A Quick and Easy Guide to Cleaning Carpet
A Quick and Easy Guide to Cleaning Carpet
Cleaning the carpet is without a doubt one of the biggest headaches on the planet. There never seems to be a good solution…doing it yourself can be backbreaking and paying a professional is expensive. If you are determined to do it yourself like most of us, there are some ways to make it a bit easier.
Here are some tips to help you clean your carpet stress free and easily:
Some carpet cleaning tools needed:
· Vacuum cleaner.
· White wash cloth.
· Carpet brush.
· White laundry detergent.
Prep your carpet cleaning area
Vacuum the area very well taking special care to get as deep as possible. Make sure you get up all the loose dirt. When you think you have vacuumed it sufficiently, check for visible spots and stains. Just like many people do with their laundry, you can pre-treat your carpeting. You can use several things to pre-treat your carpet but you want to be careful. It is easy to remove the stain but leave a permanent spot that is lighter than the rest of your carpeting. That can look worse than the stain itself. Take care but apply the pretreatment to the areas you want to remove stains.
If you want to try a home method, you can take some white powdered laundry detergent and mix it in a little jar of water. When it is thoroughly mixed, dip a white washcloth into the mixture and dab it on your spot. Do this with all your spots and let the mixture sit on them for at least 5 minutes.
After the mixture has had a chance to soak in, go back and gently dab the stains. You should see the spots lifting onto the wash cloth. Use your carpet brush for more resistant spots. At this point, your spot/stain should be lifted. Place an old white towel over the spot to absorb any additional liquid. If you still have spotting, your stain is resistant to that treatment and a stronger solvent is needed. Here is a mixture for stronger spots to try. As always be sure to check on a spare piece of carpet first to be sure it does not affect color or fade. You will need:
· 1/4 cup white vinegar.
· 1/4 cup salt
· 1/4 cup white laundry
It cannot be stressed enough that all the products used to try to remove stains should be white or clear in nature or they could add to the stain. Rubber gloves or something equivalent should be used to protect your skin. Apply this paste the same way you applied the plain detergent mixture. Let it sit on the stain for 5 minutes and dab up the excess liquid. If the stain remains, once again take your carpet brush to it. This should do the trick.
You should let your carpet dry over night after pre-treating. The next morning, vacuum over the pretreated areas to pick up any dried detergent particles and debris. Vacuum one final time to make absolutely certain you got all the debris.
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