Keeping your carpet healthy

Taking care of your floors will prevent damage, extends its life, and keeps it looking like brand new for years. Here are some tips on keeping your floors and carpets up to code.

Wearing shoes in the house is a big no-no. Buy a placemate, and make a rule at your house that people take their shoes off the mat. Why do shoes cause so much damage? Because the soles of your shoes are perfect ways for dirt, rocks, and sand to enter your home and become embedded into your carpet. The dirt and sand eventually will grind away at the fibers in your carpet and ruin it.

Be sure to vaccume your carpet often, to remove anything that may have made it inside your house despite your efforts to keep shoes out of the house. If your going to shampoo your carpets, never use liquid carpet shampoo. Using that will leave a small residue of the shampoo on your carpet, allowing dirt to cling more strongly, making your carpets even hard to clean in the future. Instead use a dry carpet cleaner.

Getting out old shampoo becomes the trick. Rent a shampoo machine that cleans with water. Mix 1 cup vinegar per 2 ½ gallons of water and clean according to directions. Go back over the carpet with warm water only. The vinegar pulls out the old shampoo, cleaning the carpet as well. It may take a time or two, but your carpets will be soft and free from grime. The hot water reactivates the shampoo already in the carpet, providing the needed cleansing action.

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