I am a firm believer that white wine should be drank and not poured onto problem stains whilst hoping for a miracle that it will get them out (it doesn’t work).
Having children that love the great outdoors, whatever the weather, they are forever traipsing mud and grass through the house despite numerous requests for them to take their shoes off and wipe their feet. It is particularly bad at the moment as they insist on having water fights and end up rolling around in the garden bringing all sorts in.
Then there is potty training. Having had three children potty train in the last 6 years, our flooring (and sofa’s) have taken a beating, especially in the early days. I have to admit that Sebby has done brilliantly as we are potty training him at the moment but we have still had a couple of carpet incidents.
Probably my worst carpet nightmare has to be the dreaded sickness and diarrhoea bugs though. My eldest boy especially was a nightmare and literally hung over his top bunk and was ill right next to his poor brother, all over the carpet below. Disinfectant is your best friend in these times but even that does not fully get rid of the smell, although I have found Zoflora is the best.
I have tried lots of different products on the market to help get rid of carpet stains with varying rates of success. My old cream carpet on the hall stairs and landing only lasted a couple of years because it was filthy and nothing, not even a carpet cleaner would touch the marks on it.
Note to self: Never buy a cream carpet again!
My top tips for keeping your carpets clean and fresh are:
- Vacuum regularly to avoid soil build-up
- Treat stains as soon as they happen as they are much easier to get out whilst they are fresh
- Have a welcome mat at each outside door so people can wipe their feet
- Have a no shoes worn in the house policy
- Clean your carpets with a carpet cleaning machine every 12 months to keep them looking their best
My final tip – To get out the smell of urine / vomit, my tip is to soak up as much of the liquid with kitchen towel and then create a bicarbonate of soda paste by mixing it with a bit of water and then scrubbing into the affected area. Let the paste dry overnight and then vacuum up as the next day. It really does work if caught in time.
Disclosure: Post written in collaboration with Carpetright.
Images: Shutterstock.com
Great post! Not sure how you can manage having light coloured carpets with kids around, even with those tips. I don’t have children, but I’m terrible for getting stains on lights haha!
We’re lucky in a way – our rented place has lino down in every room bar the dining room and the main bedroom. The dining room one is constantly getting toddler mess thrown at it though…
And that’s why I’m glad our new house has dark(ish) carpet. It’s difficult to have light coloured carpets (as much as I prefer them) when you have a small child and pets who constantly leave dirt on them. Great tips, btw! 🙂
Our house was carpeted in cream carpets from top to bottom when we moved in. Grrrr.. I keep trying to replace them one by one 🙂 Great tips ..
We’ve learnt our lesson and removed our cream carpets and replaced them with grey speckled ones. Now you can’t see the dirt 😉
Fabulous tips, I also use biological washing powder if the dog or cat has an accident, it is supposed to stop them doing it again x
We’ve finally replaced our cream carpets with wooden flooring downstairs after one too many spills. Upstairs is still a work in progress though, so thanks for sharing these handy tips x
Thank you for the bicarbonate solution. Luckily I have hard floors through nearly all my house!
I’m too ashamed to comment 🙂
Good advice, if only I’d follow it.
These tips are handy and timely for me, I rent an apartment which is carpeted everywhere and was thinking I need to clean it now since I have been in there for over a year and not really felt the need to do a deep clean
This sounds great. I am forever trying to get rid of 1 carpet stain or the other.
Thank you so much for this tips! I was indeed looking for something like this to take a stain out of my favourite carpet
I didn’t know about the bicarb trick at all. I’ll be giving that a go when we have our next accident
Thank you for the bicarbonate solution. However, i was thinking of getting rid of some sport from my home carpet. But this is hard to maintain the carpet with kids around!
Very informative. I think carpet cleaning is the hardest household task. I actually don’t like but its not like I have much of a choice. My biggest problem is that I never have time to clean up stains before they set in. With small kids and pets, it becomes hard to track such messes. I often end up spending a lot more time cleaning up the already set in stains. Thanks for the tips..will definitely start being more proactive with carpet stains.
Great suggestions. Thanks for sharing this especially for the bicarbonate solution.
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Thanks for sharing the good work. I really like the post . Keep up the good work.