At the moment, we live in a rented house that has carpets. We absolutely love it here and one of the first things that caught my eye when we viewed the property, was the gorgeous cream carpets throughout. Fast forward a year and we’ve realised that caring for light carpets with three children, is no mean feat!
I have been meaning to clean certain areas of the carpets that get the most ‘traffic’ for some time now. Those areas are the main hallway and the patch underfoot on the way into the kitchen. These areas get trampled on far more than other parts of the carpet.
It had been niggling away at me for a while and after we had some recent visitors who didn’t remove their shoes, even though they were asked, I knew that it was the right time to give the whole house a good old clean.
Having only ever had carpets professionally cleaned on my behalf before, I had no experience of using a carpet cleaner myself but had always heard about people hiring ones to do the cleaning themselves.
This is where Rug Doctor kindly offered to hire out one of their cleaners so that I could work my way around the house.
The machine was delivered in a box by a courier and is quite heavy, so care needs to be taken when lifting it out. It’s certainly not advisable to lift it back into the box for collection either, I nearly put my back out doing that! So get help where you can.
It came with no instructions but I soon realised that all of the directions for use are labelled on the handle. I was worried that it would be too convoluted and that I would do something wrong (as I’m always too eager to just get going) but it’s completely straight forward and once you’ve filled up the tank with water and cleaning solution, you’re good to go.
Just simply make sure that you’ve vacuumed the carpets and cleared away any furniture covering the carpeted areas that you want to clean.
Once you get started, it’s a pretty simple process. The only drawback is emptying the dirty water tank and refilling it with fresh water and cleaner at regular intervals. This is more time consuming that the actual cleaning. The machine is easy to move around the rooms and the trigger spray button ensures that you are distributing the right amount of solution as you make each pass.
I found that the carpets were noticeably brighter and although for the most part, they didn’t look visibly dirty, you can certainly see what dirt is being lifted up through the cleaner when you see the dirty water in the waste tank! So if you’re dubious as to how much it is cleaning your carpets, then you only need to see the results in the white tank.
I gave the hallway a couple of cleans over the course of two days as I felt that it needed a little extra attention. Now that it’s been cleaned, I have invested in a area rug to keep the large area free from anymore mucky footprints.
The whole house has had a once over now and I finally feel happy that the carpets have been restored to their former glory, finally.
As well as the hire of the professional Rug Doctor cleaner, I was sent a portable spot cleaner to tackle stains around the house. I was really excited (sad I know) to try out this nifty little device.
It turns out that it’s a powerful little machine and can tackle some really tough stains. The motorised head has a powerful suction and you can spray as little or as much cleaner onto the stains as you wish. The tanks simply pull out, the clean one to fill with water and cleaning solution and the waste tank for you to easily pour away the dirty water.
Here is a patch of carpet that is by our patio doors in the lounge and it’s actually an off cut of carpet that acts as a mat.
Before
I cleaned it thoroughly with the large Rug Doctor but shortly afterwards, we brought the Christmas tree through the patio doors and that resulted in the mat getting muddy once again. It already had stains from previous tenants but the spot cleaner did a really good job of cleaning off the the dried in stains.
After
The portable spot cleaner has been the perfect accessory to go along with a full carpet clean. I now plan to just maintain the areas of carpet that gets more soiled with the spot cleaner and then once every now and then, the carpets can have a full clean.
I’ve been really impressed with how easy the whole process has been after I initially wanted to pay for someone to come into the house to clean them for me.
My top tips
Make sure that you’re fully prepped for starting the cleaning. Vacuum thoroughly and clear furniture before you set up the cleaner as that way you’re not stopping and starting as you’re having to push things out of the way.
Choose a day where the carpets can dry without being trampled over, so I did this when the boys were at school and I cleaned the hallway as soon as they had stepped out of the front door in the morning.
Prepare yourself to be constantly emptying and refilling as you work your way around, but it’s all worth it when you see how much grime is being lifted from your carpets!
Nb. I was sent a Rug Doctor for hire and received a spot cleaner to keep in return for this review. All views ans opinions remain entirely my own.
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