Back when we bought our house, I wanted pale gray carpeting. I was talked out of it except for in our master bedroom. The reasoning was that the ground in Virginia has a lot of red clay in it and red clay shows up less on boring beige carpeting.

Fast forward three years.

The pale gray carpeting in our bedroom looks absolutely lovely. The beige carpeting throughout the rest of the house is covered in gray spots thanks to one preschooler, one dog, one very clumsy husband and one messy me.

This summer I met with my daughter's teacher and we discussed home visits. The first thought that went through my head was "How can I have this man come into my house?!"

It was time to take action.

The next day, I tearfully called my friend L whose home could be featured in a magazine any day of the week. Her house is spotless. There is no clutter. Most of the time you'd never know that she has a 4 year old and a dog. I am in total awe of L.

L told me that she loves to clean and she would be happy to help me prepare for the scary visit. She said the key is to have the proper tools.

A week later, L was on my doorstep with a Bissell steam cleaner, a Dirt Devil floor scrubber, a mess of old towels and a can of Resolve Spot Magic Stain Remover.

First, we moved all the furniture out of the family room and then we went around to all of those dark gray splotches, spraying the Resolve Spot Magic Stain Remover directly on the splotches. The can says to spray first in a hidden spot to check for colorfastness but we skipped that step. I'd rather have a bleached splotch than a dark gray splotch.

We immediately saw the splotches disappearing before our eyes WITHOUT scrubbing! Unfortunately, we ran out of Resolve Spot Magic Stain Remover before we got to all of the splotches. We finished up with some Kaboom Spot Remover.

After allowing the splotches to soak for about 15 minutes, L ran the steam cleaner over the carpet. It was amazing. The entire carpet looked brand spanking new. Later that night, following her directions, I sprayed Scotchguard for carpets over the entire carpet.

A month later, there are a few gray splotches on the carpet but those splotches are the ones we used Kaboom on, not the ones on which we sprayed Resolve Spot Magic Stain Remover.

It's not just gray splotches that dissolve with this product.

In our guest room, someone had spilled iced tea months ago and there were tiny dark spots all over the carpet. One application and they were gone.

My daughter recently decided that she wanted to paint the carpet in her playroom with finger paints. While they are washable, that doesn't mean that they are easy to get out of carpeting. A few squirts and the paint was gone!

This product is purported to work on motor oil, red wine, coffee, ink and grape juice. I hope never to have to try it on any of them. It definitely works on mineral oil. Some of those gray splotches in the family room were from the mineral oil we use to oil the slate around our gas fireplace.

To use the product, simply shake the can and spray on the spot. Allow to stand for a minute if it's a really nasty spot. If needed, rub with a clean white cloth. Repeat if needed. After the spot if gone, blot with another cloth dipped in clean water and then blot dry.

It's very rare these days to come across a product that works just like it's advertised to work. Resolve Spot Magic Stain Remover does just what it says it does and I won't be purchasing any other brand of carpet spot remover in the future unless this brand is discontinued or improved. How they could improve it is a mystery to me because it really works!

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