What are some “rules of thumb” that you can use to figure out when you need to clean your carpet? First, a story might be helpful.
I can remember the first time that I got heat stroke. I had been enjoying a weekend away with my parents in my late teens at a hot springs resort and it was our last morning there. It was no different than all the other times we had soaked in the waters, whether during that trip or others – or so I thought.
After about 3 hours in the outside pool under a mostly sunny sky, we got changed and left and were on the road for the 4-hour drive back home. We had driven for no more than about 15 minutes when I got one of the most splitting headaches I’ve ever experienced. I also started to shiver and no amount of blankets could keep me warm enough. I’m not sure whether the king-sized fever started during the drive or after we got home, but I vaguely remember the blankets piled high on top of me in my bed while I sweated and groaned with head throbbing for the rest of that day, overnight, and into the next day. I’m not sure when I fully recovered, but I’ll never forget that first horrible experience of heat stroke!
Apparently, that hadn’t been enough of a learning experience because my wife and I were on our honeymoon a dozen or so years later and, after a busy day touring a village near our resort in the Dominican Republic, I got back to the resort that evening with the same familiar symptoms. Basically, I spent that whole night and the entire rest of the next day in bed. Thankfully our honeymoon was a full 14 days because an entire day of it was lost by not remembering the lesson I thought I had painfully learned several years before!
What was that lesson? Always make sure you drink a lot of water when you’re outdoors in the direct sun or heat, even if you don’t feel thirsty.
Why? Dehydration starts BEFORE you feel thirsty!! If you wait until you’re thirsty, then you’re already dehydrated. Heat stroke is the sign that you’ve gotten SEVERELY dehydrated!!
Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. By then, you’re already dehydrated!
Some questions
What does this story have to do with carpet cleaning? Let me answer this question by asking a couple of others.
The application
I think the answer to this last question is pretty obvious, but too many people wait until their carpet looks dirty before they do anything about it.
Applying the lessons about heat stroke, your carpet is dirty BEFORE it looks dirty!! If you wait to clean until it looks dirty, then your carpet is already possibly damaged. REALLY dirty carpet is the sign that it is already most certainly damaged!!
I explained the most important step in cleaning carpet in this post, so I won’t repeat much of that here. But the ‘spoiler alert’ is that regular vacuuming is the most important step, yet most people find it hard to become motivated to do that even once per week, let alone before it looks dirty. This is especially disastrous if you have pets, children, and smoking in your house or commercial property!
An upright vacuum cleaner moving across a residential loop-pile carpet.
If you think that you can neglect regular vacuuming and wait until things look really bad to hire a professional like me, then you run the risk of damage to carpet fibers in high-traffic areas that won’t be fixed by any type of professional carpet cleaning! Again, the post I referred to above goes into a lot more detail about this.
Some rules of thumb
1) Vacuum even if it hurts
Okay, I don’t mean physical pain! I mean, vacuum even if the thought of vacuuming is emotionally painful – if it’s hard to get off the couch or if even you’re busy with other things. Make vacuuming a lifestyle priority!! Carpet is expensive and regular vacuuming, not occasional professional cleaning, is the most effective way to protect your investment.
Make vacuuming a lifestyle priority!!
Another way to put it, vacuum even when it seems like it makes no sense, i.e. even though your carpet may not look dirty yet. The best way is to set a schedule (a day and a time of day).
These are the industry-recommended MINIMUM intervals for vacuuming:
Again, these are the bare minimums. Refer to this post for more specific examples based upon your situation.
If you think that you can neglect regular vacuuming, then you run the risk of damage to carpet fibers in high-traffic areas that won’t be fixed by any type of professional carpet cleaning!
2) Do regular restorative cleanings
That’s fancy-talk for “hire a professional to clean your carpets.” Even the most powerful vacuum cleaner will not remove more than about half of your carpet’s soil particles. A vacuum cleaner also cannot “wash” your carpet fibers clean. A professional cleaning is a must at regular intervals in order to do what a vacuum cleaner cannot.
Attempts to save money by renting a Rug Doctor or buying a store-bought shampoo machine simply won’t do the trick, at least not below the upper surface. They do NOT deep clean, and they will also leave high-pH residues that will quickly attract new soil particles and thereby harm your carpet in the long run, costing you more in the long run because you’ll have to replace your carpet sooner. Don’t trip over a dollar trying to save a dime!
These are the industry-recommended MINIMUM intervals for a professional, restorative cleaning:
A Rug Doctor or a store-bought shampoo machine do NOT deep clean, and they will also leave high-pH residues that will quickly attract new soil and thereby harm your carpet in the long run.
If you live in my service area in southeast Alberta, Canada, contact me and I can give you exact recommendations for how often you should vacuum and also do restorative and interim cleanings based upon the amount of soiling and/or foot traffic in your house or commercial property. (Regular interim cleanings, for less cost, are also highly recommended, especially for commercial carpets.)
Heck, contact me even if you don’t live in my service area! My goal is to help people get the most life out of their wonderful carpets wherever they live!
Neat Freak Cleaning uses the industry’s top VLM system, the proper techniques, and the cleaning products designed to work best with them!
I clean carpets in Southeast Alberta, Canada.
Contact me to book a cleaning, get an estimate, or to learn more about very low moisture carpet cleaning!
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