Giving your carpet a good deep clean will do wonders for the overall look of your house. It can be tricky, so here’s how to clean your carpets in just ten steps.
Getting brand new carpets in the house can be a seriously expensive job, so why not just give them a good old steam cleaning instead. Now, in fairness, it can be a bit of a delicate task as you can actually end up damaging the carpets if you do it wrong. So take your time and follow our ten easy steps.
What you’ll need:
Steam cleaner
Water
Carpet cleaning solution
Carpet shampoo (Head & Shoulders won’t work)
What to do:
Step 1: Get the right tools for the job
Choosing the right steam cleaner for the job can be a task in itself. If you get a cheap one you’ll often find that it doesn’t work that great. However, if you buy an expensive steam cleaner you could be spending more than you have to. Alternatively you could head down to your local hire shop and see what they recommend.
Step 2: Choose the right time
Choosing the right time to steam clean will help your carpets to dry out faster. Pick a day that’s not too humid outside so that it all dries up fairly sharply. It might be best to steam them early in the morning on a sunny day so that you can use the heat from the midday sun to dry them up.
Step 3: Remove the furniture
Okay, this is a fairly obvious step. Once you remove the furniture you’ll be able to see the high traffic areas. They will need the most attention.
Step 4: Fill the steam cleaner
Next, fill up the steam cleaner with hot water and carpet shampoo. You don’t want it boiling, but if it’s too cold you could be waiting awhile for the steam to kick in. As for the shampoo, don’t use too much.
Step 5: Add the cleaning solution to the carpet
Once you have the water in the cleaner, it’s then time to add your cleaning solution to the worst affected areas. Spray it on and give it a minute to soak in.
Step 6: Good things come in small doses
You should never use more than the recommended amount of carpet cleaner. Use too much and you could end up washing the dye right out of the carpet. Too little and you won’t see much of a difference after you’ve finished cleaning. Just follow the recommended guidelines and you’ll be fine.
Step 7: Choose your starting point
When cleaning your carpets, or any floor in the house for that matter, make sure to start at the furthest point away from the door. This will ensure that you don’t walk on your newly cleaned carpet.
Step 8: Clean up as much as you can
Make sure to try and clean up as much of the carpet cleaning solution as possible. The solution actually helps to clump dirt together making it easier to clean. However, if you don’t clean up all of the solution it will attract even more dirt to your newly cleaned carpets. Go over the solution a few times with the steam cleaner to make sure you get all of it.
Step 9: Rinse out with clean water
Go over the carpet again with just plain old clean water to ensure you’ve extracted as much of the solution as possible. As we said, if there’s still some solution in the carpet it could attract more dirt.
Step 10: Dry out your carpets
Open all the windows in the room and leave it to dry over night. If you have a dehumidifier then make sure to stick it on full blast. If the carpet is left wet for too long it can begin to grow mould – and that’s something you definitely don’t want to have to deal with.
Once it’s dry you can put all the furniture back in its place and enjoy your fresh looking carpet.
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