How to spring clean your carpets

Shoes, boots, trainers, pets, toddlers, mud, spillage and general wear and tear can make a carpet appear worn, scruffy and dirty over time. Not only is it important to remove stains as quickly and efficiently as possible, but also to give your carpets a spring clean every so often. New carpets can be costly to fit, and sometimes totally unnecessary. A proper deep clean, with professional equipment, can give even the most tired carpet a new lease of life. Spring is a great time of year to give your home a thorough clean following the winter months. You can even do your rugs at the same time!

Stain removal

No matter how careful you are, accidents happen. Pets and people knock things over, and guests can bring in mud. Whether it’s dreaded red wine, oil, or ice cream it’s important to act swiftly, but also appropriately – different stains require different treatments. There are a number of products and tools you can use to remove stains but ultimately if you want a professional result, contact us today to see how we can eradicate stains, odours and damage to your carpets and rugs.

Clean White Cloth

First and foremost, ensure you have a fresh, white cloth to ensure you aren’t adding any more dirt to the carpet. Apply it gently after removing any excess mess.

Washing Detergent

Pick a gentle washing detergent and combine it with half a litre of warm water. This can be used to clean up a variety of relatively severe stains, such as eggs and chocolate. Try to blot it dry, work from the outside in so you don’t spread the stains, and follow up with some ammonia and warm water.

Powder

A traditional, and quite effective solution is using cleaning powder. Simply sprinkle it on, leave overnight and then vacuum it up the following morning.

Shampoo

Carpet shampoo is an effective method. However, it’s important to not apply too much, or drench the carpet. Use sparingly, and avoid scrubbing the carpet too fiercely. As with carpet powder, it’s possible to leave the shampoo to dry completely and then vacuum it up.

Surgical Spirit

Surgical spirit can be used to tackle heavy-duty stains such as solids, oil, tar etc and any unknown stains. It’s effective when combined with warm water, and can be combined with white vinegar and washing detergent.

White Vinegar

This can be combined with washing detergent to create a highly effective detergent solution. Works well on solids.

How to keep your carpet clean

There are a number of ways to minimise the damage to your carpet. Here are some general tips:

• Don’t wear shoes in the house – ask your guest to take their shoes off, this will help minimise the damage done to the carpet fibres.
• Use welcome mats at the exterior doors to catch any excess dirt as people enter the house, and politely ask everyone to wipe their feet.
• Vacuum as regularly as possible – at least twice a week. This will reduce the inevitable accumulation of ground-in dirt, which, when combined with liquid can result in stains.
• Don’t scrub at a stain on your carpet – scrubbing too hard, you may remove the offending stain, but you may inadvertently damage your carpet.
• Keep your carpet as dry as possible. In addition to excessive scrubbing, applying too much water and detergent to a stained area can result in drenching, damage and lingering odours.

Complete deep clean

Despite following the above steps, your carpet will still gather dust, dirt and odours over time, it's unavoidable. It’s important to periodically give your carpet a good clean as opposed to a quick run-through. Try to set aside a day and work through each room.

The only way to ensure a deep clean to your carpets is to hire a professional team of experts to clean them for you. Here at Xtraclean, we provide the deepest cleaning process for carpets available. Using state-of-the-art truck mounted systems, we are able to penetrate the fibres of your carpet to deliver the best cleaning service possible.