With fall quickly coming to an end, you’re probably starting to think about winter home maintenance. Keeping your home clean sometimes feels more challenging in the colder months. You and your family may spend more time inside, and it’s easy to track leaves, dirt, snow, or slush into the house. How to care for your carpet can be an especially big concern. Stained or dirty carpeting can instantly make a room like more dingy, and any moisture that gets trapped in the carpet can cause mold or mildew.
Being mindful of your carpets is essential during the winter. Here are eight winter carpet care tips:
1. Clean the Front Steps
The process of keeping your carpets clean starts outside the house. If your walkway, stairs, or front porch are covered in snow, slush, or mud, it will be far too easy to track dirt into the home. One of the best ways to care for your carpets is to regularly clean the area leading up to your front door. By reducing the amount of dirt your shoes pick up, you keep the snow and slush away from your carpets.
2. Take Shoes Off in the House
If you want your carpets to stay clean throughout the winter, you have to keep your shoes off in the house. It’s virtually impossible to keep carpets clean if everyone is frequently tracking dirt or slush through the home. Try to enforce a strict shoes-off rule for anyone who comes through the door. The more you and your family follow this rule, the more the habit will stick. Make it easy for you, your family, and your guests to immediately take their shoes off by placing a bench or stool next to the front door. If you have nowhere to sit near the entryway, you’ll be tempted to walk into the living room or kitchen with your dirty shoes. Additionally, consider keeping a pair of house slippers near the door so that you can keep your feet warm. You could even keep a bin of spare slippers or inexpensive socks for guests to put on when they take their shoes off.
3. Get a Boot Tray
You could store your shoes on a shoe rack or simply keep them on the floor, but a boot tray is an excellent investment if you live in an area that experiences winter weather. The snow and slush will pool in the tray so that your floor doesn’t get wet. The tray also serves as a subtle signal to guests to take their boots off when they come inside.
4. Use an Abundance of Mats
Many homeowners keep a single welcome mat either inside or outside the door. However, additional mats can be very helpful when trying to keep your carpet clean. Keep a strong, durable mat outside the front door for your household and guests to wipe their shoes on. Inside the door, place at least one mat on the floor for your guests to stand on while they remove their shoes. Test out the placement of the mats to make sure it’s easy to take off your shoes while staying on the mat.
Sturdy mats will absorb most of the moisture that gets tracked into the house. They can also trap pebbles, road salt, or other debris that might make its way inside. Be sure to vacuum the mats at least once or twice per month to keep them clean.
5. Keep Your Dog’s Paws Clean
If you have a dog, they may be responsible for tracking a great deal of dirt through the house. Unfortunately, getting a dog to wipe their paws may be more difficult than asking your family and guests to remove their shoes. Try to have a plan for your dog or other pets when they come inside so that they don’t get dirt on the carpet.
You could install a gate that keeps them away from carpeted areas until you’ve cleaned their paws. If you have a garage, consider setting up a cleaning station with a towel or a bucket of water. You could even try training your dog to wipe their paws on the mat before going inside.
6. Place Rugs in Highly Trafficked Areas
Even with shoes off in the home, dust and dirt can build up in your carpets. You can keep your carpets looking brand new by placing carpet squares or cheap rugs over the most highly trafficked areas of the house. It’s usually easier to clean or repair a small rug than an entire carpet, and replacing an inexpensive rug is more cost effective than new carpet installation.
7. Vacuum Frequently
You probably spend more time indoors in the winter than in the warmer months, so you might notice that more dirt and dust accumulate on the carpets. This is especially true if you have guests coming and going throughout the holiday season. Plan to vacuum more frequently in the winter than in the summer to keep your carpets in good condition. Once per week will probably be enough to keep the floors clean, but you might decide to vacuum more often in highly trafficked areas.
Try to empty the vacuum bag when it’s half full. When the bag fills up, the vacuum becomes less efficient and may cause dust to circulate in the air. Replace the vacuum filter at the beginning of the season to prevent dirt and dust from contaminating your home.
8. Clean Stains Immediately
The faster you clean any stains that appear on the carpet, the better. Keep a bottle of spot cleaner on hand so that you can treat stains as quickly as possible. If you clean the carpet right away, the stain might not set in at all.
You can purchase spot cleaner at your supermarket, or you could create a homemade cleaner. Warm water with a few drops of dish soap works well to remove stains. If the carpet has an odor, you could mix equal parts water and vinegar and add some dish soap. Hydrogen peroxide can also be an effective stain remover for light carpets, but it may have a bleaching effect on darker carpets.
Carpet care in the winter doesn’t have to be an enormous task. The best thing you can do to maintain your carpet is to prevent it from getting dirty in the first place. Avoid tracking dirt into the house, take your shoes off as soon as you get inside, and cover highly trafficked areas with mats or rugs. Then, all you have to worry about is regular vacuuming and the occasional spot cleaning.
Texas Floors provides hardwood and carpet installation services for homeowners. Contact us today to learn more.