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

[TheBreastmilksOnMe]

It's a toss up between dried on weetabix (which sets like concrete) off a rug or permanent marker off our dining table/curtains.

Ive just been given a bottle of Cif from my mum and the smell takes me back to childhood. I use it to clean my cooker, oven and kitchen surfaces.

[chrismse]

Drunken teenagers being sick, there is not much worse, especially if they have been drinking anything with blackcurrant. Awfull!

[supermariossister]

new contender. egg onto the kitchen lino floor. shell yolk white everywhere impossible to get up. yuck

[mawbroon]

Not actually physically the worst mess, but I felt gutted at having to clean up 6oz of expressed milk that I dropped on the floor.

To add insult to injury, it was in the middle of the night, DS1 hadn't woken and I was in agony and had to express to relieve the pain. I should have been sleeping!!

[Mabelface]

Not dirty, more mess. My triplets had a beanbag each when they were little, probably about 2 years old. They emptied all three beanbags out. It was like a snowstorm had hit the house. We were still finding polystyrene balls 2 years alter.

[Babyonway3]

Most annoying mess EVER..... a while ago my DH decided to try making home-made 'bio-diesel' fuel to run our car...basically recycled chip fat collected from restaurants... it sort of worked, but you smelt chips every time you accelerated! Anyway, he set up a 'filter system' in our kitchen, yes KITCHEN, barrels of oil being strained through tights - then went OUT and left one overflowing so I came from work to a flood of chip fat all over the floor! grease in everything, tile grooves, under cupboards, washing machine, fridge....yuk yuk yuk!

[Jinty64]

Well, in my (almost) 18 years of parenting, I've had a few! The time ds3 had d&v in the holiday caravan. This made more horrific buy our limited resources to clean it up, that I was there on my own with 3 ds's and that he managed to give the bug to all of us and only one set of bed linen for each bed. We often go back to the same site, but never the same van!

My worst was a home made batch of tomato soup left to cool in 2 litre ice cream containers on the work top, their lids propped on top to let the steam out. Once cool, I had moved then to the edge of the work surface, sealed the first one and turned to put it in the freezer. I heard ds1, then almost 3, say "ice-cream" and, in an instant, 4 litres of tomato soup engulfed the kitchen. He was covered from head to toe as was his crawling brother. It was under the fridge and washing machine and inside the open freezer and inside 3 pairs of wellies, nicely lined up at the back door - although this was not discovered until later! We were still finding the evidence years later.

[FannyPriceless]

Projectile vomit all over me, the bedding, the wall, the carpet, and in the crevices of the wooden dolls house.

[newfashionedmum]

funnily enough only yesterday...accidentally knocked a whole pan of home made chicken stock onto the kitchen floor, along with the carcass that was draining into it...the fattiest splashiest grittiest mess I ever made, it went everywhere. And it was school run time, and we have two cats. I shut them out of the kitchen and left the mess to soak into the gaps in the floorboards. I mopped the floor three times and it still feels a bit greasy. On the plus side, the house smells of chicken stock and the cats got some lovely pickings of the carcass that had been on the floor :-)

[ShatnersBassoon]

Puffy stickers off a white bookcase. I lost my cool, and a couple of fingernails.

[Elainey1609]

Baked beans and flour all over the kitchen we were baking when I was babysitting
Left alone for a second to answer the front door
Back in a second and it was carnage everywhere ...made worse by the very small kitchen.....it was in every nook cranny and crevice possible
I laugh about it now ... But worst of it wad that it wasn't ben my house ..

[MrsAJB]

My child is a dream to clean up after. He's a little neat freak! My cleaning nightmare is my husky's muddy paw prints all over my wooden floors and sofas... I want to use bleach but I know I can't!!!!

[NowWhatIsit]

Was trying to be super efficient before a birthday party, made mega enormous jelly, but managed to tip whole lot over while it was still cooling, so semi liquid jelly splattered over entire kitchen, dripping into all drawers, all over me, every surface. Had to empty everything, scrape it all out, then wash. Smelt nice though.

