A post by Maynard
This is another of those public service announcements, for you people who aren’t sure what to do about your dirty carpets.
Once or twice a year, I rent a RugDoctor. These marvelous little machines spray hot, clean, soapy water into your carpet, and suck out inky black filth, which you then pour down the drain (thus earning a personal reprimand from Al Gore). You’ll find RugDoctors ubiquitously available at supermarkets, pharmacies, tattoo parlors, and countless other fine stores.
It’s actually rather disturbing to see what lurks inside the carpet that you thought was reasonably clean because you vacuum it. (I’m assuming I’m not the only one to find his carpets are permeated by toxic waste.)
I’m posting this now because it’s a thing that comes to mind around the holidays, or during other periods of stress. Under circumstances where you would otherwise tear your hair out, you might as well put that nervous energy to practical use and clean your carpets. Not only is it cheaper than therapy, but you’ve got tangible results when you’re done, and you’ve had a bit of a workout.
Of course, you can just ignore your carpets, or you can hire a professional service. Having discovered how much crud is under my feet, I can’t ignore the situation; neither can I hire outsiders, for fear they will ransack my residence and discover my secret stashes of weapons, overdue library books, contraband herbs and spices, questionable photographs, relics from the home planet, and body parts. Also, service providers charge more than doing it myself.
There are various specialty cleaning fluids, but I pretty much stick to the recommended liquid soap. The carpets are left somewhat damp after the operation, so it helps to set up fans to facilitate drying.
If you’ve never done anything other than vacuum, this is an option to be aware of. Take action before your home gets tagged as a biohazard.
Maynard:
I ran a carpet cleaning service while doing post graduate studies. Since then I’ve never had carpets where I live; you simply can not keep them clean. If you don’t believe me, just go look when a carpet is being removed, I don’t care how often it was ‘cleaned’, the amount of gunk underneath is amazing
If I feel a need for a soft warm floor covering I use throw rugs that I can toss in the washer; or just get some nice mats for when you want to lie or sit on the floor. If you want a clean house nothing beats a broom or vacum followed by a mop and (shades of Malkin! 🙂 Spic & Span.
Hardwood and throwrugs, absolutely. We have two farm dogs who are in&out&in&out. Ever see a magnified photo of the creepy wildlife that breeds in carpet?
Rug Doctor’s OK, but I’d still prefer to have a pro do it. Hot water extraction is the only way to go no matter what the carpet cleaning company says.
Don’t, whatever you do, don’t use dry powders or bonnet pads. All they do is even out the dirt; they never remove it.
And, yes, hardwood or tile with rugs is still nicer but much more expensive.
Pay me now or pay me later.