While it’s nice to have a home with carpeted flooring, you’ll need to deep clean carpets to keep them bright and fresh. Over time, you’ll find that the carpets in your home begin to fade, and they tend to look slightly darker. This is because there is dirt and grime that has gotten into the microfibers of your carpet. If your carpets look dirty it may be time for you to start a carpet cleaning routine so that your carpets look and smell fresh again.
In this article, we’re going to look at how you can deep clean your carpets with a steam cleaner and some methods that you can use to clean your carpets without a carpet cleaning machine. We’ll also show you some tips and tricks that you can use to clean the carpets in your home.
How to Deep Clean your Carpets with a Carpet Cleaner
If you’re wondering how to deep clean your carpets, then you’ve come to the right place because we’re going to teach you how to deep clean your carpets with a carpet cleaner and how to remove those nasty carpet stains that have been caused by beverages that have been spilt.
What You Need
Ingredients
- Salt
- Borax Solution
- Vinegar
Products / Tools
- Vacuum Cleaner
- Carpet Shampoo
- Carpet Cleaning Machine
Once you’ve got these ingredients and tools, it’s time to learn how to deep clean your carpets so that they can look bright and smell fresh again.
Instructions
1. Prepare the Room for Cleaning
Before you start cleaning your carpets, you’ll want to make sure that the area you’re about to clean is empty. You’ll want to make sure that you pick up any toys off the floor and place them in another room.
You should also remove all the furniture from the room to clean the carpet in the entire room. This will allow you to clean the whole carpeted area and prevent you from bumping into furniture while you’re cleaning the carpets.
2. Vacuum the Carpet
Once you’ve removed the furniture and toys from the room, you’ll want to vacuum the carpets to get rid of any dust, hairs and other particles that have worked their way into the roots of your carpet.
You’ll want to make sure that you spend time vacuuming your carpet to ensure that you’re cleaning your carpet as well as possible. If possible, you’ll want to vacuum your carpet in 3-4 directions so that you clean your carpet from different angles and get the best results possible.
We would recommend that you use a vacuum with a carpet cleaning head. These carpet cleaning heads are designed to thoroughly clean your carpets so that there’s no dust or allergens in your carpet when you’re finished cleaning.
3. Pre-Treat Any Stains
After you’ve removed the furniture from the room, you’ll likely notice the stains that are on your carpet. When you’re deep cleaning your carpet with a steam cleaner, it’ll be an excellent time to get rid of the stains in your carpet.
There are several ways that you can remove stains from your carpet, such as:
- Stain Remover Solution – Use a carpet stain removal solution and spray it on the stain to remove any stains that you may have on your carpet. You’ll want to follow the instructions on the spray bottle and use the stain removal spray before you start steaming your carpets so that the carpet cleaner can remove the stains for you.
- DIY Carpet Stain Remover – If you don’t have a stain removal solution, you can create your stain removal to clean your carpets. You’ll need ¼ cup of salt, ¼ cup of borax solution and ¼ cup of white vinegar. You’ll want to mix these ingredients so that it makes a paste and then use a spoon to rub the paste into the carpet. Once the paste has dried, you can use a vacuum cleaner to remove the dried paste and then use the steam cleaner to deep clean the stains.
Once you’ve treated the stains on your carpet, you’ll be ready to start cleaning your carpets with a steam cleaner.
4. Choose a Steam Cleaner
Before you begin the process of prepping your carpeted area so that you can clean it, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve found a steam cleaner that you can use to deep clean your carpets.
A steam cleaner is a machine that looks similar to a large vacuum but uses steam and a cleaning solution to deep clean your carpets. You can either rent a steam cleaner or buy a steam cleaning machine that you can use to clean your carpets regularly. If your home has a lot of carpets, then we would recommend that you buy a carpet cleaner, because it’ll be much cheaper than renting a carpet cleaning machine.
If you decide to rent a steam cleaner, then you’ll want to make sure that you’ve done all the prep work before you go to the hardware store and rent the carpet cleaner. This is because the hardware stores will rent the carpet cleaners at a daily rate, so you’ll want to spend your time cleaning the carpets and not prepping the carpets so that you can clean them.
Whether you purchase or rent a steam cleaner, you’ll still need to buy your own carpet shampoo solution. You’ll need this solution to put in the machine so that your carpets are cleaner and smell better when you’re finished cleaning your carpets.
5. Start Deep Cleaning your Carpets
After you’ve found a steam cleaning machine to clean your carpets, it’s time for you to start using the steam cleaner to clean your carpets. Always remember to start in the furthest corner away from the door and work your way out of each room so that you’re not walking on wet carpets or staining the wet carpet with dirty footprints.
Follow these steps for deep cleaning your carpets.
- Fill Your Steam Cleaner – Before you start your steam cleaner, you’ll need to fill it up with hot water and carpet shampoo. You’ll need to follow the instructions on the carpet shampoo bottle and measure the right ratio of water to cleaning shampoo. If you have pets, then you’ll want to find a pet-friendly carpet shampoo.
- Start Cleaning Carpets – Once you’ve filled the carpet cleaning machine, it’s time for you to start cleaning. Many carpet cleaning machines come with two modes that you can use to clean your carpets. One mode will release water into the carpets, and the other mode will suck the water out of your carpets. We recommend that you release water for about 25% of the time and suck up the water for about 75% of the time so that your carpets don’t have excessive water left in them when you’re finished.
- Repeat the Cleaning Process – If you own the carpet cleaning machine, then it’s worth repeating the process on your carpets so that you can get all the grime out of the carpets. If you rented the machine, then you’ll want to do all of your carpets and then see how much time you have left before you need to return the machine so that you won’t get charged extra.
