Carpet Stain Removal And Carpet Care

Of all the fabric based products in your house, there's none that demands more constant vigilance, more careful protection, and, alas -- if you aren't careful and/or lucky -- more of your hard-earned money in cleaning bills, than the fabric that's under your feet.

Dealing with carpet stains, or preventing them before they happen, is one of the simplest, most obvious ways to keep your home looking fresh and beautiful, increase its walk-through appeal if you're thinking of selling, and hold down your heating bills in winter to boot. (A threadbare or worn-down carpet doesn't hold in heat nearly as well as does a carpet that is well cared for.)

There are many kinds of threats to a carpet's health -- dirt and dust, infrequent or inadequate vacuuming, or even the simple compression of thousands of footsteps that it is a carpet's function to take. But carpet stains are right up there among the worst of those threats. Carpet stains, uncleaned dirt, and unvacuumed spots are not only unsightly, reducing the carpet's value (and the home's general appearance or walk-through value), but they also do direct harm to the carpet itself.

Think of it this way: Bits of dirt, or dried-up carpet stain material, are like little daggers that you press in to the substance of your carpet with every foot step. Thus, they not only do damage to the sightliness of your carpet, but they weaken, mottle, and even tear its expensive, carefully made fibers as well. Over time, they can weaken its structural integrity, making bald patches and those trampled on places nearly inevitable. It can even lead to rips. This goes double for those carpet stains that have been allowed to dry: they stick to the fibers, and any attempt to remove them ends up ripping up fibers as well. Like little bits of elephant glue, dried up carpet stains -- sticky bits of wine, grape juice, mud from outdoors, or peanut butter from the middle child's after school snacks -- grab on to the threads of your carpet and don't let go.

The first thing to remember, then, is to vacuum your carpet often. Once a week, in a room that sees any degree of regular use, is hardly too much. Also, keeping your carpet freshly vacuumed makes it easier to notice little spills before they become carpet stains. It also isn't a bad idea to forbid wearing shoes in the house, at least in carpeted rooms. (Rooms with hardwood floors, that fashionable Holy Grail of home buyers during the past decade, are a different story.) Since the carpet is there, in part, to keep the temperature of the floor from becoming too cold, why not let it do its job -- keeping the bottom of your feet warm -- and kick those shoes off, so they don't track in dirt from outside?

If you're going to allow eating in one of your carpeted rooms, first of all, it makes sense to restrict all eating and drinking to certain places in the room, perhaps near the entrance closest to the kitchen. These areas can be regularly spot-checked for stains or spills, or vacuumed for crumbs. You might even consider having a hand towel discreetly in place nearby for the sake of any mishaps.

Care of this kind to prevent carpet stains, keep outside dirt where it belongs (outside), and to make up for ordinary soiling will do a great deal to keep your carpet looking great. However, you also need to consider ecological factors: if you live in the middle of a major city, in one of the pollen dusted metropolises of the Southeastern United States, or generally anywhere that there's a lot of dust, grime, pollen, or other effluvia, it doesn't matter even if you're the most careful carpet owner in the world. You'll need to think about having your carpet professionally cleaned every few years. And you will also need to think about special cleaners for removing the toughest, most recalcitrant, most intransigent carpet stains.

Thankfully, there are new innovations in stain removal and fabric protection that are made from ingredients to safely remove ink and other stains from a variety of surfaces. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Partnership Program, Design for the Environment's (DfE) Safer Product Labeling Program has recognized a number of cleaners with the DfE Safer Product label. The DfE mark enables consumers to quickly identify and choose products that can help protect the environment and are safer for families.

So when tough stain removal is the objective, remember that there are safe, natural stain removal products on the market today. Today's natural stain removal products can safely remove even the toughest stains while also protecting fabric, leather, vinyl, and many other surfaces from future stains.