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Do you wash your carpets?
Growing up we had a carpet washer we would use once a year or so, but we had a dog and 3 messy kids.
Now that I'm grown up, I'm wondering if people regularly wash their carpets. I know you can rent some powerful units from local stores or get a portable one yourself, but Im actually wondering how common this is for people to do somewhat regularly (vs doing it when necessary due to pet accidents)
I have carpets only in the bedrooms and no I don’t wash them. I only vacuum them. But I also don’t wear shoes indoor so they just don’t get dirty.
You'd be surprised how filthy they get anyway. Rent a decent carpet cleaner and give it a run over and promptly hate your carpets forever more.
I agree, carpets need washing, but you are taking your life and your sanity into your hands when you rent a public carpet washer. They go into any and all homes, and you can easily end up with bedbugs. No power on earth could get me to have one of those things in my personal space again.
Oh entirely. We've got carpets in our bedrooms and hallway... we bought one because the rental ones are the devil.
It was more a "Carpets are filthy, even when freshly cleaned!" thing.
Smart thinking!
Honestly I think it's worth owning a carpet cleaner just because carpets should be cleaned a lot more than a lot of people are aware. Any floor surface is going to get dirty no matter what you do; it's where the stuff that doesn't fall on your furniture goes. People tend to mop hard floors regularly, but not clean their carpets, and that doesn't make much sense to me.
You don't even have to get a dedicated machine, really. They're just glorified wet vacuums with a sprayer attached. Granted, it's much easier to use the dedicated machine.
I agree. I don't clean carpets as part of my routine, but I have customers who have never cleaned their rugs in all the time I have been cleaning for them, some of them 7-8 years or more. And I know this because I vacuum over the same disgusting stains and ground in food week after week~
Ever since moving out I've always lived somewhere without carpets, but honestly I wouldn't think I would wash it that often if at all, however it's just me and my girlfriend living together so I imagine it wouldn't get incredibly dirty.
My parents have a few carpets and over the years I've helped them with "washing" which would mean removing them and taking them to a cleaning service. Hardest parts was lifting all the furniture to remove the carpets.
I've never heard of this, do you live in America? I don't believe our carpets are meant to be removed and cleaned though I could be wrong.
Ah, I should've pointed it out. I live in Bulgaria and here it's common to have hardwood or laminate flooring with carpets. Something like this https://homespot.bg/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/02LD-BG.jpg
I guess the proper term would be rugs now that I think about it. A really big rug.
Ah yes, we usually call those rugs here in America, though I don't imagine the distinction is too important. I've heard our carpets called "wall to wall carpeting" before which may be a more universal term
We have large rugs that we wash regularly (every couple of months). Just flatwoven cotton ones like the Ikea Tiphede rug (about 1.5x2m size). It's not thick so it's not that hard to wash. We just put yoga mats underneath so they still feel like thick soft rugs underfoot.
I have a Vax carpet washer. It's a beast of a machine.
We used to have a St Bernard plus 2 others. We have hard wood floors downstairs, but the rugs on them needed cleaned every 3 or 4 months due to doggy stench.
The carpets upstairs are part of the wife's spring clean, so once a year only for us. However, if the kids do something disastrous with a drink, out comes the machine.
We're UK based, I know region makes a difference in these open questions.
I like watching this YouTube channel for carpet appliances since it seems to be fairly comprehensive and hopefully not biased. He does a good comparison of units with some ok "real world" tests.
https://youtu.be/2unkNaDWGBY
I'm fairly tempted to pick one up and go to town, my carpets feel a bit greasy and since it's a rental I doubt its ever really been cleaned that well. That being said I don't want to invest in something that really won't make much of a difference so I'm doing some research first
With a kid and a dog, my carpets get pretty dirty pretty quickly. Barring an emergency cleanup, I tend to shampoo the carpets once every three months or so. Usually focused on the high traffic areas. Once a year, I’ll move the furniture and clean underneath the couches, tables, etc. A surprising amount of crud comes out. We did get a Roomba last year on sale, so that does seem to reduce the overall crud buildup, but the shampooing is still necessary.
Similar situation for me and also a similar schedule. I have two dogs that are constantly going inside and out. Plus one of them has a bad habit of peeing inside. I always clean the pee stains when I find them with a spot cleaner and do a full shampooing every three months. I'm always shocked at how dirty the waste water is. It makes me feel like I need to clean it every month but it's such a chore.
Yeah, we bought the carpet cleaner shortly after we moved into this house. It’s paid for itself within a year. Last month, I had to clean relatively large swaths on several separate occasions. I may skip September’s scheduled clean…
I don't wash my carpets, but I would if I had a carpet cleaner and I have no intention of renting one. I do have a steam cleaner and it really freshens them up . You can can a decent enough steam cleaners for a reasonable price
When I was a kid my parents would rent a shampooer from the grocery store once every few years and shampoo the living room carpet, but my dad was always dubious of their long-term efficacy because he was convinced that they don't rinse the soap thoroughly enough, making the carpet slightly sticky from soap, making it track dirt more and making shampooing necessary more quickly every time. I don't know how true that is, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were designed to do that.
Now as an adult, in my house I keep a small totable Bissel shampooer that only gets used for spot-cleaning the carpet on the upper floor in the bedrooms and hall (ground floor is all hard floor), mostly when a cat has a hairball which they almost invariably seek carpet for. Overall I find carpet more of a pain than it's worth and I think when the carpet starts looking dirty or haggard I'm just going to remove it entirely and replace it with hard flooring and maybe some area rugs.
We don’t have carpet but we have a few rugs that we get professionally steam cleaned once a year or so.
Yes, and if you're looking into buying a carpet cleaner don't just buy any random one (like my wife did), don't get me wrong, it works great but when you decide to also clean your couch/chairs and the one you bought doesn't have the handheld piece, you'll have to buy a smaller spot cleaner as well...
Do your research and try to think about all its uses before you purchase.
Also when you're dumping out brown water from clean looking (white, in my case) carpets, you will never again think they aren't dirty...
Mate I barely wash my towels.
You should wash your towels 😂
I used to love carpet as a kid but now that I'm older I'm getting pretty opposed to it, I'll probably look to buy a house without much carpeting if possible. It's just a hassle to clean especially if you have pets