Are your carpets looking a little dingy, or do you notice a strange smell you can’t quite place? We try our best to keep our carpets clean and fresh, but accidents happen, and carpets get dirty. Carpets can also trap odours, making our homes or businesses smell less than fresh.
Whether you accidentally spilled something onto your new rug or it’s been a while since you performed a deep cleaning on those carpets, you might be looking for some carpet cleaning hacks.
Below, we go over five simple cleaning and maintenance tips so you can keep your carpets in great shape.
1. Clean Carpets Twice a Year
Even if your carpet is blessedly free of spills and stains, you should consider cleaning the carpets in your home every six months. There’s a lot of grime hiding in those little fibers, even if you’re careful about not wearing shoes inside.
Dust, dirt, and even pollen fall off your shoes and clothes and get tracked through the carpet. Sure, regular vacuuming helps, but some grime gets stuck deep in the fibers. That’s why you should schedule a professional carpet cleaning for your home or business at least twice a year.
2. Treat Stains the Right Way
The way you treat a red wine stain isn’t going to be the same as the way you handle a pet urine stain. First, let’s go over the basic steps you’ll want to follow for all stain removal, and then we’ll cover different ways to treat common staining.
Step 1: Absorb the Liquid
The first step is to soak up the liquids with paper towels or a type of absorbent cloth. Blot the area and gently press down—avoid rubbing the spill, or you could be doing more harm than good. Rubbing liquid causes it to soak further into the carpet fibers, which can make the stain worse!
One of our favorite carpet cleaning hacks is to blot the spill from the outside toward the middle to avoid spreading the stain to the rest of your carpet.
Step 2: Identify the Stain
If you saw the stain happen, such as spilling a wine glass or your child dropping their juice all over the floor, that makes this part easier. However, you may not always know what caused the stain or how long it’s been on the carpeting.
When identifying a stain, you’ll first want to consider the location. A rug in the dining room, by the kitchen sink, or in a common area like a cafeteria or dining hall are prone to food and drink stains. A dark stain near the coffee maker is likely from coffee or tea.
Stains in areas with lots of foot traffic are often from dirt or mud tracked from outside.
Consider the colour and texture of the stain to identify the source. If the stain has been on the carpet for a while, it’s going to take more effort to remove.
When it comes to pet urine stains, you can use a black light or UV light to identify the location of the accident. A black light will illuminate any substance with phosphors, such as dog and cat pee, so you can treat even older stains.
Step 3: Treat the Stain
Common stains such as coffee, food, wine, and pet urine all take a toll on the carpet. However, the way you treat them may vary.
For pet urine, you’ll need to use a cleaner with enzymes. These enzymes break down the urine molecules, which also help eliminate the smell.
What about the dreaded red wine stain? You can use special cleaners meant for wine stains or mix some dish detergent with white vinegar and some warm water. When cleaning a carpet with wine stains, it’s important to act fast.
If you notice coffee stains on your rugs or carpeting, you can either use a special cleaner or use the dish soap and vinegar mixture again. If the coffee contained cream, milk, or sugar, you could use an enzyme laundry detergent. This can help eliminate the stickiness.
Stubborn stains may need more than one treatment.
3. Dealing With Reappearing Stains
Have you ever noticed a stain reappearing after cleaning it up? Stains are annoying enough, but recurring stains are enough to cause a major headache.
Reappearing stains are usually due to soiling or wicking. Soiling is a result of leftover residue on the carpet that wasn’t cleaned up. Wicking happens when a liquid soaks through to the padding. In time, this liquid can reappear on the carpet as it wicks up toward the surface again.
Neither of these situations is ideal, which is why you need to attend to carpet stains as quickly as possible. When dealing with stubborn stains, call a carpet cleaning company. Carpet cleaning professionals have special equipment that can lift stains and odours.
4. Pay Attention to High-Traffic Areas
Areas with lots of foot traffic, such as stairs, entryways, and hallways, see a lot more wear and tear than other areas. As a result, these rooms and spaces are more likely to see ground-in dirt or food and drink stains. Pay closer attention to these areas as they’ll need more frequent cleaning than other rooms.
To keep your carpet looking like new, perform regular vacuuming, and spot-treat these areas when you notice stains and dirt.
It helps to have a vacuum with the right attachments to clean areas like stairs and hard-to-reach spots in the home, such as behind furniture.
5. Invest in a Carpet Cleaning Service
When you’re busy with work, social activities, and taking care of the little ones, cleaning the carpets is often the last thing on your mind. Since regular carpet cleaning is essential to maintaining a clean home, why not have those carpets professionally cleaned?
A professional carpet cleaning uses special equipment to eliminate stains, bacteria, dust, and odours. Regular cleaning can help extend the life of your carpet and make your home a cleaner and safer place.
Use These Carpet Cleaning Hacks for a Cleaner Home
No matter how careful we are, accidents happen, and your carpet is bound to suffer a few spills. Thankfully, you can use these carpet cleaning hacks to make cleaning up that mess a little easier!
If you need a professional carpet cleaning, leave it to us and send us a message. We’ll have your home or business looking like new in no time.
