How to Clean Your Floor like a Pro – Carpet
Among the different types of flooring that are available on the market, carpeting is one of, if not the most popular. While kitchens and bathrooms tend to contain tile or wood flooring, carpets are typically found in almost every other room in the home, from the living and dining rooms to bedrooms and closets. While you no doubt make your best efforts at cleanliness, it is inevitable that carpets become stained by accidental spills or worn down from constant walking use and time. Keeping your carpeting in tip-top shape is important to maintaining a good home and tips for cleaning your carpets and troubleshooting stains are always welcome information.
When it comes to smaller stains, there are a few techniques you can utilize to clean your carpets like a pro. If you are quick on the draw and can take care of a stain right when it is made, soaking the stained area with a small, wet washcloth or paper towel is a good idea. However, the key is to blot the stain, not wipe it. Horizontal movement tends to smear the staining culprit, which makes it harder to get out in the long run. By putting pressure on a consolidated area, you allow the towel to catch most of the agent, as well as minimize damage to more surface area of the carpet. A few minutes should be sufficient to at least get the majority of the stain taken care of.
As we all know however, stains are often found much later on, particularly if blotting the stain doesn’t get it all out or if the children accidentally spill something out of your field of vision, for example. This presents a much trickier challenge for getting the stain removed from your carpet, but thankfully, there are some simple, everyday items you can use to clean small patches of stained carpeting. You may have heard it before, but baking soda works wonderfully to clean out various types of stains. This is because the alkaline nature of the baking soda reacts with other compounds and make them easier to remove with a cloth equipped with this item. Ordinary shaving cream also is a great cleaning agent for almost every kind of stain and is an item that most people have readily available around the house.
Some types of stains are notoriously difficult to clean out. While wine and sodas are common, sometimes you’ll run into a situation where hard to clean things caught in your carpeting. For sticky substances like gum, try placing an ice cube or two over the affected zone for a minute or two and then scrapping it off with a cloth or spoon. The coldness from the ice will freeze the gum and neutralize the stickiness, allowing you to pick it off much more cleanly. You may remove some strands of carpet in the process, but the damage should be minimal and not noticeable at all. For tough stains like those left behind by grease, dishwashing detergent is designed to tackle those substances from dishes and from flooring. Give the area a few sprays and then clean it off with a rag or cloth. This may need to be done a few times as necessary.
Thus far, we’ve mentioned how you can take care of minor stains in the carpeting, but what about more widespread problems or normal wear and tear? Cleaning a small patch of a carpet or cleaning a single stain is not a big deal, but when it comes to washing a whole room or, more often than not, multiple rooms, it can be a bit of a hassle. There are appliances that you can buy that clean carpets, however these machines generally only take care of the surface level of the carpeting. Generally, it is recommended to give your carpets a deep clean every once in a while just to maintain their quality and prevent problems down the line. This is especially true for carpeting in areas that have heavy foot traffic.
You may even want to replace your carpeting after a while to give the room a pristine freshness to it or even just for a change of pace. Again, depending on the size of the room or rooms, this can be a daunting process. Thankfully, there are teams of professionals who are at the ready to make your carpeting look and feel clean and fresh, either by deep-cleaning or by replacement. Naffco Flooring and Interiors have plenty of experience with cleaning and installing carpets, so we can offer all kinds of premier services and expert advice. For more information about how we can help with your carpeting renovations and cleanings, please call the South Tampa office at (813) 254-4066, the Carrollwood office at (813) 961-1362, or the Brandon office at (813) 413-8313.
