Caught out by a dirty room or appliance? Tell Kärcher for the chance to win a £250 John Lewis voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Kärcher would like to find out about moments where you've been caught out by a dirty appliance or room.

Here’s what Kärcher say, “We’ve all been caught out when visitors drop by unannounced and cringed when they pop in to find the house in disarray, what we would like to know is what has been you most embarrassing moment?”

So, have you ever been caught out with a dirty room? Maybe you noticed a hideous cobweb just as you had visitors over? Or maybe someone caught sight of your dirty oven? Perhaps you noticed something floating in your kettle, just as you were making a cup of tea for a guest?

Whatever way you've been caught out, Kärcher would love to hear about it!

Everyone who adds their thoughts to the thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £250 John Lewis voucher.

Please note that any comments posted on this thread may be used by Kärcher in further marketing material (anonymously, of course).

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

At DS' 1st birthday I found SIL with a duster and a can of polish in the living room, busily 'helping out' by cleaning all the surfaces. I was both embarrassed and slightly annoyed.

The layer of dust on top of the washing machine when the repair man pulled it out was something to behold (he claimed he'd seen worse - think he was being polite!)

When I most recently cleaned the oven shortly after (that day) the element went and tripped out the whole house. DH was cooking and couldn't work out why the toad in the hole wasn't rising. The oven man said there was no connection between my cleaning and the oven breaking, but not sure my husband was convinced.

It's always the guests that discover the dirt: my worst ever was an old tin of beans under a bed. Oh dear.

I had been on a night out, there was only me at home and i knew it would be like that for at least a week anyway. I got dressed and ready, obviously i used every room in the house for this. There were clothes i had tried on then changed my mind about.

Anyway went on the night out got rather tipsy. Apparently i got undressed whilst walking upstairs. A large proportion of the night was spent in thet toilet vomiting with a quilt over me to keep me warm.

I was awoken in the morning asleep in the toilet with my nan shaking me She had let herself in when i didn't hear answer her at the front door. She then proceeded to clean up my clothes with me trying desperately to do it before her.

When we got downstairs my grandad was sat on the couch with a pile of clothes next to him Needless to say i now confine myself to getting dressed in my room and now make sure most things are put away before i go out.

When our house was for sale the estate agent phoned and asked if he could show some people round in 30 minutes. I was home alone with a two and a four year old. We hadn't had many viewers so I said yes and put the children out on the patio with some painting to occupy them. Then ran around putting everything I could see in plastic bags and training into cupboards whilst trying to keep an eye on the kids. Just as the estate agent knocked on the door I turned around to see that the children outside had stripped themselves naked, and were painting their bodies and the outside of the French windows red. Not the serene welcoming home I was planning on…

My father in law came round to fix my oven. As he arrived I dashed out to do a shop with my potty training daughter. When I got back my father in law had left and I realised I had left a potty with huge smelly poo in the middle of the front room! Don't know how I missed it as it smelt awful.

its usually my mum that finds things like behind the what i assumed was a clean drawer set when we moved house. it had about 6 months worth of my jack russels hair behind it. I thought my house was tidy.....

House a complete tip when the DCs were younger and DW and I were both feeling under-the-weather. DW's cousin randomly turned up out of the blue. Only saving grace was that we were feeling so lousy we didn't really consider how bad the house was looking.

Worse still though was the fact that we had no biscuits/cakes to offer him .

our local courier lady asked to use our loo, its only after she'd gone that I realised there had been no toilet roll and my ds had just done a poo in there so it stunk and there were skid marks all down the pan. I'm now mortified everytime she delivers a parcel

When living in a shared house, one of my housemates rather well to do parents were coming to visit. We hid all the dirty plates in the cupboards as we were late starting to do the tidying. Everything went well until his mother opened a cupboard to get a plate to put some biscuits on, that she had brought to share. I still remember how wide her eyes went, but to be fair she said absolutely nothing

Do cars count? DH and I kind of share cars but I usually end up having the bigger one to ferry the kids in. I usually keep that one as tidy as possible with kids... his never has the kids in but is usually very scruffy, and sometimes even smelly.

