A question we get asked ALL the time is “How often should I clean my carpet?” Lucky for you guys, today I am going to discuss what the best answer is to that question!

First of all, the short answer is… It depends! What does that mean? Well, it depends on where you live, how many people live in your house, how many pets you have, how often you have guests, whether or not everyone takes their shoes off, if you eat on your carpet, how often you vacuum, and what kind of carpet you have – and more! The answers to those questions determine how often you should clean your carpets because all of those factors contribute to adding more dirt and soiling to your carpet. The number of people in the home greatly increases the amount of soiling because each person tracks in dirt and sheds millions of skin cells per day! The same goes for having guests over, and especially when they do not remove their shoes. Besides people, pets are one of the largest contributors to adding soiling to your carpets. They do not wipe their feet when they come in from the muddy outdoors, they drool, they shed, they rub their oily hair all over the carpet, and can sometimes have accidents on the carpets. In summary, the more people or pets you have in your home, the more often you need to vacuum and have your carpets professionally cleaned.

Now that we discussed the cause of the soiling, we can discuss how to remove it and how often. A common misconception about carpet cleaning is that it makes your carpet resoil faster, or causes it to wear out faster. Is this 100% not true? No. But the only reason it would resoil faster or wear out faster is because of being improperly cleaned by uneducated or lazy carpet cleaners. If carpet is cleaned the RIGHT way, it will not have residue from cleaning solutions or get over-wet from cleaning. The majority of carpet manufacturers recommend (and require) that your carpet is professionally cleaned with hot water extraction (steam cleaning) at least once a year in order to maintain stain guard warranties. Having said that, is yearly the magic number for how often to clean your carpets? Not always. Based on the factors discussed in the previous paragraph, some carpet may need to be cleaned semi annually or even quarterly. A good way to tell when it is time to clean is by when you can see traffic areas starting to look dark, or have a handful of spots that need attention. Once you can see the dirt, it is time to remove it because that fine, gritty sand and soil is in the base of the carpet, cutting fibers like razor blades!

Thank you for reading, and please call us with any of your carpet cleaning needs in the Salt Lake City, Park City, Davis County, or Utah County areas!