When you have a busy home full of people and pets, it can be challenging to keep your carpets clean. However, there are key tools and techniques that can help. Want to keep your carpets looking as fresh and new as possible? Then, here are seven essentials you may want to consider.
1. Door Mats
Door mats help to prevent dirt and debris from the great outdoors from getting inside your house. Ideally, you should place an abrasive mat at every door in your home, and you should insist that everyone who enters your home wipes off their feet.
Remember to shake out the mats on a regular basis. If you don’t, they will get overly saturated with dirt. At that point, they won’t accept any more dust, and they might even add dust to the feet of you and your visitors. In that same vein, remember to sweep your entryways and porches on a regular basis.
2. Slippers
To further protect your carpet, consider implementing a shoes-off policy for your home. To make it easy, consider posting a sign and putting a shoe mat next to the door to corral dirt.
However, you also want to avoid walking barefoot on your carpet. The oils from your skin can get into the carpet, making it more likely to attract dirt and particles. Consider buying everyone in the home slippers and even offering slippers to guests as needed.
3. Vacuum
A vacuum is essential if you have carpet in your home. Ideally, you should vacuum at least once a week for every person or large animal who lives in your home, and you may want to run the vacuum over high traffic areas even more often than that.
To ensure you are picking up as much dirt and debris as possible, consider investing in a vacuum with a HEPA filter. As long as you change the filter regularly, that can be a big help with allergens such as dust mites.
4. Spot-cleaning Remedies
Vacuuming helps with dirt, but when you have a wet stain, you need an efficient spot-cleaning remedy on hand. The right solution depends on the issue. For instance, you may want one cleaner to neutralise the odours of pet accidents, another for wine spills and yet another for greasy food stains.
If you end up with a stain that you can’t remove, a professional carpet cleaner can help.
5. Professional Carpet Cleaning
Ideally, you should have your carpets professionally cleaned anywhere from every 12 months to every 18 months. The exact schedule depends on the amount of activity in your home. Leading carpet suppliers and manufacturers recommend a steam clean (hot water extraction method) on carpets from 6 to 12 months if you own a pet, or 12 to 18 months if you do not. Steam cleaning gets deep into the carpet fibres. It helps to remove embedded dirt and even stains that have penetrated the carpet pad. It also helps remove allergens from your carpet and offers additional benefits well.
6. Strong HVAC Filter
If you have a heating, cooling and ventilation system in your home, you be surprised that your filter can have a direct impact on your carpet. In particular, if the filter is dirty, you may notice “filtration lines” on your carpet. These black-grey lines tend to appear along the baseboards, and they are usually an accumulation of soot from fireplaces or candles as well as other substances. Keeping your filter clean and replacing it as needed can help. If you already have filtration lines, you may need professional cleaning to remove them.
7. A Kitchen Fan
Just as an HVAC filter helps protect your carpet, so too does a kitchen exhaust fan. It’s especially important if you cook a lot. The grease vapour that comes from cooking can coat your entire home and create an oily film on your floor. An exhaust fan with a filter helps avoid that issue.
If you have these seven essentials in place, you can look forward to enjoying carpet that looks great and feels nice underfoot. To get more tips or to set up professional cleaning, contact Black and White Home Services today. We offer carpet cleaning as well as other cleaning services for residential and commercial clients.