How Often Should You Shampoo Your Carpet?

Giving your carpet a good cleaning can completely transform the look of a room. But, when you clean your carpets, you need to make sure you know what you’re going, Otherwise, you could end up doing more damage than good. Generally speaking, you should professionally shampoo your carpets every 12 to 18 months. But this is just an estimate.

How often you need to shampoo your carpet depends on a number of different factors, including:

Household Size

If it’s just you, then you can probably get away with shampooing your carpets every 18 months or so. If you’ve got a big family, then you’ll probably need to shampoo at least once per year.

Children

Between spilling drinks, tracking in dirt from outside, and trailing crumbs, children can wreak havoc on a clean carpet. If you have multiple children in your home, we suggest shampooing your carpet every 6 to 12 months.

Pets

No matter how diligent you are with your pet, it’s always going to track in some amount of dirt and grass from outside. If your pet doesn’t go outdoors, you still have to worry about shedding and the occasional accident.

Pet owners should plan to shampoo their carpets every 6 to 12 months.

Environment

 if you live in an area with heavy rainfall, it’s more likely that household members are going to track in mud. If you live in an extremely dry climate, then people are likely to track in dust. Keep this in mind when deciding how often to shampoo your carpet.

What Should You Do After Shampooing Your Carpet?

After you finish shampooing your carpet, it’s very important that you take the necessary post-treatment steps. Here’s what you need to do:

Check for Excess Moisture

Press your fingertips against the carpet to check for residual moisture. If there is excess moisture, you should continue to suction the carpet. Keep testing the carpet with your hand and do this until there is no residual moisture.

Allow Plenty of Time to Dry

Don’t immediately start walking all over your carpet once you’ve finished shampooing it. For small areas, it can take as little as 2 hours to dry. If you shampooed a large area, then it can sometimes take up to one day before the carpet completely dries.

*If you want your carpet to dry quicker, you can open windows and turn on fans.

Vacuum

Once your carpet is completely dry, you should give it one more vacuuming. This will ensure that any loose particles suspended on the carpet are picked up before anyone walks on it.