How to Clean Your Own Carpet

If you are like me and have a toddler and a preschooler in the house, your carpet probably needs cleaned pretty often. Or if you have pets, you too might have Stanley Steemer on speed dial. Hiring a professional carpet cleaner got kind of expensive for us. And renting a Rug Doctor every few months is just a good way to ruin a weekend.

We do still clean our carpet twice a year. But you'd never know it in a month or two. So for those in between times, when guests are coming over, or I'm hosting playgroup, or my mother in law is showing up, I've learned a few tricks on how to clean my carpets.

First of all, it is important to vacuum regularly. In my house, I vacuum every other day. It is recommended that you vacuum the entire carpet at least once a week.

For general stains, those ones that you didn't clean up right away and a week later is just a blob that you don't remember how it got there, use shaving cream. Apply shaving cream to the stain and let it sit about thirty minutes. Then blot it away with a clean cloth. Finally, rinse with a white vinegar and water solution. This gets rid of a lot of stains that I suspect are food or grease stains in our house.

To remove Silly Putty (and don't ask how I know about Silly Putty in the carpet) you will probably need Goo Gone. This stuff works great, and dissolves just about anything. I think it has a strong odor, so I use it when the children are napping or at least not in the same room. Rinse it up with white vinegar and water afterwards. If that didn't get it all, you can snip a few fibers with the scissors and voila, good as new. By the way, this trick works great on gum , too.