[whattodoo]

the most annoying thing to clear up is glitter. It never ends. It gets everywhere. I see it sparkling away on my smart suit when I'm giving a work presentation. It gets ingrained in the carpet. It finds its way into DPs beard (and he has a serious glitter aversion).
But not at vile as many of the above!

[sharond101]

Breastmilk all over our brand new car due to opening the bottle of expressed milk the wrong way. It was 27 degrees outside and by the time we got home DS was screaming as he was so hungry and we were belching as the smell was so bad!

[daisybrown]

Dog poo spread all up the stairs on little ones shoes

[CointreauVersial]

Hmmmm......could be the time DS decided to transfer the contents of his sandpit into the dining room.

Or maybe the time DD1 drew biro stick men all over the cream sofa......

No horrendous poo calamities here, than goodness.

[Stujobohm]

My 3 year old daughter tried to help me by getting the milk out of the fridge.... She dropped 6 pints of milk everywhere..... It was under the fridge freezer, on the walls, in every nook and cranny.... Took a lot of cleaning x

[elizaco]

When my 12 year old daughter accidentally spilt a full plate of spaghetti bolognese all over the sitting room carpet. Probably my own fault for begrudgingly let her bring it into the sitting room in the first place as she didn't want to miss something on TV - something I won't be allowing again!

[openerofjars]

I have spent quite a lot of this morning cleaning spaghetti bolognese and raisin vomit from DD's cot, the wall, her monkey, the floor and her bedding.

7am is not a good time to hear your 4yo say, "Mummy, DD's pooed all over her cot and it smells awful!". That's not poo, son. That's more vomit than feasibly fits into a baby, and seeing as it's Daddy's birthday it would be unfair to ask him to deal with it (even when a good two hours of Mumm's birthday were spent cleaning cat poo from the laminate, but that's another story and it' just Daddy' good luck to have been at work).

It will be some time before we have spag bol again.

[elah11]

It would have to be either the time dd as a toddler foundthe tub of vaseline I used for nappy changes and smeared it all over the walls, floor, cot etc, it was murder to clean up, or else the time the same dd dropped a pot of airfix paint on ds1s new carpet. I couldn't wash it out and had to buy a big rug to cover it up.

[glitch]

Oh I have so many!
The worst ones are possibly the tub of sudocrem on the carpet (yes, there is still a massive stain there, it never comes out).
For yuck factor, it must be the poo, smeared all over the door, the walls, the radiator and on his hands. My DS greeted me with "raaaaahrrrr, I am a tiger". Not sure which particular type of tiger smear their poo over everything but my DS did a marvelous impression, you can imagine how delighted with him I was.

[WowOoo]

I have quite a few also!

This isn't really the worst or even hardest to clean, but the most enduring.
My sons were arguing who would go first making 'maracas' with split peas.
My eldest snatched the bag off my youngest son and ripped it open and the whole, (quite large) bag flew everywhere. He was in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room.

I can't tell you how long it has taken to pick up or vacuum every pea because I'm still finding them 2.5 years later.

[Spirael]

The most long lasting one was the time one of the cats managed to bring in an unharmed but very pissed off bird from the garden. Cat promptly dropped the bird in the kitchen then legged it.

The bird then went mental and flew all around the kitchen, knocking things over as it tried to escape. In the process it managed to knock a nearly full bottle of rum, that we'd brought back from our honeymoon, off the top of the fridge.

The bottle smashed into a million pieces, sending glass and rum all over the kitchen. It even went as far as the dining area which was, at the time, carpeted. It took ages to clear it all up, and our house smelt like we were raging alcoholics for weeks!

On the plus side, I have a really good explanation for "But why is the rum gone?!"

[Tangfasticlady]

My most memorable clean up occurred following bath time one evening. The children had been bathed and were drying off. I nipped downstairs to fetch their nightwear, when my then 2 year old DD called out "Mummy I've made snow". I went upstairs to find her looking very pleased for herself and holding a brand new, now empty large bottle of baby powder. The little minx had spread the whole lot around her bedroom, over her toys, her bed and her clothes. It took hours of hoovering, washing and damp dusting to get rid of the mess. I couldn't tell her off though as she looked so proud of herself and at least it left the room smelling scrummy!