What makes your skin crawl?

Most of the flooring downstairs in my house consists of polished oak floorboards or practical ceramic tiles. There is one room, however, that lies between the hall and the kitchen that really needed carpet to cover all the lumps and bumps and inconsistencies that tell the story of when the house was extended.

We use the room as a study with a big oak desk, my Mac computer and leather bucket chairs but it is also a through route.

When I chose the carpet, I was sensible enough to choose a really hard wearing one but whatever possessed me to buy a hardwearing light oatmeal coloured carpet I'll never know. Don't get me wrong, it looks great but oh, how it shows up the dirt.

I like to have a fairly relaxed approach to living and would never demand that my visitors remove their outdoor shoes before stepping across onto my carpet but my heart sinks when I notice yet another dirty footmark.

It was getting so bad that I was embarrassed by the dirty pathway through my office and it was making me more slovenly with regards to how I treated the room. Dirt and mess attracts more dirt and mess. It was time to do something about it.

As I was shopping in Morrisons I noticed they had their Vanish Powerfoam High Traffic Carpet Cleaner on special offer. Sounded exactly what I needed. The idea is that you spray the foam over your dirty carpet, work it in a bit, leave it to dry then vacuum. This promised 5x the cleaning power of vacuuming alone.

It was hard for me. Spraying - no problem, leaving to dry and vacuuming - no problem, 'working it in a bit' - BIG PROBLEM.

My sister can't bear the feel of polystyrene, many people hate the sound of chalk scratching a blackboard. For me, the feel and sound of rubbing carpets is the thing that makes my skin crawl. I had to travel a long way in to my 'happy place' to overcome my revulsion and work that foam. I kept reminding myself that I had conquered my fear of worms and this should be much easier. It wasn't. Just writing about it now is making me feel slightly delicate and uneasy.

On the plus side, my carpet came up pretty well and I went out and bought a carpet runner to act like a path between kitchen and hall. As well a being a great new play zone for the kids ( I'm not sure why but they really like it) it will hopefully mean that my oatmeal carpet remains oatmeal rather than dirty grey and my need to 'work the foam is' all but eliminated.

What makes your skin crawl?