The holiday season can provide a number of challenges, especially when ensuring your home is ready for the family to visit (especially for that judgemental aunt). But what about after the the family goes home?
The clean-up can be just as challenging, once the presents are packed away, the families all gone home, and the toys are spread from one end of your home to the other, that when the cleaning begins. Food and drink spills, glitter, sand, slime and play-doh are all common culprits of Christmas time soiling.
So how do we clean up after the Holiday?
First, and most obvious, a good vacuum will be needed of all your carpets to remove as much loose soiling as possible, even if you have to go over it two or three times.
Second we’ll need to identify exactly what the mess is. Food and drink spills should be cleaned up as soon as possible. A simple solution of 1 part warm water, and 1 part white vinegar can help to remove a lot of food and drink marks. Simple spray or pour a small amount of the solution on to the soiling, wait a few minutes then pat dry with a clean towel. Don’t scrub or agitate.
When it comes to things like slime and play-doh it can be a little trickier. A solution of just warm water, and patience is needed to remove fresh slime. by following the same method of applying a small amount of warm water, and patting the area dry with a clean microfibre cloth, you can, with a little luck, remove most common slimes and play-doh products from the carpet.
For more complicated or stubborn marks, such as red wine, embedded and dried slime, grease/fat spills, beer, or other holiday foods and drinks it is often best to book in a professional and high quality carpet cleaning provider, such as Panda Clean, as soon as possible.
Holiday carpet cleaning, DIY or get a genuine professional?
What about cleaning it myself?
Hiring a small carpet cleaner, and trying to clean up after the Holiday season is definitely an option, however there’s a lot more to it than simply grabbing a cleaner and getting into it. A high quality carpet cleaning services such as Panda Clean uses a large variety of different products and methods to ensure a proper clean. Some things you will need to consider when opting to clean your carpets yourself are:
- Do I need to use an Enzyme, or chemical cleaning?
- Do I need to use Hot or Cold water?
- What rinse solution will I need?
- Is my carpet wool, synthetic, or blend?
- What will I do about the stubborn stains?
- How will the carpets Dry?
Do I need to use an Enzyme or chemical cleaning?
There’s a lot of different cleaning chemicals out there, and an enzyme cleaner may seem like the way to go, bio-degradable, pet safe, kid safe, easy clean. With tags like that it’s easy to think this is the perfect solution for you. However enzyme based cleaners are not suitable for many carpet types, and many soiling types. Enzyme cleaners are great at breaking down bio-waste from pets, people, and even some foods, however they struggle when it comes to heavy stains, dirt, and greasy or oily waste. This is where a quality chemical solution can come in.
In addition to our Enzyme cleaners, Panda Clean uses a large number of biodegradable, pet and family safe chemical solutions that offer a powerful clean for all carpet types.
Do I need hot or cold water?
A lot of smaller, in home carpet cleaners, and ones you can hire for day use, only allow you to use cold water. There are instances when cold water cleaning is a preferred method, however in almost all home cleans a high temperature steam rinse and extraction is the most effective, cleanest, and quickest drying solution for carpet cleaning.
Cold water carpet cleaning requires significantly longer to dry, and can lead to a large amount of chemical residue being left in the carpet, as the high temperate helps to rinse the area thoroughly. At Panda Clean, when we say high temperature steam rinse, we mean high temperature and steam.
What Rinse solution do I need?
What is a rinse solution? A rinse solution is a product that does exactly what it sounds like, a solution any professional carpet cleaner will use to soften the water in our steam process, and ensure there’s no residue from our chemicals left in the carpet. These vary from wool-safe water neutralizers, to ensure no hard water minerals are left to cause damage, to emulsifiers, designed to bind water and oil together to ensure a quality rinse. A lot of at home, or available for hire machines don’t allow the use of rinse solutions, this can really impact the quality of clean, and even cause permanent damage to your carpets.
What will I do about stubborn stains?
Many at home kits, and rental kits don’t have specific stain removal solutions available for use, this may be for a variety of reasons, including the cost of such chemicals, storage and safety, and the fact that some, if used incorrectly can be down right dangerous. This means the only way to clean the mess is by repeatedly going over it and hoping for the best. This will results in a large amount of moisture becoming embedded in the carpet, and worse yet, the underlay, significantly increasing drying times and allowing a perfect breeding ground for bacteria and microbes to bloom in your carpet. Ever wondered what happens when a carpets left too wet?
MOULD!
How will the carpets dry?
lastly, how will the carpet get dry?
When engaging the services of a quality carpet cleaner, worrying about drying times isn’t necessary as most carpets are now dry in a number of hours, even on the wettest of days, thanks to quality procedures and low moisture chemical usage.
When using at home kits, it’s easy to over wet the carpet, and these kits often don’t have the extraction power to remove any water that isn’t’ just on the top. A high powered extraction is required to remove as much embedded moisture from the clean as possible.
If necessary, a professional carpet cleaner, like Panda Clean, will also carry large dryers and dehumidifiers to help the drying process.