Let’s admit it all together. Yes, once in a while we all face this not so difficult at the first sight problem. They may get dirty, messy, stained and quite unpleasant to touch, and thus, they turn from something we enjoy and something that makes our home a really cozy and warm place into something we are frustrated with. What are they? – Dirty carpets. What do we do about them? – We get them cleaned. We get the stains, dust and dirt removed, the color renewed and the softness brought back.
Cleaning your carpets regularly is rather important not only for the better and cleaner look of the house, but also for the health of people that live in it. Removing dust and small pieces of other garbage not only makes your house well-maintained and neat, but also prevents various respiratory and allergy problems. And, if you have kids, it’s much safer for them to crawl and play on clean and spotless surfaces, especially if your children are really young and tend to spend most of their time on the floor playing toys and, unfortunately, grabbing the most inappropriate things and sticking them into their mouths. Having pets in the house also makes the job harder, as their hair is difficult to get rid of, not mentioning the spots from the “toilet accidents” (that also applies to children).
So, let’s figure out how to clean your carpets properly and efficiently.
How to vacuum your carpets correctly
Needless to say that carpets require often and regular vacuuming (at least once a week or even more frequently).
But before you actually start doing that, prepare your carpets. It will be easier for you to do the job if you pick up the kids’ and pets’ toys, socks, pieces of paper, clothes and pretty much anything else that might appear on your floor. It’s also better to dust the furniture, TV, blinds, etc. beforehand. After that, proceed to the vacuuming part. As easy as it seems, there’re also several simple rules, which will help you to vacuum your carpets better.
So, the right way to do it is to go in 2 opposite directions: at first, vacuum the whole carpet in top to bottom motions, and then go over it one more time, but using left-to-right motions. Basically, you want to vacuum it both vertically and horizontally in order to get rid of all dust and other small particles that infest your carpet.
Don’t forget to clean under the furniture, as the dust accumulates there really fast. Besides, it’s useful to look under your couches and armchairs. Under them, you may find a lot of things you’ve been searching for a long time and almost convinced yourself they’re gone forever. Use a convenient nozzle to clean those hard to reach places.
If the vacuum didn’t manage to get all the pets’ or even humans’ hair, you can clean it up with a stiff brush manually.
If you want to carry out deeper vacuuming once in a while, you may apply special carpet shampoo or spray cleaner, leave it for how long the instructions require, and then vacuum it off. This will help you make the carpet cleaner and its colors brighter. Just make sure that you buy a shampoo or other detergent, which suits your type of carpet and won’t ruin it.
Spot cleaning
Oh, that is the hardest and the most annoying thing ever! Most of the stains refuse to come off even after you spent half an hour rubbing and scrubbing it off. Thus, it’s always useful to discover diverse ways of how to get rid of stains on the carpet.
Obviously, various stains require different approach and cleaning products. But, for sure, it always takes a lot of patience to wash a stubborn blot off. Besides, you’re not supposed to rub the stain, as you’ll only spread it further onto the carpet this way. So, it’s better to dab it with a piece of cloth or paper towel to let it soak the stain’s substance up. Do it in outside to inside direction.
Some of the spots (like beer and wine ones) may be cleaned by club soda. Again, you should gently dab the stain with a cloth, soaked in it. If your stain is still there, prepare the mix of vinegar and water (half of each) and spray it all over the spot. Leave it there for 15 minutes and try to remove the solution together with the stain using a clean sponge or piece of cloth. Repeat these steps until your carpet is clean. When the spot is gone, you may want to lay several paper towels all over the wet area to let them soak the moisture in. It’s better to use a mix of water and dishwasher soap to clean the grease stains, but the procedure is actually the same.
Your ordinary shaving gel or cream may also serve as a spot cleaner if you apply it onto the stain, leave it there for 20 to 30 minutes and wipe it off with a dry towel. Get rid of the remaining substance with vinegar and water mixture as it was described above.
Blood stains may be removed by hydrogen peroxide. But before you do that, try to wipe the blood of using water and detergent mixture. When that’s done, apply some hydrogen peroxide directly onto the stain. It will react with blood and ‘pull’ it out of the carpet creating foam. Remove the resulting substance with a sponge and dry the carpet with paper or ordinary towels.
If a chewing gum somehow ended up stuck to the carpet, don’t panic. It’s not ruined yet. Grab a few pieces of ice from your fridge and try to ‘freeze’ the gum until it’s hard. Then, take a spoon or a knife to lift it up a little bit and cut off the carpets fibers that got stuck to the gum as close to it as possible. If you do everything carefully, the damage will be minimal and almost unnoticeable.
The wax from burning candles, spilled on the carpet, needs to be warmed up before removal. You may do that by placing a towel over the spot and putting an iron on top of it just for 20-30 seconds (otherwise you may burn the carpet). Then, try to scrape the warm wax off. It’s possible to get rid of the remaining substance by putting a sheet of paper over the ‘waxed’ area and iron it. The wax will melt and latch to the paper.
Deep cleaning
It’s absolutely necessary to carry out deep carpet cleaning at least once or twice a year to keep your carpets smelling and looking as good as new and to sanitize them. You can do it yourself, if you by a special cleaning solution and rent/purchase a steam cleaner. But this job is quite hard; it takes a lot of time, and, let me tell you, it’s not really pleasant to perform.
So, why do you have to struggle, run around the house with a bunch of cleaning supplies that smell disgusting, harmfully affect your body, and, moreover, don’t do the job even after you spent the whole day scrubbing and whipping?
Don’t waste your time, money and effort in vain. Go ahead and get your carpets cleaned by professionals, which provide their services in your local area. Now you can easily find a company or an independent professional that specializes in cleaning carpets and works in your local area on Internet, using our site HireRush.com, and hire him right away just by calling him or sending an email. They may offer different technologies of carpet cleaning, like dry-cleaning, vacuum wash, stain removal, dry foam carpet cleaning, dry compound or shampoo cleaning, etc. Book suitable time and type of carpet cleaning you prefer. Your part of the task is done now. The rest is the professional’s job.
HireRush.com provides a significant amount of carpet cleaning advertisements with a wide range of carpet cleaning prices. Here you will definitely come across the offer you like the most and the most affordable one. Visit HireRush.com, scroll through the ads, make a call and give your carpets a new life.
Great article. Nice, well written and professional. Wish more professional cleaners did articles this good.
Thanks a lot!