Despite your best efforts at cleanliness, your new carpet will not remain immaculate forever. Dirt and spills are inevitable, and your carpet will sooner or later fall victim to accidents, spills, drops, crayon marks from cheeky children and those who forget to remove their shoes inside the home.
In time, when enough dirt gets into your carpet, it becomes cumbersome to hide it or assume it can go unnoticed. When this happens, don’t dash off renting a carpet cleaner or relying on upon, technology to make your carpet clean again, instead use a more cost effective way to clean your carpet – clean by hand.
If you have ever wanted to learn how to clean carpet by hand, I’ve got you covered. In this article, I will discuss how you can clean a carpet by hand and give you easy carpet cleaning tips to remove irritable odor and tough stains
So, without further ado, let’s get right into business.
When it comes to cleaning carpets, you should first tackle respective tough spots and stains should before embarking on general carpet cleaning. Therefore, you first need to mark all the places that need spot treatment or special attention.
Spot cleaning does not require many ingredients, in fact, all you will probably need is:
If you get a stain on your carpet, clean it immediately. The faster you attend to a stain, the higher the chance of quick removal, the longer you wait, the tougher it becomes to get rid of the stain.
The trick is to use the vinegar and baking soda in order. First pour a reasonable amount of vinegar on the stain, followed by a small amount of baking soda. These products have been proven to work efficiently and together they can remove about any stain possible.
For starters, vinegar softens the stained area while the baking soda lifts the stain to the surface. After applying the products on the stain, next, use a dry, white cloth over the stain on the carpeting to absorb the spill. Repeat until the stain is absorbed. Once the area is dry, go over it with your handheld vacuum and voila! It’s like the stain never happened.
Remember: Blot the stain and don’t rub or scrub
Keep in mind that you are meant to blot the stain and not rub or scrub. Cleaning a stain will not only create a fuzzy mess but also, damage the fibers on the carpet. Instead, blot the stains from the outer edge of the stain towards the center to prevent the stain from smudging or penetrating deeper into the carpet.
This procedure works pretty well for minor stains. However, for those tough stains, you will need more than vinegar and baking soda to do the trick.
Do you have the solution to carpet stains? No? Don’t worry, here are some useful tips to deal with some common carpet stains.
Use baking soda or white wine with a piece of dry white cloth to blot out the stain.
First, wet the area with water then use an enzymatic cleaner (readily available at pet stores) to spray over the area and let it sit overnight. In the morning, use a clean cloth or paper towels to dab the area. For the smell, use a cleanser or an odor neutralizer.
When it comes to dirt stains, it is best to leave the stains to dry. Once the area is dry, vacuum over the place followed by rinsing with water and detergent. Ensure the soap is appropriate for your carpet’s fabric.
Hydrogen peroxide is the best carpet cleaning solution for blood stains. First, dampen the spot with hydrogen peroxide and let it sit for a while. Next, use a clean cloth to dab over the area to absorb the stain. Repeat as many times as possible until the stain is completely gone.
The key to chewing gums is passing ice cubes over the stained area. The cold helps dry the chewing gum making it easy to scrape off the gum with no stain left behind.
After the meticulous spot cleaning treatment and vacuuming, it’s time to clean the whole carpeted area and freshen up the place. Again, the procedure is easy and pretty straight forward. Start by moving all the furniture to make room for cleaning. Next, vacuum the entire area thoroughly to remove grit and loose dirt.
Next, fill up a bucket with half water and half vinegar. Use a soft bristle brush with the concoction to clean the entire carpet. Start from one corner working in small sections till you clean the whole carpet. Once more, vacuum over the place to pick up excess moisture then allow it to dry for a day or two.
There you have it, a straightforward and easy way to clean your carpet by hand.
While cleaning carpets by hand may be quite time-consuming, the results are more than worth it. Don’t wait until your carpet is quite dirty to give it a good deep cleaning. Regular maintenance and cleaning is key to prolonging the life of your carpet as well as preventing a build-up of dirt.
Keep in mind that when using a new cleaning product and method, test it on a small area first to determine its effect on the carpet. If you are having doubts about cleaning your carpet on your own or you feel you may damage your carpet, seek professional carpet cleaner’s help.