by wednesday 14 Replies latest social family
How do u clean your carpet? We have beber, and own a hoover steam clenaing machine. the saleman told us that b/c we had light colored beber, we could use bleach/water to clean it. We do, and it cleans it well, but it just gets dirty so quickly. my husband has to clean it about once a month.
anyone have nay better ideas? How do u keep your carpets lookig nice?
ANY CLARPET CLEANING HINTS APPRECIATED.
I feel sorry for you, I've had light colored carpets before also and vowed that I will never get another one. IMO, they are totally impractical. The apartment I have now has wall to wall carpeting, which is a medium taupe color and we spot clean it with this stuff we buy in the car cleaning dept. at Walmart. It's called Tuff Stuff, and it works fantastic. Then, the apartment rental office sends a cleaner in whenever I need it deep cleaned and he uses steam. I've had my carpet in for seven years and it is just now getting to the point where I will need to ask them to replace it, probably in another month when it's warm enough to leave the windows open and the awful smell ventilate. The other thing I did for a looonnnngggg time was put runners where the heavy traffic areas were. It kept things much cleaner and slowed down the wear and tear. Check into having it dirt proofed, they have some good stuff on the market for that so the dirt won't sink into the fibers and will be much easier to remove.
Terri
Funny that this topic came up. About a year ago I had white carpet installed in my living room. BIG mistake. Anyways, last weekend, I was putting some roof-cote black gooey tar stuff on the flat rubber roof that is over my carport. Well, I tracked some of it onto the white carpet. I thought I had ruined it. So I did a web search, and I saw where WD-40 was mentioned a few times for getting tar out of clothes/carpet.
Worked like magic. WD-40 and duct tape, what more does a man need?
Vacuum daily in high traffic areas.
Weekly in other areas.
Try a dry chemical clean.
Wet cleaning is especially difficult with berber because it really hangs onto the soap residue.
Soap and Water - Detergent Residue
If it is not a high quality type to start with, new carpet may be the only solution (wool is better than nylon).
Berber is the hardest carpet to keep clean and the hardest to get clean. It draws dirt to the bottom of the fibers and traps it there and because of the loop weave and the twist of the loop being larger at the top than the bottom, it's very difficult to extract with a vacuum cleaner or a even a professional wet extractor including truck mounted equipment.
ONce you have new or newly cleaned carpet, it is good to establish a "no shoes in the house" policy for all who enter. I made a special decorative shoe rack in the entry way of our home. With 5 kids in and out with all their friends, our carpet still looks pretty good after 1.5 years.
I just clicked on the links blondie posted, and was i ever surprised to find out that the retailers told us to use bleach and that is the worst thing in the world for the carpet. Yes it does get the stains up, but i am having to clean it frquently. Well, can't replace it now, so will buy area rugs an cover it. and stop bleach.
I have put laundry soap (very little) in the shampooer instead of carpet soap and it got EVERYTHING out. It seemed the carpet soap itself left a sticky film and I decided it did to get you to buy more again to clean it again sooner. Must be a conspiracy there somewhere
I have a little sign that says we have a Japanese house too...no shoes. It works the best.
After i clean my carpets with a rug scrubber using carpet shampoo, i go over it with water and vinegar to remove any soap. It works great , just ordinary white vinegar will do.
Tearing out the carpet in my house revealed some beautiful oak floors underneath. Carpet is a pain in the butt, especially if you have kids or pets. I'll stick with my wood floors.
On behalf of Sassy, since she obviously just didn't see the title of this thread, I make this comment:
Oh , I thought this thread was about something else!
