By now, you've either a member of the Remove Your Shoes at the Door Club or you're not. But it's never too late to join.
Membership requires that you kindly ask visitors to your home to place their dirty shoes at the door. As a good host, you provide a small area rug for guest to line up their shoes and slide them back on as they leave your home.
Parents of infants and toddlers – who crawl around on the floor and regularly put their fingers into their mouths – tend to make few if any apologies for being a member of the club. It's the rest of us who might feel a little reticent about asking grownups to remove their shoes before entering our home. After all, what if they resist? What if you unwittingly embarrass them because they have holes in their socks?
Kick Up Your Heels and Join the Club
Take it from longtime members of the club: visitors to your home will quickly adopt to your policy. And, when they visit, they can either bring a pair of slippers or you (like a Realtor staging an open house) can offer a pair of socks or slippers as a courtesy.
It's worth the minor inconvenience because asking people to remove their shoes immediately cuts off a dirt source that can spread everything from grime and pollen to grease and insects onto your carpet and around your home.
Take it from our carpet experts, who have seen it time and again: clean carpets hold up and last a lot longer than carpets that are neglected. In addition to joining the Remove Your Shoes at the Door Club, you can take four other steps to keep your carpet clean and looking its best all year long.
Be Vigilant About “Daily Dirt”
- In addition to placing “shoe rugs” at your front and back doors, position mats, area rugs or runners along high-traffic areas. A kitchen, where food scraps can fall to the floor during preparation and eating, is a prime place for such back-up protection.
- Vacuum your carpet regularly, or at least once a week. Dirt cuts into carpet fibers, wearing them down and allowing them to absorb stains more easily.
- Make one vacuum pass over low-traffic areas and two passes – one horizontal and one vertical – over high-traffic areas for the best carpet cleaning results.
Clean Stains Immediately
- Blot stains with a clean rag or paper towel, starting from the outer edge and moving toward the center to avoid making the stain bigger. Then dampen the rag or towel with plain tap water and rub it into the stain. Most carpet stains can be removed with water – and repetition.
- Attack tough stains with club soda or an equal mixture of vinegar and water before using a commercial product. Vinegar and water is particularly good at removing pet stains and neutralizing odor.
- Deodorize your carpet naturally by sprinkling a light layer of baking soda and letting it settle into the carpet fibers for at least 30 minutes. Then vacuum slowly, first in vertically and then in horizontal motions.
Rent a Carpet Cleaner
- Vacuum the carpet thoroughly before and after cleaning. Pretreat stains in high-traffic areas.
- Resist saturating the carpet with water – one of the biggest risks rental cleaners pose. The other: a potential lack of suction power to extract dirt. So don't wait until your carpet becomes filthy; rent a carpet cleaning machine when the color begins to look dull.
Turn to the Carpet Cleaning Pros at Experts In Your Home
Eliminate the hassle and uncertainty of DIY cleaning methods and call Experts for carpet cleaning. Rental treatments often run the risk of leaving a soapy residue on your carpet that ironically attracts more dirt. Our cleaning experts move furniture, pretreat stains and safely deep-clean – not just surface-clean – your carpet to remove dirt, residue and allergens.
Contact us for a free carpet cleaning quote today.
If you're not a member of the Remove Your Shoes at the Door Club, you'll sign up once you see how Experts In Your Home can restore the fresh look and soft feel of your carpet.
