Throughout your home, if you do not spend time maintaining your carpets, you will find that no matter how nice your furniture or decoration is, a dirty, stained or smelly carpet will always let you down.
There are many simple but highly effective tips when it comes to maintaining your carpets, such as placing mats at all entrances to the house.
Make sure that you regularly clean these mats or you will find them quickly becoming ineffective.
You should also consider asking people to take off their shoes when they enter the house - this greatly reduces the risk of dirt or dust being brought into the house.
Another tip, if you have pets living in the house (such as cats and dogs), is to regularly brush them, either outside the house or in the bathroom.
Pet fur can quickly become a problem for your carpet if you do not manage this.
Without a doubt the most important thing to do if you want to look after your carpets is vacuuming.
Regular vacuuming should be thoroughly carried out on a regular basis, particularly on areas where the carpet receives heavy traffic.
Damage to the carpet is greatly reduced if you can stop any build up of dirt from occurring, carrying out frequent deep vacuuming addresses this problem very well.
Using slow, firm strokes with your vacuum cleaner will achieve more than rushed or unplanned cleaning.
If you want to ensure you have thoroughly cleaned your carpet you should complete four passes over each area, using both forward and backward motions.
If your carpet has become stained or shabby, you should give serious consideration to purchase a good quality home hot water extraction/steam cleaning system.
Using this equipment is relatively easy and, as long as you follow a few simple rules, you should see excellent results.
Firstly, it is important not to get the carpet too wet, if you do then it is very likely that your carpet will develop an unpleasant odour, and may also start to rot.
The detergents you will be using should be strong enough and safe enough that you will not need to use an excessive amount of water.
When you are preparing your carpet for shampooing or hot water extraction, it is very important sweep the carpet with a stiff bristled brush.
This will make the carpet pile stand well and will also help to loosen any deeply tread dirt.
To make sure that you avoid dents and discolouring from long sitting furniture or large objects, you should make sure that you move their position slightly every few months.
If you find yourself in the position that your carpet has already been marked in this way, you should brush the dented carpet, again with a stiff bristled brush.
Once you have thoroughly brushed your carpet, you can use a steam iron, holding it between two and three inches above the carpet, steam over the area (making sure you do not make the patch too wet with the steam or water droplets from the iron) and fluff up the dent using your fingers.
Keeping up with daily vacuuming will help with carpets staying clean.
Are you unable to clean the carpet yourself? Do you have carpets that really need a professional to clean?