, as I pulled the fridge inside out to clean it all up. It went everywhere. The veg draweres were full of it Milky lettuce anyone?
Some weeks later there was this disgusting smell emanating from the back of the fridge, kind of like combination of dog shite and vomit. I pulled the fridge out cleaned underneath, but the smell didn't improve, it eventually drove me so mad that i decided to look in the back of the fridge-the spilled milk had gone through the little defrosting hole in the back and then overflowed and caked itself onto the the evaporation tray near the warm back of the fridge. I have never smelled anything so vile in my life. I had scrape the offending stuff off with a knife, every scrape releasing yet more noxious gasses. Thinking about it still makes me shudder.

[Blu]

The only thing I still haven't managed to clean is the residue from those stupid gel window 'clings'. DS plastered our french doors with them, they stayed there in the sun...looked horrible as dust stuck to them, and when I tried to remove them, they left an enduring sticky mess that has resisted all the cleaning products under the sink.

[MikeLitoris]

The worst mess my dc have made is dd1 deciding to 'help' paint ds' room. I spent ages painting it dark blue, hand painted glow in the dark stars and planets. Looked amazing until Dd decided to gloss the newly painted walls.

Don't think it counts the ultimate worst thing ever was cleaning up after the dog when she had an almighty dose of the runs. It was every where!

Also the time I decided to scrub the bathroom floor tiles. We have grey tiles. Or so I thought. After a good scrub (with cif actually) they are actually white. The joys of rented property

[gingercat12]

Sudocreme from the carpet. DS's toothpaste everywhere (how and why?)

I have given up cleaning up crayon drawings, we'll clean them when he goes to Uni (he is 5).

[BehindLockNumberNine]

When I blended homemade butternut squash, onion, carrot and parsnip soup, without securing the lid to the blender which resulted in homemade butternut squash, onion, carrot and parsnip hair treatment and face pack!! (and a fetching new shade of orange for the kitchen walls!!)

It took ages to wipe up (at one point I was smearing orangy chunky gloop around the floor without actually wiping any of it away).
We repainted the whole kitchen affected parts of the kitchen wall but I am convinced that in a certain light there is a distinct orange hue to them...

[DorisIsAPinkDragon]

Worst mess ever to clean up was a blue eyeshadow experiment in their big sisters bedroom. They thought it would be fun to put make up 'on' the resembled smuffs at the end and yes I do have photographic evidence

The lovely cream carpet never looked the same and dd1 now has a rug

[sleepyhead]

Worst mess was when ds1 was about 1 and managed to get into the fridge, remove a 2 litre carton of milk, get back through to the living room and pour it all over the rug in the time it took me to go to the loo.

I tried everything from carpet shampoo to bicarb, but eventually had to give in and chuck the cheesy rug in the bin.

It even tops the Sudocreme all over the sofa (also ds1, also while I was at the loo and to this day I don't know how he got hold of it ).

My least favourite dc-related cleaning job is getting dried weetabix off surfaces. I'd ban it if I had my way (unfortunately dh eats it too). Sometimes feels that a pneumatic drill would be the best tool to get rid of it.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Is cif tested on animals?

Or shall I stick to my co-op own brand cream cleaner with the BUAV logo on it?.

[mrscumberbatch]

Oh I think it would have to be the time that Dd ate play doh and spectacularly puked multi coloured slurry EVERYWHERE.

It was stuck in the cracks between the floorboards and everything. It looked so obvious as well as it was neon pink/blue/green.

Took a good couple of weeks before all traces of the offending matter had disappeared following daily scrubbings!

[littlemonkeychops]

I agree about the weetabix, cements itself to any surface in about 10 minutes!

I nearly cried when DD knocked a full 4 pint of milk off the kitchen side when about 6 months (i was trying to make myself breakfast whilst holding her). It went all over the floor within seconds, including under all the cabinets, argh! (thankfully DD was too young to pick up on my language!).

[shrinkingnora]

While we were staying in a B&B the other week DS1 leant over the side of his bed and did a spectacular puke on sleeping 3 year old DS2's face. He woke up shouting "what's going on? Why am I wet? I went to sleep and now this!". It was funny afterwards but cleaning up multiple pukes away from home with no cleaning equipment aged me no 20 years.

So sorry, Cif, but the worst cleaning up has not been the crayon on the walls or the poo smeared on the cot bars but anytime I have had to pick up chunks of vomit with bare hands at 3am.

[RubySparks]

Hmm so many.... 9month old vomiting over me and the floor having gorged on breast milk after being in nursery. Driving to my mother's house with DCs by myself for first time, pulled up happily and turned around to see DS putting finishing touches to DD face with red Felt tip pen for 'chicken spots' or pre DC when bean bag split and had polystyrene all over the floor and the beads clinging to everything!

[sleepyhead]

Oh poor you and poor ds2 (and ds1 who was ill obv), but "I went to sleep and now this" just cracked me up

[shrinkingnora]

I had to wash his hair four times and it still stank.

[malachite]

My little boy used to have a habit of pooing in the bath. That was always the worst to clean up and there would be two shivering little ones waiting for me to catch it all, drain the bath, clean the bath and run a new one! Stressful and gross!

[farrowandbawl]

Cleaning up the dogs...um..."wet dreams" shall we say, off the hallway carpet, then finding out he had a tendency to sleep on my bed.

He was banished to the kitchen soon after that. Using a mop is a lot more pleasant than a scrubbing brush and then having to spot dry the damp patch made by a fully grown German Shephard.

[unadulterateddad]

Cleaning vomit out of a sink full of washing up in a friend's house early in the morning to avoid anyone noticing. They thought I'd just been really helpful :)

[GetKnitted]

blue food colouring on the kitchen counter... it has faded to purple

[GetKnitted]

farrow that is the grossest thing I've ever heard

[Theimpossiblegirl]

Don't let eggs boil dry while you're in the other room on mumsnet . They explode and bits go all over the kitchen- floor, walls, ceiling, everywhere.

[fanoftheinvisibleman]

Sicky sheets at 3am have got to be the stuff of nightmares.

But for sheer annoyance it has to be bloody hundreds and thousands when decorating buns. The sodding things get everywhere and appear to be hoover resistant.

[AllSWornOut]

It's a toss up between sand (ugh, I hate sand) and the projectile poo DC2 did the other day.

I think the sand wins actually as DH cleaned up the poo

[ginmakesitallok]

DD1 throwing up down the side if her cabin bed, covering bed, wall, toys, open toybox in vomit. That was pleasant

[maxmissie]

Cat sick and cat poo in carpets, closely followed by human vomit! At least we now have wooden floors in most of our rooms so cleaning up such mess is nowhere near as bad as when we had carpets!

[kateandme]

porridge left is like cement!!