Carpets are usually sturdy enough to withstand a lot of punishment over the course of time, but without proper care, washing and maintenance they will degrade. The following tips will give you the tools and practices needed to avoid that as much as possible:
• One of the best ways to avoid tracking outside contaminants in your home is to ensure you never trod around with shoes on your nice, clean carpets. Make sure you have a shoe basket or a rack near your door so you can leave them there. This will significantly lower the amount of time you will need to deal with cleaning. If you really have to walk with shoes on the inside, then make sure you have some useful walk-off mats near the entry points to your home. They will help reduce the dirt you bring from the outside. Make sure you pick wide or long ones that allow you to take at least a few steps before you walk on your carpets.
• Vacuum on a regular basis as well, since this will be one of the easiest and best ways you can save the carpeting in a quick and effective way. You should do so at least once a week as this will make sure you remove all the pesky dirt that keeps getting trampled between the fibers of the carpet. Make sure you’re using a powerful vacuum cleaner and that you change the bag often if you want maximum results. You should also focus on vacuuming your upholstery, despite the fact it’s not the carpet itself. Dust will float down onto the carpet each time you sit down on your furniture, so this will need to be cleaned before you vacuum the carpets.
• Sunlight often causes fading in fabrics, so you will need to make sure this happens rarely during the hot summer days. If you can, keep the shades and draperies closed when you have direct sunlight in the room and you don’t need it. This will protect the colors of your carpet, as it will suffer less UV radiation exposure. You can also decide to tint the windows with a UV-protective film which blocks out the rays that fade colors.
• Once in a while accidents will happen, and they will need immediate fixing or the damage will be irreparable. Make sure you do whatever you can to deal with things right away, blotting the area with a mild detergent and later doing whatever you can to lift the stain before things get bad. If you don’t do this right away the chance of cleaning it severely drops as time goes by. Most accidents that happened due to spilt drinks, food or pets can be cleaned with a simple paper towel and some quick work, but other times you will need to work a lot harder. Keep this rule in mind and never underestimate it.