You may want to repeat the process as many times as you need or until the water in the machine is coming back cleaner, and you know that there’s very little dirt or grime left in your carpets.
6. Allow the Carpets to Dry
Before you move all the furniture back into the rooms you’ve cleaned, you’ll want to make sure that the carpets are dry so that they don’t cause mould. Typically, you’ll want to leave the carpets for at least 10 hours so that they have enough time to dry after steam cleaning.
During those 10 hours, we recommend that you use air fans to circulate the air around the room so that your carpets dry quickly. You can also open the windows in the room so that the carpets will dry faster. After the carpets have been dried, you’ll be able to move all of your furniture back into the room and resume life as usual.
How to Deep Clean your Carpets without a Carpet Cleaner
If you have a smaller area of carpet in your home, then you may not want to buy or rent a carpet cleaner so that you can clean a smaller section of the carpet. If this is the case, then you can clean your carpet without a steamer.
Keep in mind that this method is best used for removing spot stains. However, you could clean smaller portions of carpet with this method as long as you don’t mind the extra work you’ll need to clean your carpets without a steamer.
What You Need
Ingredients
- Salt
- Baking Soda
- Rags
Products / Tools
- Large Scrubbing Brush
- Spray Bottle
- Detergent
- Towels
Once you’ve got all your supplies together, it’s time for you to start cleaning your carpet without a steamer.
Instructions
1. Clear and Vacuum the Room
Before you can start cleaning your carpet, you’ll need to clear the area of furniture, toys and appliances. This will allow you to clean the carpet without running into objects, and it will let you thoroughly clean your carpeted area. Once the area is empty, you’ll want to take a vacuum and make sure that you clean any dirt, dust or debris from the carpet. This will ensure that there are no particles of dirt in the microfibers of your carpet and allow you to clean your carpet with the brush and solution.
We would recommend that you use a vacuum that has a carpet cleaning head on it to clean your carpets properly. You’ll also want to go over your carpets a few times so that you can clean the carpet from different angles and clean more dirt out of your carpets.
2. Mix the Solution
After you’ve cleared out the room and vacuumed the carpets, you’ll want to start making the spray solution that you can use to clean your carpets. For this step, you’re going to need your spray bottle, some liquid soap, and some warm water.
You’ll need to take about ¼ teaspoon of liquid soap and add it to your bottle of warm water and then shake the bottle so that the soap mixes with the water. This solution will be used on your carpets at a later time so that you can clean your carpets.
3. Prep the Spot Stains
If your carpet has spot stains, then you’ll want to make sure that you remove these stains while you’re cleaning your carpet. To prep the spot stains on your carpet, you can sprinkle a little bit of water, salt, and baking soda on the stains and let it sit on the top of the carpet.
Once you begin cleaning the entire carpet with your spray solution, this baking soda and salt should help remove some of the stains on your carpet.
4. Spray and Brush
Once you’ve prepped the stain spots, it’s time to grab your brush and spray bottle so that you can start cleaning your carpet by hand. You’ll want to take your bottle of soapy water and spray it on the top of the carpet and then use your brush to scrub the carpet in one direction so that you can work any dirt and particles out of your carpet.
This task is easier if you have a large scrub brush with a big handle so that you can scrub the carpet without it hurting your hands or wrists.
5. Dry and Repeat
After you’ve finished the entire area of carpet that you want to clean, you’ll want to take a towel and push it into the floor so that you can help the carpet dry. Once the carpet is mostly dry, you’ll need to take your spray bottle and fill it with hot water and then repeat the process. You’ll need to repeat the spray and scrub process with hot water until you’re satisfied with the carpet’s cleanliness.
According to the experts at Corner 2 Corner cleaning, you’ll want to repeat the process as many times as needed until the carpet is clean and the stains can no longer be seen.
“When we’re cleaning carpets, the goal is to provide the client with carpet that has no stains. We will allow the carpet to dry and repeat the cleaning process until the carpet is completely clean.” ~ Corner 2 Corner Cleaning
If your cleaning area is smaller, you can place a heavy object on the towel to help the carpet dry faster. This will help speed up the process of cleaning your carpet and allow you to dry your floor without having to do it by hand.
Tips for Deep Cleaning Carpets
If you’re thinking about cleaning the carpet in your home, then you can use our list of tricks and tips so that you can easily clean your carpet and make it look bright and fresh once again.
Here are some tips that you can use when you’re cleaning your carpet.
- Always test for colour fastness before you use a carpet steamer on your entire carpet. You should run the steamer on a hidden portion of your carpet and see if the colour in your carpet holds with the steam.
- Remove all furniture from the room so that you can evenly clean the carpet in your home. If you leave some furniture behind, place plastic or foil underneath the furniture to ensure that the wet carpet doesn’t get stained from the furniture.
- Always vacuum your carpets before you start steam cleaning your carpets so that you get the majority of the dirt and debris out of your carpets.
- You should always pre-treat any stains in your carpet before you begin steaming the stain. If the stains are hard to get out, the hot water from the carpet cleaner could set the stains and make it impossible to get the stains out of your carpet.
- Follow the instructions on any carpet cleaners or carpet shampoos.
- Use fans and open windows to speed up the drying process so that your carpet doesn’t get a musty smell from being damp for too long.
- Don’t walk on the wet carpet because the wet carpet is easier to stain with dirt and oils.
Summary
We hope that this article has helped you understand how you can clean the carpets in your home. While there are many ways to clean your carpets, it’s much easier to clean the carpets in your home with a carpet cleaner.
If you decide to clean your carpets without using a carpet cleaning machine, you’ll want to use a large scrub brush. You’ll find that it’s much easier to clean carpets if you have a large brush that can be used for scrubbing.
