When looking into how to clean your carpet, you might have come across the phrase “carpet soils.” This stuff isn’t (necessarily) actual soil, like the kind you use to grow plants. It refers to any dirt or other gross things in your carpet that you don’t want there. So how dirty is a carpet?
Carpets get infused with a variety of muck. Different types of carpet soils can cause their own problems, and all of them are worth looking out for. But what’s actually in these carpet soils? What’s burrowing its way into your carpet whenever you walk on it?
How dirty is your carpet? Here’s what’s lurking there:
1. The Grainy Stuff
All kinds of grainy particles can find their way into your carpet. Most of these are sand, clay, soil, and other dry particulates. These tend to come through on your shoes as you walk into your house.
These carpet soils can get into your delicate carpet fibers and grind them up, breaking them off and effectively shaving the carpet. Even worse, the soils work their way into these fibers and continue to grind on them every time you walk on your carpet.
How dirty is your carpet, do you think, after everywhere you’ve walked? So the best way to prevent these particles from getting in your carpet is by taking off your shoes before walking through the house.
The best way to get rid of these particles is through heavy vacuuming. They’re not dissolved through carpet cleaning chemicals like other particles, so you need to be vigorous.
2. The Oily Stuff
Oily and toxic substances can seep into your carpet through different means. Most of these are car exhaust from the air, tar from cigarette smoke, and other greases and oils from artificial sources. They can also come in through your shoes if you just stepped on asphalt.
When oils get into your carpet, they can form a yellow film over time. This film can end up discoloring your carpet if it accumulates too much. Seriously, how dirty is a carpet after it’s turned yellow?
Many of these oils range from difficult to impossible to prevent as they come in through the air. Well-ventilated rooms can prevent some of this buildup. Also, taking off your shoes before entering houses helps prevent tracking asphalt. Finally, not smoking indoors is always healthy for carpets (and lungs!).
Getting rid of these oils is pretty simple: most get out with strong cleaning chemicals. Getting your carpet steam-cleaned or shampooed can dissolve most oily substances and get the color back to normal.
3. The Organic Stuff
Finally, we have one of the most significant contributors to carpet soil: stuff from your body and food. Dead skin, hair, bits of food, starches, fibers, gums… all of them can build in your carpet. And don’t forget about the pests that thrive in these environments, like dust mites, mold, mildew, and pathogens.
Together these particles not only make your carpet look dirty, but they can even make you sick if you don’t take care of them soon enough. The nasty things these organic materials attract are something to watch out for.
You can’t prevent these particles from occurring. However, you can mitigate them by showering regularly to scrub away skin flakes and eating food away from carpeted surfaces. How dirty is the carpet right by where you eat?
You need to use every tactic available to get these particles out of your carpet. Some food items, like salt and sugar, just dissolve in water. So a quick wash will get rid of those. Other, tougher organic fibers have to be washed with cleaning chemicals. Finally, many skin cells won’t come out without high-strength professional vacuuming.
Conclusion
You’re always going to get a buildup of dirt and grime on your carpet – it’s just part of existing in the dirty world we live in. There are ways to mitigate a lot of this grime, but there’s no way to prevent it altogether. You really have to wonder: how dirty is your carpet?
To keep your carpet free of these pollutants, contact a reliable carpet cleaning service. Even if these contaminants are inevitable, you don’t need to be living in them all the time. Angel Carpet Cleaning can come to your Koreatown home and take care of it.
It’s recommended that you have your carpet deep cleaned at least once a year. That can help you get rid of most of these toxic soils, and then all you have to do is get a high-strength vacuum and vacuum it all up.
Carpets are naturally full of these carpet soils. How dirty is your carpet?