Carpets are an important part of your home, providing comfortable flooring for kids, pets, and adults. A neat and clean carpet is of great significance when it comes to maintaining a home’s beauty and health of its residents. Carpets attract animal hair, dirt, stains as well as mold. That’s why proper cleaning of carpets is imperative. A healthy cleaning habit keeps carpets away from bugs, dust mites, and fleas.
Furthermore, stains and dirty mats can attract allergens, causing respiratory problems for people with a weak immune system. This guide is no less than a treasure if you wish to know how to clean carpet. Let’s check out some useful techniques that can help you deep clean carpet under different situations.
How to Clean Carpet with Vacuum Cleaner
Prepare the Place
First off, you need to prepare the room for a vacuum cleaning session. Collect kids’ stuff, toys, papers, or other similar things lying in the way of the vacuum cleaner. Don’t forget to gather tiny things like coins as they can damage your vacuum cleaner. Bow down to look under furniture articles to find little belongings. It is wise to dust the furniture, baseboards, blinds, curtains, and windowsills first. The vacuum cleaner can suck in the falling dust and save you from extra effort.
Use Nozzles to reach inaccessible Areas
Use nozzle attachments to clean out unreachable areas. The corners of baseboards and carpets usually accumulate more dust than other frequently used areas. So go and clean those inaccessible areas first. Using cranny extension is a good idea to easily reach under sofas if the furniture piece cannot be moved.
Vacuum in Both Directions
It is important to use vacuum in the right way so that all dust particles can be sucked into your carpet cleaning container. First, start using the vacuum forward and back, and then repeat the same process from left to right. Fibers of carpets are twisted, which makes carpet cleaning slightly harder. Nevertheless, using the carpet vacuum cleaner in both directions ensures that all parts are cleaned. People having pets at home will find this dry clean carpet technique very beneficial.
Perform Regular Vacuuming
How regularly? There are a few factors involved. In general, it is advisable to clean your room’s carpet at least once a week. However, it is better to analyze the condition of your carpet and clean whenever it is needed. Cleaning carpet more often saves from health conditions caused by the unhygienic environment.
How to Spot Clean Your Carpet
Using White Cloth
We all come across situations when a cup of coffee or drink drops down on the carpet, causing it to look dirty. Sometimes it creates a bad smell, making it hard to breathe. Spot cleaning comes into play when you get to see stains on the carpet. The reason we are suggesting to use a clean white cloth is that colored cloth having patterns or dark shades might transfer the color, making your carpet more unclean. Paper towels are also a nice option as they don’t have patterns to create stain issues. You should avoid using brushes as they can damage the carpet’s fibers. Remember, spot cleaning is just for small parts occasionally; it should not be part of your regular carpet cleaning.
Choosing the Correct Carpet Cleaner
If you want to dry clean carpet, then you need to pick up the best cleaning agent from the market. There is a wide range of commercial detergents available that you can use to make your carpet spotless. Normally they come in handy spray bottles to make cleaning procedure easier. Different types of stains require specific cleaners, so make sure to choose the correct one.
For instance, you can select the enzyme-based detergent for cleaning stains caused by pet urine. They are specifically made to deal with this sort of blemishes. Likewise, you can use hydrogen peroxide or cold water to remove a fresh bloodstain.
Testing the Cleaning Agent
Usage directions are written on the cleaning bottles. Go through these instructions, and try out the cleanser on a small part of your carpet. It is better to test results before applying the same detergent to the entire carpet. The purpose of this testing is to make sure that the cleaning agent leaves no stain on the carpet. If you see a stain after testing on a particular carpet piece, avoid using it and try to look out for another one.
Blob the Affected Part
Use a very small amount of cleaning product and lightly blot the stain. Do not use the exceeding amount of the cleaner as carpets never need more product to get rid of stains. Your carpet is likely to attract more dust and leave a big stain if some amount of soap left behind. Do not scrub or press the carpet too hard as this can make the stain deeper than before.
Rinse Your Rug
Soak up if you see any remaining soap left by using a fresh white damp cloth. Using water directly for soaking purpose can leave the water under the carpet, which may cause bad smell and mold. After cleaning with a white damp cloth, allow the air dry. You can switch on the fan and open windows to dry the carpet quickly.
How to Steam Clean Your Carpet
Steam carpet cleaning is very beneficial for removing dust, dirt, and debris stuck in your living room carpet. This is slightly different from other cleaning methods discussed above. All you need soap, water, and steam cleaning machine. You should wait for the weather to become warm and dry because your room will dry soon in such an atmosphere. Your place will need plenty of time to dry out after completing the steam cleaning process. You need to fill the steam machine with hot water, and pour the required amount of soap in it. Do not forget to check out the operating instructions written on the machine manual before you go for steam.
Clear the Room
Steam cleaning is a very effective technique to make your carpet spotless and odorless. Before you start steam carpet cleaning, make sure to remove everything from your room. Remove all, including figurines, documents, and stuff lying on the carpet.
Probably you may not be able to remove everything as sometimes there are heavy pieces of furniture, which are very difficult to move. Anyhow, try to clear as much space as possible. It is advisable to place squares of foil or plastic film under the legs of heavy furniture so that your fixtures don’t get affected by the moisture. If you do not have another room to move the furniture, move it to one half of the space and complete the steam cleaning in two sections. Make sure that one half of the carpet is fully dried before you move back furniture to the cleaned area.
Clean Baseboards
It is very important to clear baseboards from dust particles before you initiate steam cleaning. Use a soft cloth or a duster with a long handle to remove as much dirt as possible. Dust ceiling corners, ceiling fans, and walls to avoid extra dust from falling on the carpet after the cleaning is done.
Vacuum the Carpet
Steam cleaning is meant to pull up little dust particles from carpet fibers. It is not for removing larger dirt wreckage's and pet hair. So it is prudent to vacuum the entire carpet before you start the steaming process. Another benefit of vacuuming before steaming is that the carpet fluffs up, making it easier for streamers to deep clean fibers more efficiently.
Utilize Detergent for Stains
There could be deep stains that are sometimes hard for even steamers to pull up and clean. It is very helpful to spot clean stains using specific detergents or cleaning agents available in superstores. You can use any carpet stain removing solutions that you think would work well.
Fill the Steaming Machine
Now is the time to fill the steamer with hot water; it doesn’t mean you should pour boiling water. Steamers normally use some detergents. You can refer to the instruction manual of the machine to see recommendations. Selection of detergent is very important as the detergent will be the cleaning agent, not steam. Vinegar is also known as a great cleaning agent.
Steaming the Complete Carpet
Start the steaming process from the diagonal corner of your room, and gradually work yourself out of the cleaning space. You have more freedom to move if the room being cleaned has more than one entrance. In any case, prevent from walking on the part of the carpet that you have already cleaned.
There is a wide range of carpet steamers available today, and some of them work differently. So make sure to be well-acquainted with the operational instructions. Pull the steamer in long lines to make the steaming process more effective. Slightly overlap the previous line whenever you start a new line with the steamer. This technique will help you remove lines that are marked on the carpet during the steaming process. After you are finished cleaning the entire room, allow twelve to twenty-four hours for your carpet to become completely dry. Open windows and turn on the fan to make the drying process faster.
Conclusion
There are several techniques of cleaning carpets, and you can adopt any of these to make your home look beautiful. Keeping carpets clean saves from embarrassment and dozens of health problems. Hence, one should adopt the habit of cleaning carpets regularly.
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