Unfortunately once or twice I've offered people lifts before realising he would be ferrying kids so I would have to take the mess-car Cue frantic harrying of DH to get him to clean it up enough to avoid me being mortified!

Mine's always the inside of the cooker or grill. You clean all the surfaces and completely forget about the inside of the oven.

Our large house was Victorian and dusty. cobwebs were part of the furniture and I made no apologies - spiders eat mosquitos was my excuse.

I am however embarrassed by where I live now as I cannot get the bathroom tiles clean. I don't think the fan works very well and grime just seems to collect everywhere. I've done my best scrubbing with bleach but could really do with a something like a steam cleaner. I just hope none asks to use the loo!

Maybe the time a friends dog sniffed out a hoard of mummified blueberries DD1 had stashed behind the sofa...

when DH andI first moved in together, the FIL of the woman who lived in the flat next door was staying with her and got himself locked out. DH of course invited him in rather than sit in the hallway, into our flat where the living room was filthy, piles of washing to be put away, (DHs) breakfast stuff still on the dining table (we just had one big living room in that flat). I was horrifed when I got back he'd left anyone in! In our defense, we were both working 12+ hour days with 45 min commutes each way.

When we moved into this house, the front room is separate from the dining room and kitchen, I try to keep at least that room clean and toy-free for unexpected guests to go into. (however there's a pile of ironing to go away on the sofa and a couple of diggers sat on the chair, so not completely sucessful today!)

i hate people who 'pop in' and have been vocal enough in the past about this to mean we normally get at least a 20 minute warning!

A friend said she was in the area and could she and her DC1 pop in...um "of course". I'd been out with my DC that morning and we'd had lunch not long before friend rang. I tidied away all dishes, put some toys back on the ikea expedit and ran the vacuum around the floor and wiped the tops of the ikea shelves.

The DCs were playing and the friend's DC put her hand on the shelves and cam over to show us the grey fuffy dust she'd found. Not the end of the world but I was mortified and annoyed with myself for wiping the tops of low units but not the shelves!

I had a last minute text to say people were coming round so I hurriedly cleared up and stuffed things in the spare room and closed the door. Perfect. Until the children all decided to go and play in the spare room right in front of the adults! Busted.

Our house is generally quite clean and tidy, although we can be a bit sloppy on the hoovering round the edges of the room etc (the centre of the room is beautiful ). It usually only gets a cursory going over when doing a vacuuming session, as DD isn't the keenest on the noise.

Now that DD is mobile, she is fantastic at dragging out the dust bunnies from by the skirting board/under the coffee table etc. It wouldn't be so bad if she just left them where they were, but she prefers to pass them to PiL instead...

Oh god. Friend visiting, house cleaned to within an inch of its life only for her to open and request to use the microwave of doom!

My house is normally pretty scruffy, but by far the worst was having a nice but judgemental mum round for a play-date when DC were tiny. We sat in the kitchen and drank tea while the smalls ran around. It wasn't until they'd left that I noticed that one of the cats had brought in a large dead bird and secreted it under the table - out of my eyeline, but not hers. She never came back.

Worst (though not nearly so bad) in another person's house was also sitting eating in their kitchen, also able to see something that my host had their back to. A slug the size of an anaconda crawled out of nowhere up the work unit and into the sink. It was mesmerising and did nothing for my appetite. Eventually I had to say something, fortunately they were very good friends and we all laughed.

We had some people from a removal company round to give us a quote and to see how much stuff we had. Took at least 5 minutes to clear a path on the floor so they could get to the back door to look at our stuff outside.

A tidy kitchen is a sign of a wasted life, I always say.

I had a home delivery from the supermarket, and when the doorbell rang, ran to answer it I opened the door, and the delivery driver started to put the shopping in the hallway. Suddenly, he hesitated and said - er, I'll put this somewhere else" - the cat had done a huge poo, and I didn;t realise. He was holding a bag of litter I had ordered !. The shame...

SIL came to help with our house move, as I had managed to break my arm in a timely fashion. She told me she'd dealt with a magnificent collection of [DH's] toenail clippings by the side of the sofa which had finally been cleared of the vipers' nest of leads etc that he usually kept there.

A dirty oven. I keep meaning to clean it but was not expecting a friend to stay for lunch last week.