It doesn’t matter if you live alone, with your spouse, or with a whole army of kids and/or pets; keeping your carpets and upholstery clean is important. The best way to keep your carpet and upholstery looking great between professional steam cleaning visits is to make sure you have a vacuum cleaner that is functioning at peak performance and that you do it right.
Regular vacuuming removes dust, dirt and allergens. This is a step in the right direction because dirt can act like an abrasive and wear carpet fibers down. Regular vacuuming keeps your home clean and it keeps your carpets looking great for a long time. This will save you money when you don’t have to replace it sooner than you planned to. You should vacuum high traffic areas more often. When you have a lot of things that need to be cleaned you should save the vacuuming for last. This makes cleaning more effective because when you dust it all ends up on the floor when gravity takes over. Upholstery needs some TLC too. Take a damp cloth and run it over your furniture to pick up dust and run the vacuum cleaner over it. It’s also a good idea to flip the cushions to keep wear and tear as even as possible. It’s also a great way to teach your family not to try and hide spills because you will find them eventually!
Most homeowners clean a room from one end to the other. But if you want to maximize your cleaning efforts and remove as much dirt as possible you should go over a room again at a 90-degree angle. That means vacuum from left to right and then again at different angles. Taking this extra step will release more dirt and leave you with cleaner carpet. Regular vacuuming is important but so is taking it slow. Taking your time with the vacuum cleaner means you’re giving the roller brush enough time to release dirt and the vacuum a chance to pick up as much dirt as possible. Moving over the carpet too quickly just kicks the dirt around so it can settle back down. While you don’t have to vacuum the edges of your carpet every time you vacuum, you should do it every other week. Use the crevice attachment to vacuum along all the edges where the carpet meets the baseboards because most vacuum cleaners can’t reach these edges on their own. You can also use the brush attachment to remove dust from the top of the baseboards.
Vacuuming is great at removing dirt and allergens but doesn’t do much in removing stains. Treat spots and stains with a residue-free spot cleaner as soon as possible. Try using water, club soda or white vinegar but be careful with spot cleaners you buy at the store. These cleaners can be harsh on carpet fibers and leave a residue behind that can attract more dirt and have spots reappearing right before your eyes.
Having your carpets and upholstery professionally cleaned is essential to maintaining a healthy, happy home. Contact the professionals at Ameribest Carpet Cleaning to schedule an appointment today.