You may have read a post or two before from me, noting that the only places in our current home that are covered in carpet are three closets. (Well, we have large area rugs, but actual carpet is only in three closets.) One of those closets being our master bedroom walk-in. It’s a pretty large closet, and it’s also the favorite spot of CoCo the black kitty.
When we first brought CoCo to this house, she was terrified, because she didn’t know what was happening and she didn’t know where she was. The first place she went was into the closet, because, by the time we got her to the house, we already had some of our clothes in the closet. I think she could smell our scent on them, and it was comforting to her.
She has loved that closet ever since. Especially when she’s scared. She’ll head for the closet in a heartbeat.
When we brought home Taffy the white doggy, CoCo started spending even more time in that closet. We realized it was a safe place for her, so we bought a little pet gate and we keep that at the closet door, and even started keeping her food and water in there, so Taffy couldn’t get to it.
I say all that to say this: even though we don’t have much carpet at our home, there is a LOT of traffic that happens on the carpet that’s in the Master Bedroom closet…and it was looking a little dingy.
However, blogger Pheeby Snow sent me a post to publish that will help my dingy Master Bedroom closet carpet…and any carpet you may have around your home, too! Let’s check out what she has to say!
Properly-chosen carpets can create a pleasant atmosphere in your home, and all the interior designers pay a considerable amount of attention to them. But after the initial excitement of the fresh new carpet comes the more difficult part – its maintenance.
Admittedly, nobody intends to use their carpets forever – but at the same time nobody would buy an expensive carpet with the aim of throwing it away in an year or two. It is all about maintenance. No matter how much money you have invested in your carpets, they can serve you for the years to come, provided that you handle them with care. All too often the regular vacuuming is barely enough to keep the neatness of the carpet. Moreover, preventing damages and stains is sometimes an impossible mission. You definitely need a better solution. Here are some tips you can take advantage of:
- Are you sure that you have the right tools for making the carpets clean? In order to achieve the desired results you’d better ask sofa cleaning team in Fulham for professional assistance. If you insist on cleaning on your own, just rent a professional hot water extraction machine, also known as a steam cleaner. Even if you don’t have enough experience in operating with professional cleaning machines, the final results will be impressive.
- Treating stains is another tough mission you have to complete if you want to have healthy carpets. Whenever you see a stain or a spillage on the carpet, your first reaction is probably grabbing a sponge and scrubbing it. Unfortunately, that’s a common cleaning mistake you have to avoid. Why don’t you try blotting the stain? You will see that it will make a difference.
- Asking your guests and members of the family to take their shoes off when they come into the house can sometimes do more harm than good. The oils are among the main causes of dirty – looking carpets and if someone steps barefoot, they transfer even more oils to the carpet, which makes the cleaning procedures really complicated.
- As you suppose, the carpets at your home don’t get evenly dirty. Some areas are dirtier than others and therefore they need more attention. Do you think that the doorstep is capable of making the dirty shoes clean? Take a look at the condition of your carpet right in front of the door and do your best to keep its decent condition. Treat that area with a powerful carpet cleaning detergent on weekly basis.
- Powder laundry detergent is a perfect solution to your carpet cleaning worries. Sprinkle it onto the affected areas, add some water and gently scrub until you get a soft foam. Don’t add an excessive amount of the cleaning detergent though. It will prolong the time for rinsing and drying.
- Beware of the professional carpet cleaning detergents. Most of them are not appropriate for wool carpets and they can cause severe damages to the carpet fibers.
- If you have a pet, you probably know that the carpets absorb the bad odor and there is no neutraliser powerful enough to remove it once and for all. Why don’t you try the following: mix half a cup of white vinegar with lukewarm water and blot with a soft cloth. The freshness will linger for at least two weeks.
- The chewing gum stuck to the carpet is really unpleasant but luckily it can easily be removed if you put an ice cube onto it and carefully scratch it after that.
Thanks so much for all these tips, Pheeby! An ice cube on gum?! I had no idea!
What is YOUR best carpet-cleaning tip?
Due to the amount of comments from all of my wonderful readers, it is not always possible for me to respond to each one. However, I absolutely do read them all, and if you’d like to address something specific, or have a question for me, please don’t hesitate to email me at Kristen@theroadtodomestication.com. I will respond to your email as soon as possible! Thank you for visiting the blog!
Great advice. I actually have all hard wood in my house and it’s relatively easy to clean and care for.
We have carpet in the bedrooms only. Eventually I want to carry the hardwood floors into those rooms, as well. I do have area rugs in the dining room and great room. I have to always remind myself to blot and not scrub. I just want to scrub it really hard. Great tips!
Great advice here for those that have carpets and same can be applied to rugs too.
This is a really useful post. Certain areas definitely get more dingy than others. I have to use these tips!
I actually need a new hoover. I’ll keep this in mind when we do a test drive in the shop.
Cheers
I hadn’t realized that some detergents aren’t good for wool-based carpets. Thanks!
I am going to tell my hubby about the oils. He’s always asking people to take off their shoes.
We are in the process of replacing the flooring in all of our home. The bedrooms were first with new carpet. I though of my cats as you were talking about Coco. One of our cats loves to hide in our closet for some reason. He takes naps in there sometimes.
That blot don’t scrub tip is the best one! Thanks for all of this good advice. Pinning.
It seems to me that by pandering to CoCo’s original need to hide, you’ve perpetuated it. I don’t think I’d want food and water inside my wardrobe, despite the ability to make it nice and clean again.
