Floor and Rug Cleaning

Along with window coverings it is a great time to start thinking about cleaning your floors! I am staring at my carpets today and want so much to get them steam cleaned--but think I should wait at least another month or so, I don't know.

Carpets--carpets are the worst. I wish I had all hardwood floors, or almost any kind of flooring besides wall to wall carpet. A large portion of our house is hardwood--why could not the builder have done the whole damn thing that way?? For carpet cleaning, you really need to vacuum them first, a really good job, to get up all the crap--in my house, that means a lot of dog hair. You can rent a carpet cleaner at many stores like grocery stores and home improvement stores, you can even buy one for just a couple of hundred dollars (I had one myself for a few years) or you can pay and have a professional do the job--I recommend. If they are good, they will do a very good job, thorough, better than you can do, and include things like a special coating for the stairs to keep the dirt off, etc..For about $300 for a house it is worth it. That is the direction I hope to go soon. Carpets can look awful really easily, so don't let this be you.

Wood floors--now I have hardwood floors, and I use Murphy's Oil Soap. A little in a warm bucket of warm (saying warm water in a bucket sounds weird) goes a long way. Your house will smell so good, and you won't believe the dirty water. I wash my floors every week.

If you have linoleum or tile I recommend a gentle detergent in warm water and mop as well.

Floors should be cleaned once a week. Dirty floors are just gross. Oh, but you will need to vacuum or sweep first--you cannot mop a floor with dog hair, dust, dirt, all over it!

Throw rugs--if you can machine wash them, do. Or if they are too big, take them to a laundromat. Of if they have to be dry cleaned, then off they go. I think it is fine to clean rugs--washing or dry cleaning--once a year. Vacuuming will really keep them pretty clean. Now I have a really nice Oriental rug. I mean nice. Last year I was watering a plant for a few months, and did not know the plastic saucer had a tear in it, so I was watering the Oriental rug beneath it! Thank god I discovered it just after three months--and that was bad enough! The water had sat on the rug and rotted it, I could pull the wool right up. It was about the size of a pie pan. The rug under the rug was pretty gross, black, but I was able to clean that up very well. Lesson learned, be careful with plant saucers and check under them often. Even if on a floor, like wood, it can get damaged if it gets wet and stays wet.

Mats--like front door mats. Unless they look great, I would replace them every 1-2 years. Always sweep them off and keep them as good looking as you can. They are a first impression. Make sure the mat fits the space, and I prefer simple and classy to cute. Bath mats can look junky after a year, but the better the quality, the longer they last. I recommend putting them in the wash every 1-2 weeks--they look so great when all fluffed up!

Since flooring is in every room of your house and even outside, the patios etc..take care of it. When your flooring looks beat up and tired your whole home suffers.