Carpet Cleaning Equipment You Have Around The House
Every home's carpeting should be professionally cleaned every 12 to 18 months, using a hot water extraction system or the patented Chem-Dry system. However, for those little spills that take place in between cleanings, you can use carpet cleaning equipment you have on hand in your kitchen, bathroom, or linen closet.
Clean White Towels
The first defense against any spill on carpet is a stack of clean, absorbent white towels. For example, if you see your puppy urinating on the carpet, immediately place several layers of white terry cloth toweling against the urine spot and stand on the stain. You will notice the towel yellowing under your feet (be sure you are wearing shoes!). Keep shifting the towel around so a clean, dry area is directly above the stain, and press again with your body weight. Continue the process, working from the outside of the stain and moving inward, to prevent the stain from spreading further.
Use clean white towels on any light-colored liquid carpet stain. Who would have thought such effective carpet cleaning equipment was located right in your linen closet?
Paper Towels
Here's some simple carpet cleaning equipment that most kitchens have sitting on the countertop. After you have absorbed all the light-colored stains you can with your clean white terry cloth towels, attack the wet spot with paper toweling. Stack white paper towels directly over the stain and weigh the stack of towels down with a book or another heavy item. Never use a porous brick, however, as a weight, because you run the risk of transferring the brick dye through the towel and into the carpet as a result of the wicking effect. Continue blotting the spot with paper towels until the towels no longer absorb dampness.
Baking Soda
While you're in the kitchen, you'll find more great carpet cleaning equipment on the spice shelf. Baking soda is great for attacking stains because it is so absorbent. When you spill a dark liquid, like tomato sauce, coffee or red wine, on light colored carpeting, immediately pour a pile of baking soda onto the stain. The baking soda will absorb most of the liquid, leaving you with a surface stain after you clear the soiled baking soda away.
Wax
Sometimes burning wax drips onto the carpet and leaves a stain. Don't despair. Let the wax cool, then remove as much of the dried wax as you can with your fingers or a sharp tool like a toothpick. Plug in your steam iron and grab a paper grocery bag - novel carpet cleaning equipment by anyone's definition. Hold the bag over the wax and, with the iron on a Low setting, keep moving the bag and the iron until you have blotted the melted wax into the paper of the grocery bag.
