When I was growing up, one thing that my dad always, always said was, “I try to say ‘yes’ as often as I possibly can.” It sounds great in theory, but it’s actually really hard to put into practice.

My boys are constantly asking for things that are dangerous or messy or outrageous, and my first instinct is always to say no. Of course I won’t let them do anything that would put them in danger, but instead of always saying no, I’m trying to say “yes” or offer an explanation as to why it’s a bad idea so they understand my reason for saying no.

But when it comes to little things around the house, like making a fort, spreading their own peanut butter and honey on their sandwiches, jumping on the couches, or painting pictures inside, I’m just trying to say yes no matter what because they’re kids and it’s fun, and messes can be cleaned up.

My husband is majorly OCD about a clean house (he keeps the house much cleaner than I do), and not just a tidy house, but actually clean. No dirt, fingerprints, dust, etc. But it’s basically impossible with a stampede of little children plowing through our house with sticky fingers, dirty shoes, and spit-up.

So I was super excited to team up with STAINMASTER to try out their line of carpet cleaners, because try as my sweet husband does, we have lots of dirty carpet and upholstery.

We tried out the Carpet Stain Remover and the Rug Stain Remover (they also have a super highly recommended pet cleaner!) and I was instantly impressed. I’ve used other carpet cleaners that left residue after the stain was removed, or smelled super strong, but this one did neither. It gets super sudsy so it cleans everything up, and then it’s designed to block future stains. Basically a dream come true for my clean-fanatic husband.

We also tried it on our upholstery since our couches and ottoman are so dirty. And it worked beautifully (I’m kind of embarrassed to share this before and after, cause the before is so nasty, but I just have to). Basically now I’m going around cleaning all the fabric things.

And in the last week I’ve said yes more times than I can count because who cares about the mess — STAINMASTER will help me clean it up later. Try it — pick up some STAINMASTER carpet cleaner, then say yes to all the stampeding, jumping, messing you can. I promise you’ll feel instantly like a better mom!