Unless you’re walking round on hard, wooden flooring in each room, your home is probably at least partially carpeted.
Carpet does have to be regularly maintained and looked after, but it doesn’t need to be a chore with these five quick and easy hacks that’ll leave your carpets looking pristine.
Iron Stain Removal
Some stains are quite easy to get out, but others can really test your patience. However, one trick which you can try involves using the humble iron.
Start off by vacuuming the affected area as you normally would, to get rid of any hard particles.
Next, treat the stain with a mixture of three pieces of water to one piece of vinegar and let this soak its way into the carpet for five minutes or so.
Finally, lay down a towel and apply your heated iron and the pressure and heat from the iron should cause the stain to be transferred onto the towel, working kind of like when you heat transfer a design onto a t-shirt or apply a temporary tattoo.
For more information, check out this post from Apartment Therapy.
Make Your Own Carpet Cleaner
Sure you can go out and fill a cupboard full of the latest detergents and cleaners, but why not do it yourself?
Deep cleaning doesn’t necessarily have to include the use of chemicals and making your own will help to minimise the effect you’re having on the environment.
What you’ll need are three parts hydrogen peroxide to one part white vinegar, with a few drops of essential oils, two tablespoons of dish soap, two tablespoons of fabric softener and a bucket of hot, but not boiling, water.
This creates a much cleaner alternative to your shop-bought detergents, producing the same results.
Check out this post from Happy Money Saver for another eco-friendly homemade carpet cleaning solution.
Baking Soda
If there’s one product which comes closest to a ‘miracle cleaner’, it might be baking soda.
For example, for oil stains, which can’t be treated by dabbing with hot water, try applying some baking soda to soak in and leave it until it forms a dry crust, which can hopefully be easily vacuumed up.
It’s also ideal for masking pet accidents, which are an unfortunate inevitability when you’ve got a new four-legged friend in the house, but baking soda will help to absorb the nasty smell and allow you blot away the rest of the stain.
Vacuuming Shag Carpeting
Shag carpeting seems to have made something of a comeback, but it certainly hasn’t got any easier to clean, with vacuums inevitably pulling up fibres or turning them frizzy.
London carpet cleaning experts Cleaner Cleaner say: “If you’ve got a new shag carpet you don’t want to damage, try vacuuming it using the hose attachment of the vacuum.
“This will take slightly longer, but it allows you to get deep into the fibres of the carpet without damaging them.”
Fluff Using Vinegar
Vinegar has many similar properties to baking soda, but did you know it can also be used to help fluff up your carpets in areas where they’re looking worn and flat?
All you need to do is dilute some vinegar in equal parts of water and spray it onto the desired area.
Once it’s been absorbed, take a spoon from the kitchen and run it sideways along the carpet to loosen the fibres up.
