How Clean is Your Carpet, Actually? |
Posted: October 16, 2017 |
How Clean is Your Carpet, Actually? Did you just finish vacuuming your living room carpet? Think it's clean enough to lay down and roll around on? Well, think again. Your carpet is home to thousands of thriving bacteria. The average person sheds approximately 1.5 million skin cells every single hour, and if you're hanging out in the den watching television, every last one of those will end up on the carpet at some point. On top of that, food particles, pollen, and pet dander will all collect onto your carpet as well, making it a real bacteria breeding ground. And walking on that floor is going to spread the germs even more. Vacuuming can get rid of some of just the surface contaminants, but what about all that's left behind? Sweeping isn't enough. In order to banish the deep-rooted bacteria once and for all (or at least for a few months), you'll have to steam your carpet. However, steaming your carpet by yourself isn't so great of an idea. Home steam cleaners aren't capable of lifting moisture from your carpets after you've steamed them, making them the best place for new mold growths to call home. Instead, you can find some professional help. However often you feel it's necessary to hire a steam carpet cleaner, achieving a completely dust-free home could mean hiring help every 6 months, even more often for those who house pets. Oh, and carpet warranties require regular professional cleaning. Nearly every carpet warranty requires you to professionally steam your carpets every 18-24 months, though some may require a yearly cleaning. Be sure to check your own carpet warranties regulations, or else any future warranty claim you might want to make will be shot right down. You can keep your carpets clean between the streams, though. Sweeping can still serve you a purpose; using a vacuum on your carpets weekly will help keep the dust and debris on top of it from sinking down any further. Again, though, if you have pets or spots that seem to attract more dirt than the rest of the room, then you may have to do a follow-up in specific areas every day or a few times a week. Be sure that you use the proper technique while sweeping, too. When vacuuming, the best results are always achieved when you clean correctly. That is, make sure you vacuum both horizontally and vertically, slowly, and thoroughly, taking time to use the crevice tool on the corners and edges of the carpet. If you don't, dust and dirty can accumulate over so much time along the edges that it will become impossible to get clean ever again. Also, always empty your cleaner's bag once it's halfway full, otherwise the vacuum won't clean as properly as it should. And always clean stains as soon as you possibly can. The longer a spill sits on the carpet, the more time it has to be soaked up by the carpet fibers. Clean stains as soon as you can with a stain remover, and be sure to blot the stains rather than rub then, so that you aren't damaging the carpet in any way. Also, rinse and dry out the stain remover when you are finished, this way you are still avoiding the possibility of mold formation afterwards. Let's be honest, our carpets can become downright disguising over time. They can even house as much as 200,000 bacteria per square inch when left uncleaned. To avoid letting nightmares of germs and mold sneak up on you, though, you can follow these simple steps and precautions to both get and keep your carpet healthily cleaned.
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