In this article, the team here at Steam Wave Carpet & Upholstery Care, Dallas Texas, offers our tips for longer lasting carpets. Carpets and other types of flooring are an expensive investment, and these tips can be used to help you get the most out of that investment. These are practical, inexpensive ways to lengthen the life of your carpet and have a clean, fresh smelling home to enjoy as a bonus.
So let’s get down to it. Here are our top 7 tips for longer lasting carpets:
- Vacuum your carpets
This is remarkably practical advice. Some of you might even wonder why we need to add it to the list. Doesn’t everyone vacuum their carpets? Well, most people probably do, but they probably don’t do it as frequently as they should.
So how often should you vacuum? Well, it depends on the amount of traffic that your carpets receive. A standard piece of advice is to vacuum all the carpets once a week and hit the high traffic areas twice. But that is a bit too simplistic. Not every home receives the same amount of traffic and will have different carpet cleaning requirements. For instance, if you have kids or pets you should bump that up to 2 to 3 times a week. If you have both kids and pets, vacuum about 3 to 4 times a week.
- Vacuum properly
Again, this might sound a bit simplistic but not everyone knows how to vacuum properly and it does make a difference for how clean you are able to get your carpets. When vacuuming large areas, always overlap your back and forth strokes by half. With this technique, each part of the carpet is essentially vacuumed twice, one time in each direction.
Also, don’t forget about your handheld extension. It is a useful tool for thorough vacuuming. The main part of the vacuum can never fully clean the edges and obviously, any areas where the vacuum head doesn’t fit.
Stairs are a high traffic area of your home and require a different technique to clean thoroughly and keep them looking nice. If your vacuum is light enough to manage, start with vacuuming each stair. Pay particular attention to the center where people most often walk. Take a second pass with the handheld extension and a flat head attachment. Be sure to get all the edges and go over the lip of the stair several times to pull up the fibers. Pulling up the fibers helps keep the carpet looking fresh and new, and not dirty and matted down.
- Don’t wear shoes in the house
One of the tips for longer lasting carpets is to not to get them dirty in the first place. By simply having everyone remove their shoes before entering your home you can cut down on a whole lot of dirt coming into contact with your carpet. You can make it fun by getting a cleverly worded remove your shoes sign from a craft fair or a website that sells crafty items like Etsy.com. Or you can get a fancy or creatively built shoe rack to store your shoes by the entrance.
- Booties
This might be one of our more unusual tips for longer lasting carpets, but it works. If you don’t want to have to ask people to remove their shoes, you can get booties they can easily slip over their shoes. This is a great option if you have workmen or contractors coming into your home as they often use lace-up work boots that would be a pain to remove. With booties, they don’t have to go through the work of removing their shoes, but your carpets are still protected.
- Get a proper doormat
This is a simple, hassle-free way to cut down on dirt coming into your home, creating a mess or even carpet stains. However, make sure that you get the right kind of mat. The best ones are made of rubber with layers of looped fibers that are good at trapping dirt. Clean it easily with a garden hose. To take it one step further, use a rubber one outside the door and a softer more absorbent mat just inside to soak up water on a rainy or snowy day.
- Regular professional cleanings
Vacuuming is great, but no amount of vacuuming can make up for thorough cleanings performed by competent professionals like those here at ACME Clean. Professional equipment and techniques can get far more dirt, allergens, and bacteria out of your carpets than any household vacuum ever can. The average home can significantly benefit from two thorough professional carpet cleanings per year, but if you have other factors such as pets or someone in your home has allergies, more times per year may be necessary.
- Immediately clean up stains
As soon as something gets spilled or you notice a stain, clean it up. The longer a stain is allowed to sit on the carpet, the harder it will be to get it out. If you don’t know how to clean a particular substance, get online or call a professional and ask how to do it right away. Many times with quick action and the right cleaning products/method you can remove stubborn stains like red wine or grape juice. But that is only possible with quick action, so don’t wait.
We hope that you have found these tips for longer lasting carpets useful. They don’t require that much extra effort and the payoff is significant when it comes to keeping your carpet looking and smelling nice for many years to come. Following these tips certainly comes out cheaper in the long run when you don’t have to replace your carpet as often.
Be sure to keep us here at Steam Wave Carpet & Upholstery Care in mind when it comes time for a professional cleaning. Our prices are reasonable, our staff is knowledgeable, and we can provide you with even more tips for longer lasting carpets. Give us a call today to set up an appointment or to ask us any questions. We are happy to help in any way that we can.