Oops! Yes, your guest just dropped that glass of expensive red wine on your carpet. And, it’s definitely not a fun cocktail for your carpet’s fibers—mixed with the city dust, pet hair and god knows what else your shoes have carried back home. But, it’s alright. As always, your favourite home care brand has got your back.
You don’t have to shell out an insane amount of money for carpet shampoo cleaning or discover a genie to get the magic back to your carpet. Contrary to popular belief, carpet cleaning doesn’t require a carpet wash machine or chemical carpet cleaners. In fact you can find most of your supplies in the kitchen! Scroll down to read how to clean your carpet right at home.
How often do you need to clean your carpet?
Barring those “oops” moments from your house parties, which need to be tidied right away, your carpets don’t need to be cleaned everyday. We recommend vacuuming/ hard sweeping them with a stick jhadu once a week to get rid of the dust. We also suggest that you deep clean your carpets once in six months.
How to deep clean your carpet at home?
Step 1: Vacuum
Just like you would during regular carpet cleaning, start with a quick bout of sweeping or vacuuming to clean your carpet. This will get the dust and debris out of the way. If you have shaggy or loosely woven carpets, this step will elicit some fiber fall out. Don’t fret about that. It’s excess fiber.
Step 2: Treat Stains
Much like you would with your clothes, spot clean before you attempt to clean the whole carpet. Locate the stubborn stains and identify its type before cleaning. You don’t need a special carpet cleaner for this step. We found non-toxic home remedies to help clean those pesky stains.
- If it’s an old liquid stain, treat it with a solution of two teaspoons of dishwashing gel and two cups of warm water. Use a soft bristle brush to work the mixture into the stain. Make sure you are brushing from the outside to the centre, so that you don’t spread the stain. Keep blotting with a dry cloth. Lastly, clean out the solution from the carpet with the help of a wet cloth.
- With caked mud or food stains, don’t rub with rags. This will push the solids deeper into the carpet. Use the edge of an old credit card instead to help loosen the solids from the carpet fibers. Then, sweep them away with a broom.
Pro tip: For fellow pa(w)rents who have to deal with the occasional pet-pee on carpets, you’ve got to try this special cleaning fix! Mix 2 teaspoons of baking soda and one cup of distilled white vinegar in one cup of water in a handy spray bottle. Shake and spritz on the stain. Let it sit for a while and then blot. Voila! Bye-bye pee.
Once all the treated spots on your carpet are completely dry, you can move on to step 3.
Step 3: “Bake”
“Bake” implies sprinkling a liberal amount of Baking Soda on your carpet. This absorbs any oily stains left behind after step 2 and deodorizes your carpet.
For optimum results, leave the baking soda on your carpet overnight. If you don’t want to stretch your carpet cleaning into a two-day venture, then allow the powder to do its magic for at least 30 minutes and then vacuum your carpet.
You can also hang your carpet in the backyard or over your balcony railing to beat it out. Please be careful about dowsing unsuspecting neighbours with the fallout or falling over yourself.
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Step 3: Spray
Alternatively, you can also deep clean your carpet with the help of vinegar. A non-toxic natural cleaner, vinegar helps loosen stains too.
For this method, you need to mix one part distilled white vinegar to three parts of cold water in a spray bottle.
Patch test the solution on a small corner of your carpet. If the solution doesn’t cause the colours of your carpet to bleed or change, you can go ahead and spray the solution onto the rest of the carpet.
Allow it to remain for five to ten minutes, then use a microfiber cloth to blot away the dirt and the solution. Keep a bucket of clean water handy to rinse the microfiber cloth often. Air dry your carpet in a low-traffic area after.
How to keep your carpets clean?
Nothing adds warmth and colour to your home as effortlessly as carpets. Now that you’ve pampered them with special care, it would be a shame to see them dirtied soon after. Here are a few things you can do to sustain your handiwork a little bit longer.
- Place sturdy doormats outside your main door to trap excess dirt from your shoes.
- Speaking of shoes, invest in an outdoor shoe rack to store them. Keep a separate pair of chappals for indoor wear.
- Treat stains immediately! Remember that it’s much easier to get them out now than later.
- If you have pets, make sure you brush them often. They tend to roll on carpets to get rid of their excess fur during shedding season.
- Lastly, invest in good cleaning products to keep your uncarpeted areas clean. This will ensure that your feet don’t transfer dirt to your carpets while walking around at home. P.S you can cart it from us, right here!
Don’t let the information overwhelm you. It’s super easy once you get your ingredients together. And, trust us cleaning can be extremely rewarding and cathartic. So, what are you waiting for? Put on your favourite podcast and spruce up your carpet this weekend!
