If you have a carpet at home or at the office, keeping it clean and fresh is one factor to keep your space looking and feeling clean. With this guide, you can easily learn how to clean your carpet — whether you’re looking for a quick way to maintain clean carpets, or for a deep cleaning method.
How to Clean Your Carpets
The best way to clean your carpet at home or at the office is to vacuum it regularly. Getting rid of dust in between the carpet fibers and underneath the carpet is the first step in maintaining your carpet. If you’re going to deep clean your carpet, vacuuming is also the first step you need to do so it’s important that you know how to do it right.
To ensure that you’re using your vacuum (and your time) efficiently, here are some helpful carpet cleaning tips you can follow to maintain a clean carpet, area rugs, or any similar feature in your home!
1. Vacuum in One Direction Only
If you are used to vacuuming in short, quick, back-and-forth motions, then it’s time to change your technique. To make sure that you are using your machine efficiently, make sure to vacuum your carpets in one direction only, from wall to wall, either from north to south or from east to west.
After vacuuming a row of the carpet, pull the machine over the row that you just finished vacuuming, and go at it again to pick up dirt that you might have missed the first time. Continue vacuuming row by row until you finish the whole carpet. This technique ensures that your vacuum is getting every bit of dirt and lint on your carpet.
This method is also best when you're deep cleaning your carpets. Use a vacuum cleaner with a strong suction power to clean carpet fibers, and remove loose debris from deep within the carpets. If you're using a carpet cleaning solution, working in one direction will prevent dirt from getting entangled in the fibers as well.
2. Empty Vacuum Bag When It’s Already Half-full
Experts recommend emptying the vacuum bag once it’s half-full. A carpet cleaning machine with a half-full dust bag will have reduced efficiency as the bag fills up, so make sure you empty out the vacuum bag when it's half-full.
It’s also important to note that reusing disposable vacuum bags can also cut your vacuum’s efficiency by up to 50 percent. This is due to the dust and debris that may get into the components of your carpet cleaning machine as you use it to deep clean your carpet.
3. Vacuum Slowly and Surely
It might be tempting to vacuum your carpet as quickly as possible, but it’s important to vacuum slowly and surely to make sure that you’re cleaning your carpets better. Just glossing over each area won't clean carpets, so you're much better off slowing down the cleaning process. If you use baking soda or dry carpet cleaning solutions, vacuuming slowly will make sure you get rid of all residues from the fibers.
Vacuuming slowly allows your vacuum to suck more dirt and dust. It also makes sure that the fibres of your carpet are brushed up. Remember, it’s okay if the fibres are sticking up and they look a little bit messier. It’s an indicator that your vacuum is getting the dirt that clings in between the fibres of the carpet.
4. Vacuum Everything Once Again
After you’re done vacuuming your carpet, make sure to vacuum it thoroughly one last time. This probably sounds tiring, but vacuuming your carpet one last time, the vacuum brushes its fibres and restores the carpet’s original and proper appearance.
5. Don’t Wait Too Long Before Vacuuming
Vacuum your carpet from time to time even if it doesn't look dirty and dusty. The dirt piles up in between the fibres and underneath the carpet so make sure to vacuum as frequently as once or twice a week.
Even better, you can set up a regular vacuuming schedule to keep yourself reminded. Regularly and frequently vacuuming your carpet not only makes it look cleaner all the time, but it also makes thorough carpet cleaning easier the next time you do it.
How to Maintain Your Carpet
Aside from vacuuming your carpet, here are other ways to clean the carpet and keep it fresh. Maintaining a clean carpet will help your carpet look pristine, and will prevent fibers from breaking down over time.
1. Remove any Indents and Marks Right Away
If your carpet has indents and impression marks from furniture, you can rub an ice cube on the affected area, fluff it up by brushing the fibres and let it dry completely. This allows the carper to restore its original fluffy appearance.
Rotate and change the location of your furniture to make sure that it doesn’t leave any indents and impression marks on your carpet.
2. Do Instant Carpet Cleaning by Treating Stains Right Away
If you have kids and pets at home, carpet stains are probably not new in your everyday life. It’s important to clean the stains as soon as possible if you want your carpet to be clean and fresh at all times. The good news is that you can easily do that by using the tools that are already available in your household.
First, vacuum the area you’re going to clean. Next, cover the stain you want to clean with a baking soda and vinegar solution or dish soap. Swoosh it around until you see bubbles forming. It might be helpful to have a spray bottle with cleaning solution on hand for emergencies.
Then, gently scrub the area with warm water to remove the stain using an old brush, toothbrush, rag, or paper towel to wet the area. Do not soak the carpet completely, just pour enough warm water to cover the area that you are going to clean. You can use an iron to remove oil and wax stains immediately as the heat melts oil and wax.
Turn on fans and open the windows near the carpet to allow it to completely dry. Once dry, make sure to vacuum it again to restore its proper fluffy appearance. Use a brush to fluff up the carpet so it does not look flat. This is a more immediate, and easier cleaning method than having to wash carpets entirely.
3. Wash everything thoroughly
A key factor to make sure that you’re maintaining the cleanliness and the quality of your carpet is to wash it thoroughly once in a while, preferably once a year. Frequent vacuuming helps remove everyday dust and debris, but hiring a professional carpet cleaner once a year will maintain the freshness of the carpet.
Make sure to choose a sunny day when washing your carpet because it’s ideal to do this outdoors. Set up an outdoor station where you can wash and dry your carpet, preferably with sturdy benches or walls to help support the heavy carpet.
First, as mentioned earlier, it is important to vacuum the carpet first. Remember to apply the vacuum techniques explained earlier to make sure that your carpet is not dusty before washing it.
At this point, you can now set up your carpet over your chosen sturdy support system, and rinse it wet using your garden hose. Apply the carpet shampoo to the wet carpet. You can test it out first on a small area of the carpet to make sure that it doesn’t ruin the dye of the carpet. Rub it thoroughly using a brush.
Leave the shampoo on the carpet as long as indicated in the instructions before rinsing it. Make sure to rinse the carpet thoroughly to avoid leaving any residues. After rising the carpet, try to wring it to get rid of excess water. Hang your carpet and let it completely dry, this could take a few days so for more protective drying, you can hang it in a room with a good ventilation system.
Once the carpet is fully dry, you can now put it back in its original place. Make sure to vacuum it to restore its original appearance. If using carpet cleaning machines, always follow the instructions in the user's manual to clean your carpet, or have professional home carpet cleaners handle the work.
Leave it to the Experts
Cleaning and maintaining your carpet might look like a daunting task at first but with these expert tips and techniques, you can now easily clean and maintain your carpet at home or in the office.
But keep in mind that these are only short-term solutions on how you can clean and maintain your carpet. It’s still better, and advisable, to have professional cleaning schedules regularly.
Entrusting your carpet to skilled, expert cleaners who have proper equipment and knowledge about carpet cleaning is still the best way to keep your carpets looking clean, fresh, and new for the long run.
