Keeping Your Carpet Cleaner, For Longer

Have you ever lifted up a carpet to see what’s underneath? Are you aware of how much dirt, dust, and spills settle in the foam pad below your carpeting?

If you weren’t, take my word that it’s typically a little unsettling. Not only does the dirt and grime buildup account for lingering odors and basic cleanliness, but not taking care of your carpet properly will also shorten its lifespan. So, the question remains – what can you do to ensure your carpet stays as clean as possible?

Protecting Your Carpet

Just like with most things, success is achieved with a solid base. By protecting your carpet through the amount of dirt and grime it’s exposed to, it’s guaranteed to stay cleaner for longer, as well as be easier to clean.

You can help to protect your carpet by keeping shoes off the carpet. If you’re not interested in doing this in your home, another good option is to keep mats at every entryway. This will allow for more dirt to meet your mat than your carpet.

It’s also wise to pretreat any heavily trafficked areas of your carpet. This will help give those area of your carpeting a little bit of a shield. Again, if you’re uninterested in this, try adding a rug or runner to highly trafficked areas. This will protect your carpet and be much cheaper to replace.

Maintaining Your Carpet

It’s good practice to vacuum your carpet once a week. This will prevent layers of dirt from being pushed further into the carpet and work to protect the pad beneath the carpet. You can even add deodorizers to the carpet before vacuuming that will help combat odors and bacteria.

Aim to deep clean – either shampoo or hire a professional – to deep clean your carpets every 12 months. Ensure that your carpets will have plenty of ventilation and time to dry between each deep cleaning to prevent odor-causing mildew.

Handling Spills on Carpet

Treating spills right away will ensure you have the least amount of fluid settling beneath the carpet, left to be absorbed, spread out, and potentially mildew. You should spot treat spills by blotting up as much of the liquid as possible – never scrubbing.

You should then apply a light cleaning solution to pull the rest of the stain out of the carpet and allow the spot to fully dry before walking on it. You can apply a baking soda or vinegar solution to tackle everything from soda spills to pet urine.

Managing Your Investment

Carpeting can be a large investment, and whether or not you had it installed yourself or it came with your new home, you should do what you can to keep the maintenance up and regular. Because of the nature of carpeting, allowing dirt to pile up isn’t something a monthly vacuuming can handle. You’re continuously pushing the grime, skin, and bugs from everyday life into your floor and it will be that much harder to extract when you’re ready to do it.