Carpet Cleaning Rated Tough Home Chore

Grand Rapids, MI, Dec. 7, 2009--When the average mom looks down at her carpet and rugs, she sees 85 days a year of cleaning, 96 hours of failure and eight lasting reminders in the form of stubborn spots and stains, according to "Carpet Stains and Kids," new research from Woolite Carpet and Upholstery.

According to the research:

 * Moms tackle carpet and rug stains on 85 days throughout the year
 * Kids' toughest stains typically draw 12 hours of cleaning time, with the average mom able to point to eight of their children's most resilient trademarks - a total of 96 hours of unrewarded effort per home
 * Only 46 percent of moms manage to coax carpets clean of their kids' toughest stains

Research reveals that the top five stains made by kids are juice (64 percent), soda pop (39 percent), markers (36 percent), chocolate (35 percent) and ketchup (24 percent).

U.S. moms rank cleaning carpet stains as their toughest cleaning challenge, on par with cleaning the stove or refrigerator (52 percent) - worse than getting their windows to sparkle (36 percent) or scrubbing their toilets (34 percent).

Stains on carpets take an emotional toll on moms as well, with almost two-thirds (62 percent) taking the problem personally, saying that carpet stains "make them feel like their home is dirty."

They reported embarrassment at inviting people over (45 percent), and also felt that carpet stains made them look like they didn't take care of their home (44 percent). For twenty-seven percent of moms, carpet stains made them feel "like bad homemakers."