Does anyone clean their carpet by hand?

clairibel

Hi, just looking for some advice please. I always remember my mum cleaning our massive lounge carpet with a hard bristled brush with detergent on hands and knees.

I was just wondering if anyone does this? I need to clean our living room carpet and do not have spare extra cash to hire carpet cleaner and wanted to know is the above method ok to do and if so what cleaning solution would you use.

We have a dog and kid, so general dirt. i was thinking now its warm it may dry quicker, any help appreciated

gibson123

It depends on your carpet, I use this method on my handmade wool rug, I take it outside and give it a good scrub and leave it to dry draped over the wall, I use 1001 carpet cleaner and a big sponge - they type you use for a car, and use a scrubber on any sticky or mucky bits.

Try to avoid overwetting your carpet. I would get some 1001 carper cleaner and a sponge and just use the foam, let it dry then give it a good vacuum, then if still dirty I would go again rather than overet.

clairibel

gibson123 wrote: »

It depends on your carpet, I use this method on my handmade wool rug, I take it outside and give it a good scrub and leave it to dry draped over the wall, I use 1001 carpet cleaner and a big sponge - they type you use for a car, and use a scrubber on any sticky or mucky bits.

Try to avoid overwetting your carpet. I would get some 1001 carper cleaner and a sponge and just use the foam, let it dry then give it a good vacuum, then if still dirty I would go again rather than overet.

Thanks, its a very short pile carpet and quite hardwearing texture one of the reasons we chose it as its a walkthrough to the kitchen from the front door unfortunatley.

When we win some money i'm considering wood flooring Much easier.

alec_eiffel

I did this last week on our very old and not that great carpet. I just had a bar of astonish household soap/stain removal bar and a bowl of warm water plus a sprat for spot cleaning stains. Made sure the cloth was rung out really well so as not to oversoak the carpet and got scrubbing then went over again with a clean damp cloth to get any remaining soap out. After a hoover the carpet looked great. It was labour intensive but I didn't have the cash for a carpet cleaner.

Butterfly_Brain

I can't physically do that so my DH does mine with a carpet machine

Austin_Allegro

Do you have enough money for a steam cleaner? (about £40). They are very good at cleaning carpets and can be used for all kinds of things like cleaning suits instead of dry cleaning, cleaning curtains, floors, tiles, windows, removing wallpaper etc. I have had one for years and it has paid for itself many times over.

valk_scot

Yes, it works fine. Just don't scrub too hard or over saturate it, also don't use too much carpet shampoo otherwise you have to rinse endlessly. A trip to your local charity shop for a heap of old worn out towels for blotting would help too.

FrugalFranny

I do this with my living room carpet using a hard bristle brush, a bar of van!sh soap and a bowl of hot water. If you kneel on a big fluffy towel and scrub the patch of carpet in front of you, then move forwards to clean the next patch the towel will help dry the carpet as you kneel on it.
Just dip the brush into the soapy water so you don't soak the carpet.I use gardening gloves to spare my hands (rubber glove tend to make me sweat when using elbow grease).

Take plenty of breaks to spare yourself a sore back

meritaten

yes I did this as my son had borrowed my steam cleaner and not returned it.
I used stardrops, a few drops in a bowl of hot water and swished it to a foam and then used the foam with a bristle scrubbing brush.
another bowl of clean water and an old towel torn up to 'rinse' the foam off.
the carpet came up lovely, smelled great, and I had to spend the rest of the day on the sofa as I was kernackered and my back was killing me!

clairibel

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

Do you have enough money for a steam cleaner? (about £40). They are very good at cleaning carpets and can be used for all kinds of things like cleaning suits instead of dry cleaning, cleaning curtains, floors, tiles, windows, removing wallpaper etc. I have had one for years and it has paid for itself many times over.

I have been looking around on ebay as i thought after i've cleaned it, i can keep on top of it and do other jobs with it too like the oven etc. But not seen a bargain yet.

FrugalFranny wrote: »

I do this with my living room carpet using a hard bristle brush, a bar of van!sh soap and a bowl of hot water. If you kneel on a big fluffy towel and scrub the patch of carpet in front of you, then move forwards to clean the next patch the towel will help dry the carpet as you kneel on it.
Just dip the brush into the soapy water so you don't soak the carpet.I use gardening gloves to spare my hands (rubber glove tend to make me sweat when using elbow grease).

Take plenty of breaks to spare yourself a sore back

Good idea of the kneeling on the towel which then soaks up, two jobs in one, i will do this and never would have thought about it.

Thanks for all your replies and ideas, i am going to do it this weekend hopefully. With plenty of couch time