Carpet Cleaning Tips

Vacuuming

Vacuuming is the easiest thing that you can do to keep your carpet clean. While most people know how to vacuuming many people do not know how to vacuum effectively. The following are some tips on vacuuming effectively to keep your carpet clean.

  • Vacuum areas with heavy traffic often.  Overlap your vacuum strokes and use a crisscross pattern. This pattern is most effective at removing dirt from high traffic areas.
  • Purchase scented vacuum powders at your local discount store. These powders will help to prevent odor. Baking soda is also great at fighting odor. You can put the powder or baking soda directly into your vacuum bag or you can sprinkle it onto your carpet before your run your sweeper.
  • Vacuum your carpet weekly at minimum. Not only will vacuuming your carpet make it last longer, it will also keep the carpet cleaner.

Cleaning spots on carpet

Vacuuming is great to lift loose dirt and debris from carpet, but what about spots from liquid? Here are some tips for removing liquid stains from carpet.

  • It is important that you attended to a spill as quickly as possible. Use a white towel to blot up any excess liquid. Get as much of the liquid as you can out, before applying any solution to the spot.
  • Use a carpet cleaning solution that you have tested on an inconspicuous area of your carpet.
  • To remove blood stains from carpet you should soak up as much of the blood as possible using a towel.  Create a solution using 1 ounce of mild dish detergent and 1 ounce of vinegar, add it to about a quart of water and apply to the stain. Allow the solution to dry ant then vacuum. If the stain persists, repeat the process until the stain has gone.
  • If you get gum in your carpet use an ice cube to harden the gum. Once it is hardened it can be easily removed from the carpet.
  • If you spill red wine on your carpet quickly use white wine to dilute the stain. Use cold water to clean the stain. If the stain does not come out cover it with salt. Once the spot had dried use your vacuum to sweep up the salt. This should remove the wine stain from your carpet.
  • Mud is easily cleaned from carpet using the correct method. First allow the mud to dry. Then use you vacuum cleaner to suck the mud out. If this does not get all of the mud out of your carpet you should use a brush to loosen the dirt. Vacuum again and apply a stain remover.

Deep Cleaning Your Carpet

Once about every 6 months it is a good idea to deep clean your carpet. You can hire a professional to do it or you can rent an industrial carpet cleaner from your local home improvement store.

If you have a small area to clean you may just want to have it cleaned by a professional, because the cost will be relatively low; however if you have a lot of carpet, it will be much cheaper to rent a carpet cleaning machine and clean the carpet yourself.