Nowadays, wood-style and hardwood flooring continue to gain popularity in residential properties. However, many homeowners still use wall-to-wall carpeting. No matter what your preference, there are some benefits that come with carpeted flooring – from noise dampening to comfort for bare feet, carpet flooring still has a lot to offer and it is still much easier to maintain with minimal wear and tear given a few cleaning hacks.
Here are some of our best carpet cleaning tips you may or may not have heard about yet:
#01. Use a lint roller when extracting small debris.
Suction from a regular household cleaner is sometimes not enough to get rid of all the dirt, pet hair, crumbs, spills (sugar, flour or rice), or other tiny particles nested in the fibres of your carpet flooring. This is normal – but let us tell you a secret: USE THE LINT ROLLER! This is actually a great way to extract pesky particles, but it will probably take you between five to fifteen minutes to cover a fully carpeted room! Don’t worry, your hard work will pay off.
#02. Use a squeegee to remove pet hair.
Are you a pet lover? If you are, then you must know what happens to a carpet in a house full of dogs or cats. If not, then you can just imagine the excessive amount of hair that pets leave behind when they shed. What does not stick to upholstery and furnishing will eventually end up on the carpet. Squeegees are best used for cleaning windows, but you will be surprised at how efficient it is in terms of removing pet hair from your carpet! All you have to do is rinse the squeegee, so it is moist enough for pet hair to stick.
#03. Use heat to help remove stubborn stains.
Not all stains can be removed with heat, but most of them are. There might be many different ways to remove stains with an iron, but let us give you just 5 simple steps:
Step 1: Remove all dirt possible with regular vacuum cleaning.
Step 2: Mix water and vinegar (3:1) and pre-treat all stains.
Step 3: Leave the mixture to set in for five to ten minutes.
Step 4: Use a rag or a towel to cover the stains.
Step 5: Gently iron the area and be sure to move quickly to avoid damaging the carpet fibres.
The combined forces of vinegar, water, pressure, and heat make most stains to transfer from your carpet to the towel or rag.
#04. Blot a stain instead of rubbing it.
We often rub things in our daily life – brushing our teeth, washing our face, washing silver and dinnerware, wiping smudges off our shoes, and more. Rubbing something when cleaning it is an instinctual reaction, but it should not be the same when it comes to cleaning a carpet. When you apply pressure to your carpet, it will only make the situation worse. Keep this in mind: the more you rub, the deeper the stain sets in. Once fibre and dirt spots bind for good, then cleaning it would be impossible. So instead of rubbing it, blot the stains instead. You should always start at the outer edges of the stain and work your way in toward the centre, and do not blot the opposite way.
