How Often Your Carpet Should Be Cleaned
We all agree that proper home hygiene is key for the health of the family. However, with all the wiping, mopping plus other kinds of surface care and chores done in the household, one item often gets overlooked: the carpet. Some vacuum it religiously – which is actually necessary, but skip out of the deep cleaning. Others neglect it altogether, until the carpet quickly becomes an eyesore. How often should the carpet cleaning be carried out? We’ll look at this and more.
Rule of the Thumb
The general role is that carpets in homes should be vacuumed at least twice a week, and get a deep clean by professionals at least once a year. For the heavy traffic areas, and for those households that have kids and pets, then the vacuuming should be more frequency – three times a week or even daily, and the deep carpet cleaning should be carried out every 3 – 6 months.
Granted, each home has different conditions, and there will be factors varying from one household to the next. This will have an impact on the actual carpet cleaning schedule that you set up in your residence.
Different Levels Of Soiling
We can break this down into 4 general categories:
- Light soiling
For those living alone or couples, the dirt buildup is generally low. Here, you should vacuum once a week. Remember that spots should be cleaned up immediately they are noticed – such as with the occasional drinks spills that occur. Postponing this will make the spots difficult to remove as time progresses. The deep carpet cleaning should be done at least once every 12 months.
- Medium soiling
This is seen in family households with kids and even the elderly around. The level of soiling will be a notch higher, especially with the kinds of messes the little ones make. Here, the vacuuming should be twice a week, and the professional carpet cleaning done every 6 – 12 months.
- Heavy soiling
Pets come into the picture here. The increased fur and dander, coupled with the dirt that our furry little friends track in from the outdoors, add to the grime build up. Households with persons who are smoking fall in this category as well, since there will be a higher concentration of pollutants getting trapped in the carpet’s fibres. It’s is recommended that the vacuuming here should be done 2 – 4 times a week, and the carpet cleaning at least once every 3 – 6 months.
Here you’re dealing with large families, with kids and pets involved. In such an environment there will be such a high rate of grime building up on the carpet that you will need to vacuum it daily. The carpet cleaning on the other hand should be carried out every 2 – 3 months.
Let’s delve deeper into the issues that affect the soiling levels.
Factors Determining The Carpet Cleaning Frequency
We love them, but the adorable little children are some of the largest threats to the carpet. Boldly tracking in mud from the outdoors, coming into the house all wet from playing in the rain and dripping water all over, the milk and yoghurt that keeps getting spilled, plates knocked over onto the carpet, and their tendency to almost always forget to remove their sholes when they are coming into the house – your carpet will bear the brunt of it all. The carpet cleaning is key for more than just aesthetics. The little ones are fond of playing on the cosy carpet, and the pathogens, allergens and pollutants that are on the unit will put their health at risk. They keep touching the fibres, then putting their hands on their faces and also into their mouth, providing direct access for the germs into their body systems. Ensuring that the carpet cleaning is regular is vital to protect the little ones.
Muddy paws from their escapades in the yard, the pests like mites and fleas that come clinging on the fur of your pet, nasty urine accidents on the carpet that reek up the household – these are situations that pet owners are all too familiar with. The fur and dander is an allergen, and cases of urine stains also increase the risk of damage to the carpet material, due to the acidic nature of the stain. Note that the carpet cleaning products used here should be safe for the pets – and a similar case applies for households with kids, hence the need to ensure that this is clarified by the personnel that you’re hiring to provide the carpet cleaning service.
How does the rain and snow affect your carpet cleaning schedule? Well, if you live in an area where this is frequent, certainly there will be a higher rate of debris getting tracked into your home, compared to those areas where is it’s all sunny.
This particularly affects households that have a fireplace. Here, there will be tiny pieces of wood debris and ash settling on the carpet. This goes hand in hand with higher cases of allergies, and increased deterioration of the carpet’s fibres due to the resultant abrasion when the particles are grinded against the carpet pile. As such, the carpet cleaning should be carried out at more regular intervals.
Lastly, you should not wait until the carpet gets visibly soiled before you schedule the cleaning. The absorbent nature of that lush pile enables it to hoard loads of grime – multiple times its own weight. This ranges from dust, debris, pollen, spores, smoke particles, fur and dander, dust mites and their faecal residue and food particles, to the body parts of insects that came to feed on the crumbs. By the time the carpet beings to look all dull, there will already be mounds of grime buried within the pile. These particles are grinded against the fibres whenever someone walks on the carpet, and the abrasion weakens them. Fraying can also result, further reducing the life of your unit. You want to enjoy your carpet for longer. A routine carpet cleaning schedule will prolong the life of your unit and provide a healthy space for your loved ones.
