How often should I clean my carpets?

Clients often ask me, “how often should I clean my carpets?” This is a good question, but there is no one right answer. The right answer for you, depends on your answers to several other questions: How much time do you and your family spend on it? Do you have children or pets? Do you eat and drink on the carpets? Have you thrown a messy party? Do those who enter wipe their shoes first?  How often are you vacuuming? Did you have us apply Scotchgard Protection the last time we were there? Are you cleaning up spills and accidents as soon as they occur?…

Are you only interested in how your carpets look? Are dust allergies a factor?

Most of us are concerned about our health. We seek healthier foods. We take vitamins and other supplements. We see our doctors for checkups on a regular basis. We drink bottled water. What we often do not appreciate is the value of filtered air.

How do you effectively filter the air in your home? If you answered by replacing the filters in your air conditioning system on a regular, scheduled basis, you’re partially right. You probably already know that if you wait too long,  the filter is just so darned dirty that it makes a mess when you change it. So you vow to do it more often, and maybe you even wrote it on your calendar so you don’t forget. Perhaps you even picked up a better quality filter, such as one that uses HEPA standards.

But, what about the biggest filter in your home? Do you know what it is? Look down… if you have carpet, that’s the filter that often gets ignored. If you don’t have much carpet, odds are you have area rugs covering those hard floors. Those area rugs are filters, too.

Carpet in a home is a protection for you, because it traps all kinds of allergens that can be the bane of allergy and asthma sufferers. Carpet is a filter and, like any filter, has to be either changed or cleaned regularly. It’s not practical to change your carpet as often as you do your air filters (Most of us couldn’t afford to even if our lives depended on it!) but you can — and should — have it professionally cleaned frequently.

Remember, allergens are very light and float in the air, and are respiratory concerns, especially for allergy and asthma sufferers. Carpet helps to keep those particulates to a minimum.

There are many documented studies about how homes and facilities, such as schools, are healthier because of carpet and regular cleaning schedules.

The answer to the question, “How often should I clean my carpets?” depends on your household’s needs.