Maintaining a healthy indoor environment is crucial for homeowners. Taking the time to clean and sanitize surfaces, especially carpets and rugs, in your home is a must. Carpet cleaning helps improve the air quality in your home and prevents dust, dirt, allergens and other particles from entering the air you breathe.
Having pets also presents different challenges for homeowners, especially if they have carpet flooring. Whether it’s food stains or a pet accident, it’s essential you know how to clean your carpet.
Let’s discuss the similarities and differences between traditional carpet cleaning and green carpet cleaning. When you’re aware of the benefits and drawbacks of each, you’re better able to decide how to clean the carpeted areas of your home.
Traditional Carpet Cleaning
Carpets are known for harboring dangerous particles within their fibers, and we all know how tough it can be to remove old, deeply embedded stains. To keep your home clean, it’s crucial that you clean your carpets frequently, especially in high-traffic areas.
When you think of carpet cleaning, it’s likely that you consider vacuuming and maybe doing a couple of spot treatments to remove old stains. However, deeper cleans tend to lengthen the lifespan of your carpet and save you money in the long run.
Traditional carpet cleaning can be broken down into a few steps:
- Vacuum: Move furniture to get to those hard-to-reach places on your carpet. Using a vacuum cleaner with strong suction ensures that the deepest part of your carpet is getting clean.
- Use a Carpet Cleaning Solution: There are plenty of carpet cleaning solutions available to help you during your cleaning routine. It’s essential to test the solution on a small patch of carpet. This is to see if the color of your carpet changes. If it does, opt for another brand or type of solution.
- Steam Cleaning: Using a steam cleaner to reach the embedded particles is your best bet when cleaning your carpet.
- Vacuum Again: After a thorough cleaning, it’s a good idea to vacuum your carpet once again to give it that fresh look.
Traditional carpet cleaning has its disadvantages. For example, it’s challenging to know how deep your vacuum reaches, this is especially if your carpet has been installed years ago or your vacuum is an older model.
Green Carpet Cleaning
The average homeowner with carpeted floors may not be aware of the harmful toxins that make up carpet cleaning solutions typically sold in stores. Whether it’s for carpet cleaning or your basic kitchen or bathroom needs, some cleaning solutions contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can negatively affect your health.
VOCs can cause headaches, dizziness, lung irritation, aggravated allergies and issues for people with asthma. There are other adverse health effects that come with long-term VOC exposure. Although you do your best to clean your carpets to prevent illness, the cleaning products you use may be contributing to low indoor air quality.
When you opt for green household cleaning products for your carpet, you’re doing yourself a favor. It’s essential to protect your family’s health. When you use safe, non-toxic chemicals to clean, you’re creating a healthier environment that everyone can enjoy.
Choosing Traditional vs. Green Carpet Cleaning
Using natural cleaning products like vinegar, baking soda and castile soap are better choices. This is especially if your family members are prone to allergies or respiratory issues.
While traditional carpet cleaning may be suitable for your household needs, using green cleaning products may do a better job of protecting your loved ones.
It may be worthwhile to experiment with traditional and green carpet solutions to know which method works best for you and your family.
