He’s primarily responsible for dirtying my light carpets with unsightly stains. Ick. I’m embarrassed to post these pictures.
Lucky for my pup, he’s too cute to get mad at.
Who Me? Sorry, Mom.
Since our carpets were in new condition when we bought our house and we don’t want to shell out the cash for the hardwood floors I dream of, it’s important that we keep our carpet in good shape. Fortunately, we bought a carpet shampooer when we first moved in. Even though the seller had installed new carpets when she put the house up for sale, I wanted to shampoo them when we moved in to make sure they were spic and span (I’m a bit of a germ phobe when it comes to things like this).
So every few months (okay, closer to a year) we break out our shampooer to give our floors a scrub. We use this Hoover which has worked well for us and was reasonably priced.
We pushed all of the furniture out of the way, went over the carpets to wash them, and then went over them again to suck up the water and dry them.
And it worked! Even our pesky stains near the entryway are gone! Here’s the same spot as in the earlier picture, but this time it’s nice and clean:
Isn't that amazing! The floors even feel nicer to walk on now that they’ve been cleaned. We've been going through the rest of the house and shampooing one or two rooms at a time. The house looks so much cleaner now that the carpets are freshened.
I don't want to shampoo too often because I'm afraid I'll damage the integrity of the carpet, but I think every 6 months in high trafficked areas and once a year for the rest of the house will keep the carpets clean. I'd like to do the old vacuuming with baking soda trick a little more often to keep the carpets fresh too. What do you think? Do you have any tips for keeping carpets clean?
And for a laugh, here's the real Grouch enjoying all things dirty, dusty, and dingy: