Carpet Care 101

Carpets have experienced somewhat of a resurgence lately. After the far-out styles and bizarre color choices of the 70’s and 80’s, it is understandable why people often opted for hardwood or tiles in their homes. But recent trends, coupled with clean new designs appearing on the market, seem to show wall-to-wall carpet making a comeback. With that in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to go over some basic carpet care tips.

Institute A Shoes Off Policy

In Canada, removing your shoes when you enter someone’s house used to be common practice. In recent years, it seems like we’ve picked up some less perfect habits from our neighbours South of the border. A lot of us walk in and out of our houses with our shoes on, sometimes even forgetting to take them off when we go to our friend’s homes. This treads all sorts of outside dirt and debris in to our carpets. The fist step in carpet care is to keep them from getting dirty in the first place.

Vacuum, Vacuum, Vacuum

Make sure your vacuum cleaner is relatively light and easy to use because you will want to vacuum frequently. Vacuuming your carpet twice a week should keep any dirt and debris from becoming imbedded. If you have a shedding pet, you might want to increase this. Some recommend that the number of times you vacuum in a week should be equal to the number of people living in your home (i.e. five times a week for a family of five.)A lot of newer brands of vacuum are equipped with a HEPA filter to prevent the vacuum from stirring up the dust settled in the carpet and saturating the air with it. This can be a problem, especially for people with allergies. If your vacuum does not have one of these filters, it might be wise to invest in a new one.

Address Accidents ASAP

Spills need to be attended to quickly to prevent the substance from ingraining itself into the carpet’s fibers. Brush away and vacuum up any crumbs or dirt and absorb as much liquid as possible with a cloth or sponge. If a mark is left behind, we have discussed in a previous post how to attack a variety of stains. You can read about that here.Carpet care isn’t rocket science, but these are a few things to keep in mind. If you have a home with carpet, following this advice and occasional visits from our professional carpet care specialists can keep it looking great and prolong its life.