Carpet is expensive, so keep it looking great and add years to its life with these tips:

• Carpets need to be vacuumed once a week and more often in areas of heavy traffic. Frequent vacuuming prolongs the life of your carpet by preventing a buildup of gritty particles that can cut carpet fibers. Every few weeks, take a little extra time and use your crevice tool for cleaning around baseboards and radiators and in other hard-to-reach places – this prevents the “graying” that often occurs in these border areas due to dust build up.
• When vacuuming, try to move larger furniture like couches and chairs a few inches back (and then forward the next time). This will achieve two things: 1) it will get the dust, dirt and crumbs at the front of the furniture that can get worked into the carpet over time 2) it will keep the feet of furniture from creating permanent indents in the carpet. You do not need to move the entire couch across the room every time!
• Take your time when you vacuum a carpet, especially a plush carpet in which dirt is sure to be deeply embedded. One pass with a high-powered upright is truly not enough. Go over each section of carpeting several times, and work slowly to allow the suction to remove all the ground-in dust and dirt. This may add minutes to the cleaning, but years to the life of the carpet.
• Pay special attention to the areas where people sit and move their feet. Vacuum these areas of heavy traffic with a crisscross pattern of overlapping strokes.
• Add baking soda to the bag in your vacuum to fight odors.
• Have your carpets professionally cleaned at least once per year. The deep steam and shampoo will remove the dirt and stains that your vacuum definitely is not able to. This will add several years to your carpet life so is well worth the investment of paying a professional once a year.

Here’s Rule No. 1 regarding spots and spills on your carpeting: Clean them immediately. If you catch the spill when it’s fresh, you’ve got a good chance of removing it totally. Consider these tips, too:

• Carefully and gently blot or scrape the entire area before applying any cleaning solution. Remove as much of the spill as possible.
• Before using any cleaning solution, test your carpet in an inconspicuous area to make sure the cleaner won’t damage or discolor it. Obviously it is best to test these cleaning agents before an actual spill to make sure they will not harm your carpet – because who has time during an actual spill emergency?!
• Do Not rub the spill — that will spread the problem to a larger area and work in further into the carpet.
• When you apply spot cleaner, work from the outside of the stain toward the inside to avoid spreading the stain. After applying a cleaning solution, blot up all the moisture.
• A clean white bath towel is unsurpassed for drying carpet and brushing the carpet back up to a standing position.
• If you feel that there is still too much moisture after blotting the carpet, place a 3/4-inch-thick stack of white towels over the spot and weigh them down with a heavy object – like a phone book or
• If you do not have any cleaning solutions, pour hot water on the stain and follow the same steps listed above. If this does not help, leave the stain wet and get a cleaning agent or call a professional! A professional can usually come and remove a stain for $50 – $100 which is still cheaper than new carpet – or just have them steam clean the whole room at this point – it will likely cost only a few dollars more!