It’s not so much for the sake of her hiding, Francene…it’s more for the sake of Taffy the dog not eating her food. We work away from home all day and aren’t able to make sure the dog behaves perfectly at all times…and we don’t want CoCo to be hungry all day 🙂 No worries, it’s a very large closet – the food and water never touches our clothing 🙂
Great tips! I will have to give the powdered laundry detergent a try. Our bedroom carpets have staining in higher traffic areas.
Thanks for the great tips . I like the tip on removing shoes, so many times have we asked people to remove shoes in our home not knowing it is causing more harm than good.
We don’t wear our shoes in our house. It stays cleaner that way…. and, I read somewhere that outside dirt in your home can cause illness like cancer etc. Not sure how true that is, but I have geese that live outside near the pond and I don’t want goose poop in my house.
We have carpet only in one room, our downstairs “extra” living space. It’s dark blue, so you can’t see a lot of stains. I try to steam clean it periodically, just to make sure I’m getting all of the extra dirt out of there.
Great tips I would love to pull up our carpet and lay hardwood floor as the carpet looks rough.
Thankfully I only have one room with a carpet and it’s a room we never use so I just vacuum from time to time. But I will have to show this to my mom, her whole house is carpeted and with a dog she is forever trying to keep the carpets as clean as can be. I’m sure she’d appreciate these tips.
We don’t really have much carpet in out house, but the spot that gets the worst is the bottom landing where we keep our shoes. For some reason, hubs thinks he has to step onto it to take off his nasty work boots instead of taking them off on the linoleum.
Fantastic advice, I really need to try and do something to help the high traffic areas of my carpet. x
When we had carpet, thankfully we don’t anymore, we would take our shoes off before stepping on it. In addition, we would have blankets down under the baby and not allow the kids to eat over it.
Great tips! We used to rent in a house with white carpet in all the rooms. What a nightmare with three kids lol. Now thank goodness our whole house is mostly tile with area rugs. Less for this mom to scrub. Even still I have a no shoes in my house policy too.
Great tips, Kristen! Never knew carpets was such a popular topic 🙂 In Israel it’s too hot, so most people just stick with tiles and/or wooden floors. We did have rugs, though, and our greatest problem were the pets pishing to define their territory. We did away with the rugs and did away with the pets …
I’m a happier domestic 🙂
Thanks 🙂
HUGS <3
We use a powder and our shark for these areas…so far so good! Thanks so much for these great tips!
Why didn’t I think to do a weekly treatment on those high traffic areas? That’s a great idea to help it from getting permanently stained.
Great tips–I have wall to wall carpeting and as you can imagine (I have a cat) it can get messy!!
I have two dogs so carpets are an issue for us. Thank you for sharing this review!
I had heard the ice cube on gum tip before, but luckily I have never had to try it. Some of these tips are new to me, though.
Wow! Super helpful… powdered laundry detergent and ice cubes. I am definitely pinning this. 🙂
~Lorelai
Life With Lorelai
Thank you for these tips! Unfortunately, because our house is so small, all areas seem to be high traffic and it shows.
Our carpet right when you walk in looks worn. Of course it is the first thing you see when you walk in so I hate it. I want to replace it but hubby said (wisely) that with winter coming, that doesn’t make sense right now.
This is some great information. Since I have boys and we have a dog, it can sometimes be difficult to keep the carpets in our bedrooms clean all the time.
That is great advice. Our carpets get so horrible especially with our kids!
I think taking your shoes off is one of the most important things you can do. And not just on carpet but any floor surface in your home.
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Thank you for the advice! My entire house, except for the kitchen, is carpeted. Our high-traffic areas get grungy pretty fast!
Our carpets are so worn and we will be changing it out by next year. The tips you have on taking care of them are great and I like the one where you can use Powder laundry detergent (never heard of it before).
Great tips. I have all hard wood floors which makes cleaning so much easier with all the pets we have.
I have some areas in my house that could definitely use some attention. My carpet in those areas looks a total mess.
That is some great tips there. I really had no idea about the ice cube and the gum either. Will have to give that a try since I actually have gum in mine.
This is great advice. I need a Hoover, they always work so well!
You’ve given this mom of four (who hates doing floors) some fantastic tips to make my life easier and help keep my floors looking good. Thank you!
I like the look and feel of carpet but it does take some cleaning. These tips will be very useful.
Great advice! We actually had to have our carpets cleaned recently and luckily the service we hired did an excellent job
A little advice: if you spill red wine or coffee on the carpet, absorb the liquid with white towel and after that put some salt on the spot. If you do this as soon as possible, the stain could be removed. If you have pets at home it’s good to hire professional carpet cleaning company twice a year.
Great article! Some areas do need serious treatment! But you can never be sure which cleaning method is the best one, if you don’t know the exact carpet material. There’re cleaning companies that use eco-friendly and eficient solutions and do know what to do. If your carpet is close to your heart, you better call the professionals.
Great tips! Just one more thing: you have to be careful with the powder laundry detergents – some are specially for white clothes, so might have an interesting effect ot colourful and sensitive carpet materials.
Very useful post, thanks for sharing! It’s very important to read the label of your carpet before applying any cleaning detergents on it. If they are not the right ones for your textile flooring, they could destroy it. A good idea is to use professional cleaning help once or twice a year because regular vacuum cleaning is just not enough.
Great tips and very useful article. I have some areas in my house that I forgot for ages and they definitely need more attention. Starting with my carpet!
Great article, though recently I prefer to call cleaning professionals.
This is really useful article! Today we have the opportunity to find trained professionals easier and at a good price 😉
Very good tips!
Nice Tips! 🙂
Great article! Some areas do need serious treatment! But you can never be sure which cleaning method is the best one, if you don’t know the exact carpet material.
Awesome tips for perfect cleaning of carpet. I think anyone can find valuable tips for complete carpet cleaning. Thanks for the great suggestion.