•  If you have a spillage, deal with it straight away. Use kitchen roll to soak up as much liquid as you can to minimise the amount that soaks in. The more you can remove, the easier it will be. But don’t rub – as with clothes, dab to minimise staining rather than rubbing which may just stain more by pushing the liquid further into the carpet.
• Right, you’ve dealt with the stain. Now you should clear up any items that are lying about on the carpet so you can be quick and efficient once you actually start rather than wasting time stopping and starting to pick things up. Then hoover up the carpet to remove surface bits and avoid clogging up the carpet cleaner.
• Choose your solution. Good ones won’t foam up too much, won’t leave your carpet sticky, try not to affect allergy sufferers and remove that smelly-pet odour. Some are specially formulated for removal of tough stains and some even include a stain repellent component to protect your carpet after all your hard work. Also, make sure that the solution you choose is safe for wool if your carpet is wool.
• As with so many things, check a small area first. It’s not very likely that the colour in your carpet will run, but better safe than sorry – so pick your small area somewhere that won’t really be noticed if the worst does happen.

• Again, just as when you’re washing clothes, a bad stain may benefit form a pre-treatment before you do the main clean. And you may be able to crack on after about 15 minutes of pre-treatment. Just follow the instructions.
• You know when you’re painting and you get stuck in a corner…well, to save yourself from damp socks, start cleaning your carpet in the corner furthest away from the door!
• Push the cleaner more slowly than you would the vacuum cleaner – just to give it time to work thoroughly and deeply and move in parallel lines with a slight overlap – a bit like mowing the lawn.
• Make sure that the carpet doesn’t get too wet. Soaking it means it will take ages to dry but it won’t be any cleaner than it would have been, so check the instructions – in this case, less is more.
• Try to hire a carpet cleaner that has the capacity to rinse. This will remove any cleaner residue – then open the windows if it’s warm outside and let it dry, or, during the colder months, you could always pop the heating on for a bit.

And that’s all there is to it! Regular carpet cleaning will keep them looking great and prolong their life.

And if you just can’t face it – don’t worry, we can! Just get in touch and we will give you a quote.