Cheap Carpet Cleaning
62Carpet Cleaning on a Budget
Everyone is trying to find ways to squeeze more money out of the household budget and their ever decreasing paychecks. Keeping your carpet clean and looking relatively new can still be achieved and does not have to go the way of other luxuries like your cleaning service or lawn service. Many people have taken what they had contracted out and have started managing those services themselves.
If you have used a carpet cleaning service on a regular basis, perhaps you can speak with the owner and negotiate a lower price. Another option is to look online and in the Yellow Pages for cheap carpet cleaning. You can actually type “cheap carpet cleaning” and see that you get nearly eight million hits.
Obviously you would need to narrow down the search to your local area to actually find something worthwhile. Other methods are to ask friends and neighbors for recommendations or to use a carpet cleaning machine (if you have one). If you do not own a carpet cleaning machine you can rent from Home Depot or Lowes or even borrow one from a friend.
Renting a carpet cleaning machine will run you under fifteen dollars a day plus whatever cleaners you need for the job. To keep this as cheap carpet cleaning, try to find cleaners that are not necessarily branded the same as the carpet cleaning machine.
Recommending you use the same brand of cleaner as the machine is a way for the retailer to make more money as the cleaners usually cost more than ones you can get at your local super center. Obviously, the cheapest method would be to borrow a carpet cleaning machine and buy your cleansers at Wal-Mart or Kmart.
Other cheap carpet cleaning methods are to create your own carpet cleaning solutions. Makers of most carpet cleaning solutions on the market today would have you believe that you need a different cleaner for just about any application or stain that you come across.
While this is classic Marketing 101, you really only need a single cleaner for just about any type of synthetic fiber carpet on the market today. Standard cleaners are fine for just about every type of carpet cleaning except for well worn areas and stains that have been set for some time.
In specialty cases like these it is important to know what base the stain is; oil or water based. Oil based stains include butter and margarine, mascara, chocolate, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, lipstick and varnish.
Water based stains include grape juice, baby formula, beer, jelly, ice cream, milk, soft drinks, whisky and other alcohols, ketchup, mustard and candy. For cheap carpet cleaning anything you can do yourself reduces your end costs.
Here are some steps recommended by Scotchguard to successful spot removal and carpet cleaning. Use a spoon or dull knife to remove any solids attached to the carpet stain, rather than a sharp knife, so you do not cut any of the carpet fibers away.
Always work from the outside in for large stains so that the discoloration does not wick away through adjacent carpet fibers. Liquid spills should always be blotted up with paper towels or dry cotton towels; never rub a stain as it will spread it and help to set the stain.
Take a solution of one quarter cup of liquid detergent and a gallon of water and use it to apply directly to the stain with a clean white cloth. Wipe gently, turning the cloth frequently to avoid staining areas around the original stain with the cleaning cloth. Use your fingers to work the detergent into the base of the stain.
Wet the affected area with lukewarm water (hot water will only set the stain), and cover it with a paper towel or white towel and apply pressure to blot up the remaining liquid and stain. Continue the rinsing and blotting until all traces of the detergent have been removed. Continue pressing a white towel or paper towels to the area until it is dry to the touch.
If your stain cannot be removed with this process you will need to use a stronger cleaner like ammonia. Take two tablespoons of non-bleaching ammonia and a cup of water for your cleaning solution. Take note; do not use this solution on coffee, tea or urine stains.
