There are a lot of things around the house that however many times are cleaned, they just don’t look naturally beautiful. Things like mattresses and carpets are some of them. Many individuals choose to clean them on their own to save on the money they would have used taking them to a carpet cleaner. What they forget is that when these home items are cleaned in the wrong method, they end up getting damaged and will require much more money to repair or replace, than it could have cost to take them to a cleaner.

If one needs to maintain their carpet and other home items, they need to take them to a cleaner, what with loads of companies providing contract cleansing. Home carpet cleansing is done using a vacuum cleaner. This doesn’t work very well with carpets piled with dust and other debris. That is where a professional cleaner comes in.

There are numerous approaches you can take when cleaning carpets and upholstery. The purpose of the cleaning (is it a general clean or are there specific stains which you want to remove) as well as the type of material you are working with will dictate the best cleaning method to use. If you are the housekeeping type you might be considering doing it yourself but people such as me (I’m lazy) prefer to use a professional service. Here are some basic tips to follow when cleaning carpets, rugs and upholstery.

Carpet and rug cleaning methods

Other than the countless ‘housewives remedies’, there are generally five recognized methods of cleaning carpets. Steam (also known as hot water extraction), shampoo, bonnet or quick dry and dry absorbent compound cleaning.

Steam is the most well known of all the common methods but this is not always ideal because of the long drying time (sometimes over 12 hours depending on the material). By lightly wetting the carpet with a cleaning detergent, the steam cleaner then sucks out the debris with a high powered vacuum.