Vacuuming
Vacuuming the floor is one of the main aspects of the house cleaning and it has to be undertaken at least once a week. For carpeted floors vacuuming reduces dust and dirt and it prolongs the life of the carpet.
- When vacuuming, try to clean in sides, corners and behind furniture to make sure all the grime is vacuumed.
- When doing the vacuuming, do that room by room or for large areas, divide the space into quadrants and vacuum them one by one.
- Pay attention to the high traffic areas and vacuum them thoroughly as may have more dirt than the other areas of your home.
- To eliminate odours from your carpet, pour some baking soda into the bag of your vacuum cleaner.
Stains
Stains happen regardless of how careful you are and although some of them are difficult to be removed, if you clean them immediately, you have better chances to remove them completely.
- It is very important you remove as much as possible from the spill before applying any carpet cleaning product.
- Before you treat your carpet with a cleaning product, you need to perform a test to make sure the product will not damage your carpet. Very often some products discolour the carpet and it is essential you first ensure it is safe to use it.
- Natural carpet cleaners are very useful for treating stains. Vinegar and baking soda could be used to treat almost all kinds of stains – blood, tea, coffee, food and drinks stains, vomit, urine, crayon and chocolate. Depending on how stubborn the stain is, you can apply concentrated vinegar accordingly.
- Rubbing the stain may even make it look worse, you need to blot it with a towel or a napkin, rather than rubbing it.
- Repeat the cleaning few times should it doesn’t work from the first time. Work from the outside of the stain towards the inside to avoid spreading the stain to a larger area.
- Drying the moisture after cleaning is very important. Use a towel and press with your hand to take out as much of the moisture as possible.
Damaged carpet
If your carpet is burnt or has a permanent stain, you can change the interior of the room by placing furniture over the damaged area and hide it, but you should only do that once you have tried the following tips and they haven’t worked:
- To repair your carpet after it has been burnt, cut the carpet and replace the piece with a matching colour and type carpet patch. Use glue to attach it to the floor. It will be hardly noticeable that the carpet has been cut.
- If the legs of your furniture have pressed the carpet in few places in the room, you can lift it by using the steam of your iron, but don’t touch the carpet fibres with the hot iron as it will cause a burn.
- If there is a small hole in the carpet, use white glue to fill the hole and it will be hardly noticeable.