Even if you’ve just bought a brand new carpet for your home, you’ll be surprised how easy it is for your new purchase to get dirty. It doesn’t take too long for your rug to start showing signs of wear and tear, even if you’ve only had it in your home for a few months. That’s why it’s important to keep on top of your carpet cleaning schedule, not just by setting regularly cleaning appointments with L&K Chem-Dry, but by staying vigilant about maintenance in between professional cleanings. It’s not enough to simply take your rug in every few months to get dry cleaned. If you want your rug to stay looking its best for years to come, it’s important to put in the work to clean, disinfect, and maintain your rug at least every week. This doesn’t mean you have to break your back picking up every little strand of hair and dust. All you have to do is keep to a schedule and you’ll be all set. For a pristine, long-lasting rug, here’s what you need to do between cleanings.

Vacuum

If you want your carpet to stay fresh in between cleaning sessions, you just can’t afford to skip vacuuming. While it’s harder to ignore a wood floor that starts to get dirty, it’s much easier to keep putting off vacuuming your carpet until it gets way too gross to deal with. This is something you simply can’t do, especially if you want your rug to stay away from mold and mildew. Whether your rug is long-stranded or short, it can end up carrying a lot of bacteria in its fibers if it’s not cleaned regularly. This goes double if you’re not asking people to remove their shoes before walking on your carpet. Vacuuming once a week is a good way to keep regular with cleaning and to make sure no nasty, disease-spreading bacteria or allergens find a way to grow and fester in your carpet. Even if you don’t feel like you have the time to do an all-over clean, sticking to a once-a-week vacuuming schedule will help you view cleaning your rug as an unavoidable routine. Don’t give yourself an excuse to opt out, unless you want your rug to become a breeding ground for mold, dirt, and worse.

Spot-Treat

It might not be the easiest thing to deal with a stain the instant it happens. Sometimes, you won’t even realize that a stain has occurred until the next morning. The important thing to remember is that the sooner you treat a stain, the less chance it has of becoming a permanent blemish on your rug. It doesn’t take much to deal with stains as they occur. Even if you’ve just hastily spilled some wine and don’t feel like doing a whole deep clean, it’s easy enough to go to the kitchen, get a few paper towels, and try to at least soak up some of the excess liquid. If you know you’re going to have a hard time actually dealing with stains when they happen, make it easy on yourself by creating a carpet cleaning kit to have at the ready. You can put an easy-access basket under your sink containing towels, a basic cleaning solution, and different types of products to be used for a variety of stains. Once you’ve made your kit, all you have to do is reach for it and your stain will be taken care of without any lapse in time.

Go Over Heavy Traffic Areas More Regularly

If you’re vacuuming once a week, you’re already doing a lot to keep your rug looking great. However, some areas of our rugs, especially larger, wall-to-wall carpets, are going to need a little extra love. You don’t need to rigorously vacuum your carpet every day, but if you’re noticing that certain areas of your rug are getting a little bit more grungy than others, or that your rug looks matted down or flat in certain parts, it helps to show that area a bit of extra love by going over it with a hand vacuum every few days. You can also help your rug stay strong by rotating it frequently. This will ensure that you don’t get a prematurely worn, faded, or otherwise damage section of your rug due to too much foot traffic.

Keep Your Rug Dry

Whatever you do, you need to protect your rug from moisture at all costs. Dirt and bacteria can end up being huge problems, but mold and mildew are also serious issues when it comes to your rug’s health and longevity. After spot-treating, always air your rug out, and never over-wet it so that it can dry quickly.