How do I clean a carpet?

Carpet is a fibre that holds whatever lands on it, and the mistakes are consistent: rubbing spreads a stain and damages the pile permanently, and over-wetting pushes the spill into the underlay where you can't reach it. Both are avoidable in the first thirty seconds.

What you'll need

• Clean white cloths
• Vacuum cleaner
• Washing-up liquid
• Carpet cleaning machine (hire or own) (optional)
• White vinegar (optional)

Step by step

1. For a fresh spill, blot immediately with a clean white cloth.Press down and lift. Never rub — rubbing spreads the stain and permanently distorts the pile fibres.
2. Work from the outside of the stain inwards.Outside-in stops you spreading the edge of the stain into clean carpet.
3. Use cold water first, and only escalate if needed.Heat sets protein stains — blood, milk, egg — permanently into the fibre.
4. For most stains, a little washing-up liquid in cold water is the first treatment.Apply to the cloth, not the carpet, and blot rather than pour.
5. Rinse by blotting with clean water, then blot dry.Leftover detergent attracts dirt, so a treated patch re-soils faster than the carpet around it.
6. For general cleaning, vacuum thoroughly in two directions before anything wet.Slowly, and in overlapping passes. Most of what a carpet holds is dry soil that a machine would otherwise turn to mud.
7. If using a carpet cleaning machine, do a final pass with clean water only.The extraction pass removes residual detergent, which is what causes rapid re-soiling.
8. Dry the carpet as fast as you can — open windows, use fans.A carpet damp for more than a day can smell and can grow mould in the underlay.
9. Test any product on a hidden area first.Some carpets, particularly wool, react badly to alkaline cleaners.

Tips

• Blot, don't rub, is the single rule that prevents most permanent carpet damage.
• For pet accidents, an enzyme cleaner is genuinely different from a general cleaner — it breaks down the compounds that cause both the stain and the lingering smell.
• Bicarbonate of soda left on a carpet for an hour and then vacuumed absorbs a surprising amount of odour.
• Wool carpets need pH-neutral or slightly acidic cleaners. Alkaline products can damage the fibre and cause yellowing.

Common mistakes

• Rubbing a stain — It spreads the stain outward and permanently distorts the pile, leaving a visible patch even after the stain is gone.
• Using hot water on protein stains — It cooks blood, milk and egg into the fibre permanently.
• Over-wetting the carpet — Liquid reaches the backing and underlay, causing smells, shrinkage and mould.
• Not rinsing out detergent — Residue attracts dirt, so the cleaned patch becomes the dirtiest area within weeks.

Questions people ask