Carpet Vacuuming Dos and Don’ts
Many seem to avoid vacuuming their carpeting. Preferring instead to postpone or delay the task for another day. And no big deal right? It doesn’t hurt anything to put off a task that few relish or enjoy.
Actually that’s a mistake. One that’s not good for the health of your carpet or your family. That because accumulated dust can make allergy sufferers miserable. Plus sand and grit deposited on the surface of your carpet sooner or later works it’s way to the backing where the abrasive particles cut away at the very carpet fibers themselves.
Besides did you know there’s a right and wrong way to go about vacumming? Well there is. And guess what? Most do it wrong one way or another.
Anyway, once all this is clearly explained vacuuming regularly will just make sense. As will moving it up the priority on your house cleaning to do list. Even better, here are nine simple tips for problem free yet effective vacuuming that will inspire you to vacuum regularly.
Divide your carpet into high and all other traffic areas. Vacuuming the high traffic areas like halls and stairs a couple times a week is best. While weekly is sufficient for the rest.
Most dirt that comes into your house comes in on the bottom of your shoes. Use walk mats to reduce this. Even better get everyone to leave their shoes at the door.
It helps if when vacuuming your vacuum is at its best. You can insure that by changing filter bags or filters sooner rather than later. Don’t try to save a few pennies by using obviously dirty filters or bags more than three quarters full. As clogged filtering medium is the reason the suction power of your vacuum seems to die. Typically you want to replace vacuum bags when they hit about 75% full. And the filters on bagless models like every 90 days – assuming typical usage.
Here’s the most common mistake most make – they’re in too big of a hurry. That’s right, one quick pass and they call it good. Actually it’s better to run over high traffic areas like five or six times. Giving the beater bar a chance to do it’s job and thoroughly extract the dirt.
Be sure the height setting on your vac is right. Too low and you risk damage to the vacuum itself. Too high and you’re not applying the head to the fibers to extract the dirt.
The idea is to work against the pile, if you would, to loosen the embedded dirt particles in the pile. Using the power and weight of the vacuum head to accomplish this after repeated passes over the same section.
Keep your vacuum maintained: Clean the brushes, check the belts, inspect the vacuum head regularly. Removing anything that has wrapped itself around the beater brush.
Avoid running over the cord with the vacuum. Find a central location, plug it in and keep it behind you as much as you can.
Despite the mounted light, do this job when you can see where you’re vacuuming.
Nothing beats the look of a freshly vacuumed carpet. If you have a bagless vac you can even see how much dirt, dust, hair and debris you’ve extracted from the rug. And it’s a good feeling knowing your home is clean and fresh.
Now to find out which vacuums stand out from the crowd a visit to AskTheVacuumGuy.com can help. Is there a Dirt Devil Vacuum among them? Did the Miele Capricorn make the cut? Read the reviews found at that helpful site and you’ll soon know which one best suits your needs.
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