Cleaning Carpets
Whether you live in an apartment or a house, you probably have at least one room in your home that is carpeted. If you follow the manufacturer’s recommendation then you are vacuuming at least once per week for every member of your household. But chances are that you are not vacuuming that often. If you are like most people, then you probably vacuum once per week and the dirt starts to build up. If you do not vacuum it away from the surface almost immediately, it starts to work its way down into the carpet fibers and cannot be removed by a traditionally vacuum. That is when you need to consider carpet shampoo. While it may sound like a huge project, you can usually shampoo all the carpets in your home and be back to using each room in a weekend.
You should start by vacuuming and clearing away any pieces of furniture that you can move easily that would get in the way of the carpet shampooing process. Then, you need to rent a carpet shampooer. Carpet shampoo rental is the best way for someone who only occasionally shampoos carpets to get the job done. You can rent these machines at your local grocery store or home improvement warehouse. A very popular brand is Rug Doctor. The carpet shampoo machine rentals are easy to use and you just need to buy a carpet shampoo solution that is usually on display right next to the rental area.
Next, run the shampooer in one room at a time. Wait for the carpets to partially dry and then run the shampooer over the same areas a second time. You should see a noticeable decrease in the dirtiness of the waste water the second time around. If not, run the shampooer a third time. After the carpets partially dry again, then you need to run the carpet shampoo machine over the carpets with nothing but cold water in the machine. This is to rinse. If you do not remove all of the soap residue completely then you will have wicking problems later where dirt from very deep in the carpet and pad adhere to the soap residue and rise to the surface.
Give your carpets a good twelve hours to dry completely before using those areas of your home again. Then all you have to do is move the furniture back and enjoy.
