Carpet cleaning?
February 12, 2020 10:00 AM   Subscribe

What's the best solution for low volume carpet cleaning in my house?

By low volume, I mean we have one room that has carpet, along with a handful of throw rugs.

By best, I mean cheapest / lowest hassle / most effecting.

It doesn't seem like hiring a service or renting a huge carpet cleaner machine is the best solution for such a small amount of cleaning relative to the rest of the house, but I'm open to being convinced!
posted by lazaruslong to Home & Garden (7 answers total)
 
Best answer: Are you talking about just everyday cleaning, like...owning a vacuum? Or the bigger cleanings only?

Like you, we have only one room with carpet. We do own a decent vacuum, even though yeah that's the only room we use it in. For the bigger cleanings, we do occasionally rent the huge machine at the local grocery store, maybe once every couple of years. It's a pain, but it does a good job and we can see the difference which means we should probably do it more often...but we're lazy.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:34 AM on February 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Sounds like our house. We rent a carpet cleaner from the grocery store. At the one near us, we have to buy the cleaning solution for the machine, as the rental doesn't include it.
posted by fimbulvetr at 10:36 AM on February 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: BlahLaLa: we do own a vacuum and use it regularly, but I'm talking specifically about like, shampooing or whatever you call it when you get a carpet wet and stuff.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:07 AM on February 12, 2020


Best answer: Yes, rent one from your local hardware store or someplace like RugDoctor. Should run you in the neighborhood of $30.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:12 AM on February 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Best answer: It's not the cheapest option, but the $100* I spent to have a carpet cleaning service come out and do our one room of carpet was the best money I ever spent. The amount of time and hassle it saved me was worth every penny, plus I felt like the carpet got cleaner and dried faster with their industrial machines than the grocery store kind.

*I live in a really low COL area so Y(Price)MMV elsewhere in the country!
posted by stellaluna at 11:42 AM on February 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Mr.Know-it-some has it. Go rent a RugDoctor. They work, and they're cheaper than a service.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:43 AM on February 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I just want to add a caveat - If you do it yourself, remember to put little plastic squares under the legs of wooden furniture, and definitely try to so something under the edges of anything made of particle board (like some bookcases). Wood furniture, and especially particle board stuff, will suck up the moisture from the carpet, causing swelling and other problems (we had some staining from some sort of color that leached out of the wood too).

Carpet-cleaning services will normally do this for the legs of things but you might specifically have to ask about bookcases
posted by TimHare at 8:13 PM on February 15, 2020 [1 favorite]


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