Your QuaranCleaning Might Not Be Enough

2/18/2021 (Permalink)

Carpet

Many of us are home. Restaurants, churches, movie theaters, and even parks are closed. Social distancing is vital to our health and safety, so we’re all making the smart choice to stay inside. Some are baking. Others are binge-watching. But many of us are organizing and cleaning. The Centers For Disease Control encourages cleaning counters, tabletops, doorknobs, and other high-touch surfaces with a hospital-grade disinfectant. Do that. Keep you and your family safe, but what are we supposed to do about our carpets?

Kids, pets, furniture, and regular foot traffic create plenty of wear and tear. If you or your guests fail to leave shoes at the door, who knows what we drag in. Regular vacuuming helps, but here are just a few issues you need to think about:

Mold

Gross with a capital G! What makes a carpet great is how soft and plush it is. That’s also what makes it a haven for moisture and bacteria. In almost every case, carpet will absorb fluid faster than we can blot it dry. That liquid infiltrates deep down into the fibers and pad. That creates odors, leaves behind stains, but, most damaging of all, the dampness creates a fertile breeding ground for mold spores.

Pollen

Spring is wonderful. It is warmer but not too hot. The sun lingers a little longer every evening. And there is nothing better than a sweet spring breeze. Unfortunately, that breeze carries loads of pollen. Open windows, open doors, and even our clothes bring in pollen from the great outdoors and allow it to settle on the carpet. Anyone who suffers from allergies knows how distressing that dust can be.

Skin

People shed skin. It is just a messy matter of human biology. Some medical experts say we shed as much as 1.5 million skin flakes each day. Those flakes fall someplace, and that place is the floor and, more specifically, our carpets. Yuck. But it gets even worse. Most every house has dust mites, a major factor for indoor allergies, and dust mites feast on that stuff.

Dirt

This one is pretty obvious. We track it in. The dog brings it in. Open doors and windows bring it in. Dirt is an inescapable fact of life. If you have darker carpet or flooring, the stains might not be obvious. But they still often harbor all the bad stuff we do not want to ruin our carpets and possibly make us sick.

Keep Carpets Clean!

These are manageable challenges. Vacuum your carpets twice a week if possible. Also, have them professionally cleaned on a yearly basis (maybe more if you have pets, young children, or a lot of visitors or gathering). This not only removes all the allergens, muck, and grime that builds up in even the tidiest of homes, it extends the life of the carpet. They are an expensive investment. A little money spent now can save plenty in the long run. Click here for more information on our residential carpet cleaning services.