A Million Reasons to Scrub Your Carpet
I got my basement carpet cleaned Thursday. While that hardly seems noteworthy, the experience left me thinking about more than just how to prevent future stains.
When I opened my front door to Tony Million, I had no idea that I was about to encounter a person with such enthusiasm and dare I say, passion, for cleaning carpets. His warm smile immediately put me at ease letting a stranger into my home and his professional appearance told me he meant business.
We headed towards our basement where the proof that our cat, Petunia, is well-beyond middle age awaited his expertise. As I started to turn on the lights, he stopped me and I realized the flashlight he was holding was a black light.
“I always grab this when I hear a dog barking when I get out of my van,” Tony informed me. He didn’t even notice my embarrassment with our stains because he was too geeked out calculating a game plan on how to tackle this challenge.
As Tony inspected the damage, he explained the process, “First we treat the stains, then we scrub with an agitator, then we steam clean. It will look like new!” The smartass in me wanted to ask if he had a mouse in his pocket because I had zero plans of helping. But his eagerness sucked me right in and I was fully enlisted in assisting in any way I could. He just knew we were going to win this stain battle.
Tony got right to work, applying enzyme treatments and prepping his cords from his van’s power source. Meanwhile, we realized we had mutual friends as he told me his other job is with the Southern Campbell Fire Department. As Tony worked, every few minutes he said with conviction, “This is going to look so great when we’re finished.” I believed him.
Come to find out, Tony learned about carpet cleaning when he was a teenager and his best friend’s father owned a steam cleaning business. He explained how he’d made $3.50/hour as an assistant and he learned the tricks of the trade. The summer before he headed to college, Tony and his best friend were given a van of their own to run. His friend’s father booked them 2 jobs for the day at $3.50/hour and told them any other jobs they could land on their own would be money straight into their pockets. “We’d knock on doors until we’d squeezed in 2-3 more jobs every day. That’s how I learned about carpet cleaning.”
Tony went to college and spent 10 years in the mortgage industry. When the bottom fell out of the economy in 2008, he became a paramedic and firefighter. Several years ago when the state pension fund started to look shaky, Tony took control of his future and used his carpet cleaning knowledge to start a business.
“Those were some of the best days of my life in that van with my buddy. And I always found such satisfaction in making something look new again. It just made sense.”
Tony scoured eBay and Craigslist for a van and equipment to start his business and 3 years later, here we were. Me learning more about carpet steamers than I realized I wanted to know, Tony approaching his work with exuberance and Petunia plotting her next attack.
What does all this have to do with midlife you ask? I’ll tell you.
First, most middle aged people have carpet. Secondly, when someone is enthusiastic and doing the absolute best he/she can do, it’s contagious. I enjoyed having my carpets cleaned, learning about the process and most of all being inspired to be more like Tony.
