If you have rug-rats running around your house the way I do. you must be used to having them tearing through every room like cyclones and wreaking all sorts of damage as they go. You always know where they have been. I can follow my daughter through the rooms by the mess she leaves in her wake. Every stain imaginable is left as evidence of where she has been there. Of course, this is upsetting, and I have tried just about everything to make her stay outside and keep her mess there. I haven't been too successful. So I end up with the inevitable shoe scuffs, soda stains, mud tracks, etc, all through the house. Sometimes it makes you wonder why you wanted children in the first place. But, at least for the next 18 years. I just have to figure out what to do about the spills and smears that end up on the carpet every day.

One solution would be to change the carpet every time the mess got too bad. Not being a millionaire, this is not the solution for me. Or perhaps I could have a professional cleaner come in once a week to clean up all the food drink and other stains. Well, that's outside my budget too. No, I guess like most parents. I have to find a way to clean up the mess myself. The most practical and economical solution is to use a steam cleaner. If you thought steam cleaning was only the purview of cleaning companies, you would be surprised. There are many steam cleaners that are available for the homeowner to buy and use at his own home. The most popular brand is Hoover. I decided to purchase a Hoover steam cleaner even before my daughter became a toddler and started making a mess on her own.

The baby mess, with spilled bottles, spit up food and other "acccidents" convinced me that it would be a good investment in the long run, I was warned by other parents about the mess that is inevitable with children, but I had to find out on my own. The almost daily stains that my daughter is responsible for have convinced us that this was the right decision. Even though we have tried to have her be more careful, we are still overwhelmed with stains. Our wonderful steam cleaner, however, gets rid of al the stains, even the most stubborn ones such as coffee (which I can't blame my daughter for!).

If you are looking for a good steam cleaner. Best Buy has a great selection at the best prices. They even carry the right kind of cleaners to use in the steam cleaner. Another source is to search on the internet for a good steam cleaner. There, you will find a tremendous array of steam cleaners in every price range.