I need to clean a lot really fast, where is Heloise when you need her?

December 31, 2007 7:28 PM

My dogs destroyed the house while I was shopping, how long do I have for damage control? Football filter of all things.

I was out shopping and my newly handy boyfriend left a couple of cans of stain opened on the kitchen counter. Our dogs managed to knock over two cans of wood stain and their are little foot prints all over the sheets, the laundry, the couch, the floor, etc.

He is at the Clemson/Auburn game and it looks like the Fourth Quarter just started. There is officially 14:18 on the clock. How long does an average quarter like this take?

Bonus question: How does one get wood stain out of laundry?

posted by stormygrey to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Best answer: A general rule (to which there are exceptions) is that you can multiply the time left on the clock by 3 to figure out how long in real-time the game will last. So you have about 45 minutes plus travel time.

If you can call his football buddies and ask them to detain him further, they'll be confused but they'll probably do it. Is there a celebratory beer in order? Or if not, perhaps a consolatory beer?

Good luck on this one...
posted by nadise at 7:53 PM on December 31, 2007

Um, if he was the one who left the cans open, why are you in such a hurry to clean before he gets home? He should be helping you clean up since it's his fault the cans were there for the dogs to knock over.
posted by lia at 7:59 PM on December 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

What is the brand of the stain? Often you can find the MSDS sheet for the product and it will tell you what will clean/neutralize it.
posted by brain cloud at 8:03 PM on December 31, 2007

Response by poster: Woohoo! There might be overtime.

I am hurrying because I am here and I don't want it to set anymore than neccessary plus I am generally as nice as I can be to my boy because I like him a lot.
posted by stormygrey at 8:05 PM on December 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

OT! I am glad to see there are other people eschewing NYE parties for this.
posted by geoff. at 8:12 PM on December 31, 2007

What kind of wood stain? I would be more concerned for the dogs; many wood stains can be pretty toxic. If the dogs left prints all over, then they surely got enough on themselves to cause potential trouble. I would look into that before worrying about cleanup for your boyfriend.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:33 PM on December 31, 2007

Response by poster: Ok, most of it is up. I was first and foremost concerned with the dogs, but we get the most nontoxic stuff we can because dogs are dogs and all. They are all also huge german shepards, silly dogs.
posted by stormygrey at 8:40 PM on December 31, 2007

Best answer: If it's solvent based, white spirit should remove it. If it's water based, water will remove it. Have a look on the can, and see what it says the brushes clean up with. Use the same stuff to get it up.

Getting it out of laundry is going to be more tricky. Fabrics might not respond too well to some of the solvents you might have to use. It might be too late to get them out already anyway. This stuff is designed to stain.
posted by Solomon at 1:55 AM on January 1, 2008

Best answer: It may not help you immediately, but I had ridiculously good luck by calling the manufacturer and posing the question to them.

My dog ate a blue ballpoint pen over offwhite carpet (think blue dog nose, paws, etc. + a six foot diameter blue circle). I called the company that made the pen immediately and they recommended a product to me. Worked like a charm.
posted by jmevius at 12:56 PM on January 1, 2008