So, you do your best to keep up with everyday life and maintaining a clean house, right? Yet somehow, nothing ever seems good enough! You dust your window sills, clean your windows, potty train your pets, get non-spill cups for the kids (and possibly even your husband), spot clean that wine you spilled (oops), vacuum, take your shoes off before you come in the house and yet STILL your carpets look dirty! It looks like it’s time to get the carpets cleaned again, but how can I take care of them between cleanings so that they don’t get so soiled looking?
It turns out carpets act like a giant filter which trap indoor air pollutants such as dust, dirt, pet dander, moisture and pests! Apparently wiping your shoes before entering is not enough to keep those carpets clean. Dirt and soil is not the only thing cohabitating with your carpet fibers, it is common for many microorganisms and bugs to live in carpets! Bugs such as dust mites, ground beetles, potato bugs, carpet mites and more could be snuggling with your carpet fibers. If carpet cleaning is neglected your indoor air quality will decline and your carpets can turn into a breeding ground for contaminants and pollutants.
So, what can I do between steam cleanings to protect my carpet and keep them clean?
Carpet is damaged by soils not visible to the human eye, so how are we supposed to protect them? High traffic areas create ground in soil which needs to be removed on a regular basis. Dirt is extremely abrasive against the fibers of carpet and will wear the carpet excessively if not properly maintained. Make sure to vacuum regularly, even if it does not appear to be dirty!
It is recommended to steam clean your carpets professionally every 6 months – 1 year. To get out embedded soils or bugs it is important to have a steam cleaning at a high heat to kill any contaminants or bugs hiding in the carpet fibers! Also, to maintain a longer life span of the carpets and have the carpet looking as good as possible, it is recommended to have it cleaned before it starts to show sign of wear! Soils that embed into the carpet fibers can cause the carpeting to break down, making it look worse and shortening its life span.
Spots and stains will act as a dye if not treated immediately or the carpets are unprotected. Most over-the-counter stain removal products will make a stain worse, thus it is recommended to purchase a stain removal product from your carpet manufacturer or certified professional cleaner. To prevent a stain from embedding into the carpet, when you have your carpets cleaned you should get stain resistance on your carpets. Each time your carpets are steam cleaned this removes any stain resistance that was on the carpet. Stain resistance forms a topical barrier on the fibers of the carpets in order to repel liquids and dry soils. Therefore, any dirt, spots and stains will lay on the top of the carpet fibers instead of embedding into them so they do not become a dye to the carpet fibers.
After everything you’ve been doing around the house to keep those carpets cleaned, turns out you could be doing more! Who knew? Moral of the story… vacuum, vacuum, vacuum, clean, protect, repeat! http://alpineclean.com/carpet-cleaning/
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