How to Clean a Carpet: 3 Types of Cleaning That You Can Apply
In this article, we are going to tell you how to clean a carpet in three ways. Thus, your carpets can look like new for a long time.
How to clean a carpet with vacuum cleaners
Today, cleaning a carpet is easy thanks to modern vacuum cleaners, such as washing, steam vacuums or vacuum cleaners with water filters. We will give you a few recommendations on how to use them if you decided on this type of cleaning.
- Clean a carpet from both sides – front and reverse sides, starting from the reverse, otherwise, the dust will get absorbed there.
- Brush along the pile forward and back, never brush across the pile. Vacuum in rows, from the edge to the edge. After vacuuming one row, go to the next one, without pressing the brush too much not to damage the pile.
- Select proper nozzles. If you have a natural carpet, use a brush with a long bristle. For rugs, use a short bristle, for carpets with long pile – a smooth nozzle without bristles.
- If a woolen or semi-woolen carpet was purchased recently, you can just sweep it with a soft broom in the first six months.
- For cleaning woolen rugs, use liquid soap foam.
- Before processing a synthetic rug, first spray it with an antistatic agent, as the pile gets electrified and the dust will be difficult to remove.
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Wet cleaning – one of the best ways to clean carpet
Wet cleaning is either a full washing a carpet or cleaning its surface with water.
It is better not to wash natural carpets, as you can damage the pile. A convenient option for home is deep foam cleaning. In this case, a carpet does not get wet completely and the foam perfectly removes the dirt.
You can buy special shampoos for that or make foam by yourself – just dilute the detergent with water. Vacuum a dry carpet first, then apply the foam and vacuum again. You must vacuum almost immediately because if the foam stays for a long time, a carpet will get soaked, that can damage it.
Do not do wet cleaning too often, as chemicals in the detergents will gradually corrode the fibers.
A woolen surface can be also cleaned with a rag moistened with a solution of ammonia or liquid soap.
There is usually no problem with wet cleaning in winter as it is commonly known how to clean carpets with snow. Just spread a carpet outside, sprinkle it with fresh snow and then sweep it in all directions with a broom or a brush, periodically replacing the dirty snow with clean one.
It is better to clean a carpet on a fine day when you can open the windows for a carpet to dry out completely (but not under direct sun rays).
Cleaning with absorbents
An absorbent can be what that you can find in the kitchen – table salt (an absorbent is a substance that can absorb a large amount of any other substance). Just scatter dry salt on the carpet, then weep it with a broom washed in soapy water. Repeat this several times, adding new salt as the previous one gets dirty. Then, just vacuum the remaining salt after cleaning.
