Seven Tips For Keeping Carpets Clean (And A Bonus Tip For Rugs)
Everything in life gets dirty. That’s just the way things are. Naturally, it’s as true for carpets as it is for anything else. However, there are things that anybody can do to help the carpets stay looking nice rather than descending into manky, damp, smelly dog hair ick. As a professional carpet cleaner in Cricklewood, I know that these things work a treat!
OK, these carpet cleaning hacks aren’t going to be able to transform that terrible 1970s carpet that the landlord never gets around to replacing into something a bit easier on the eye! However, they will make sure that your carpets stay fresh, fluffy and nice to sit on.
Oh yes – and there are a couple of bonus tips that apply to mats and rugs as well! Get those fibres clean is what I say, my word!
Tip #1: Take Your Shoes Off
Shoes are designed to protect your feet when you walk to and from the Crown pub (the Clayton Crown Hotel, to be precise), down Edgeware Road or anywhere in between, or when you’re mowing the lawn. This means that they are likely to pick up mud, dirt, grime, water, residues of dog pee, bits of grass and… well, you get the picture. These are items best kept off your carpet. Sure, you can wipe your feet on the doormat before coming inside, but doormats aren’t magic, and there will still be bits left on the bottom of your shoes. The answer, of course, is to take your shoes off at the door. This is the norm in quite a lot of cultures, and it’s becoming more acceptable to do so throughout the UK – even when you’re visiting someone else. Those living in rural areas may already know the drill of asking, “What do you want me to do with my shoes?” when turning up at someone’s place. If you really can’t bring yourself to not wear shoes inside, then at least get into the habit of having separate outdoor and indoor shoes and changing them when you get to the door. This is no different from the practice of putting on running shoes to walk around the block during lunch at work and then swapping them for your office shoes when you get back.
Besides, walking barefoot on clean carpet is a sensual pleasure that shouldn’t be missed!
Tip #2: Keep The Mess Out
Some things that we do in our homes are more likely to spill and splatter and get mess onto our carpets than others. If you know that an activity you want or need to do is likely to spill bits or put something you don’t really want into the carpets, then don’t do it on the carpet. For example, don’t brush the dog (even if your Gladstone Park was not a muddy one), apply a sloppy face mask or dye your hair on a carpeted area. Take it into the bathroom where there’s no carpet or outside (even onto the balcony). Removing those stains can be difficult. Why pay for emergency carpet cleaning services when you can wait until your maintenance clean is due? It’s a no brainer, this one.
Ideally, you shouldn’t eat or drink in carpeted areas either. If you can, put the dining table in a hard floor area, such as the kitchen, and don’t eat anywhere else. However, we all know that this is probably unreasonable, as we all like to have a coffee or glass of wine and maybe some cheese and crackers during a Netflix session. In some houses, the only area for the dining table is a carpeted area. Food and drink drop crumbs and get spilt – and some spills are worse than others. This leads me to the next tip…
Tip #3: Use Plates And Coffee Tables
If you’re going to take snacks and drinks into the living room or the bedroom – which we all do – then at the very least, make sure that whatever you’re eating is on a plate that will catch the crumbs (unless you are visiting the Cricklewood Baptist Church, haha). With drinks, instead of putting your cup or glass down on the carpet where it’s likely to be knocked or kicked, put it on a coffee table or some other handy surface nearby. It’s also smart to ensure that anything you want to eat in a carpeted area is not sloppy or runny and likely to be spilt. Mind you, I’m partial to a nice cup of soup in front of the fire and/or a good DVD, so I can recommend trays as another line of defence against spills and drips.
Tip #4: Put Down A Protective Layer
Even when they’re eating at the table, small children are messy eaters – and some adults can be a bit sloppy as well! If you possibly can (see Tip #2), put the table in a hard-floor area. If you can’t, then it’s a good idea to put down a protective plastic mat under the table where small children eat, especially if they’re at the high chair stage of development. You can buy plastic sheets expressly designed for this purpose, or you can improvise with a sheet. Cheaper and easier than trying to clean the messed up carpet afterwards.
The principle of putting down a protective layer also applies to other items that are likely to spill and/or would be disastrous if they did spill. That’s why I insist that when my daughter paints her toenails, she puts her feet (and the polish) on an old copy of the local newspaper or an old towel where spills of nail polish won’t matter like they would on the carpet.
Tip #5: Vacuum Regularly
This one is a biggie. No matter what you do, some mess is going to get on the carpets. We all shed skin and hair particles everywhere we go. Then there’s that moment when you nipped out to take in the rubbish bins in your slippers because it wasn’t far and the pavement was clean… This means that you’ll have to get out the trusty old vacuum cleaner and give your carpets some TLC. How often you want to vacuum will depend on you, who’s in your house, and what you do, but weekly should be your bare minimum.
Tip #6: Deal With Spills And Stains Immediately
If a spill or a stain sits on a carpet for long enough to dry, it will be harder to remove. Trust me on this – there have been times when I’ve been called out to a stain removal job where the stain in question has been sitting on the carpet for months. I’m shuddering – these stains are hard to get out. However, if they’re dealt with straight away, even stains that look downright brutal, such as curry stains and red wine, will come out. You’ll need to scrape or sponge up as much as you can straight away, then do your best to keep the area from drying out before the emergency stain removal team comes (most good professional carpet cleaning companies provide same-day and emergency stain treatment services). If you tackle the stain yourself, then use cold water and avoid spreading the stain further out into the rest of the carpet.
Tip #7: Restrict Pets From Certain Areas
We love our pets, but we know that they shed hair and just don’t get the idea of wiping feet at the door after frolicking over a wet lawn. If you have pets, you will have a bit more dirt on the fibres to deal with, and deep carpet cleaning every year is an absolute must. However, you can make life a bit easier by keeping pets out of certain areas (bedrooms, for example). This restricts the mess to only certain areas of the house. It’s easier to train dogs to do this; cats, however, will go wherever they fancy, but at least they’re less likely to get muddy than dogs.
Bonus Tip For Rugs And Mats
To make sure that mats and rugs don’t develop track marks on part of them and/or weird faded patches from where they’ve sat in the sun, rotate them every couple of months so that they wear out and fade evenly. If your mat or rug is an odd shape rather than round or square, enabling you to rotate it easily, then shifting it around a bit or reorienting it will do the trick.