5 Mistakes You Might be Making While Stain Cleaning

There are many ways to clean a stain, but what is the right way? Unless you have attended carpet cleaning school (yes, it is a thing!), you probably learned how to clean from watching your parents, grandparents, caretakers, or even movies. However, many households do not clean a stain the right way. You’re probably thinking, it’s just cleaning- how can I do that wrong!? Just like eating, breathing, and going to the bathroom, here is another thing you are probably doing wrong: Cleaning. But that’s ok! We are here to teach and spread the good word of how to clean the right way. Here are 5 things you might be doing wrong:

1. Rubbing or scrubbing
This phrase gives us the heebie-jeebies. For most carpet & rugs, you should never rub or scrub it because it will distort your fibers, making it look worse. Too much friction and scrubbing, especially with a bristle brush, will cause the fibers to untwist, become undone, or even pull out.

2. Not agitating
Now that we have told you not to rub or scrub, there still needs to be a little bit of agitation whenever you use a product. This way, the product can be worked into the fibers to work its magic. We highly recommend using something like a dull metal spoon because it won’t cause the carpet fibers to frizz like a brush will.

3. Not using a white or colorfast towel
If you use a towel that is not colorfast, you will more than likely transfer the dyes from the towel to your carpet. That’s kind of the opposite of what you’re trying to do! We have found that using a white cotton towel works the best so that you can see how much of the stain needs to be blotted out. But a colorfast towel will work in a pinch.

4. Not using enough product
We have seen some people only lightly mist an area thinking that’s enough. The whole affected area needs to be sprayed down, which typically means you need to use a little bit more than just a light mist. Since spills and stains tend to seep down, you need to spray enough so that it covers the entire stain. Lightly misting will touch some of the areas, but won’t be as effective.

5. Not taking care of it right away
In our cleaning business, we’ve seen countless people who never attempt to clean up or treat a pet urine stain. The faster you clean up the stain, the more luck you will get getting out the stain. The longer you let a stain sit on a carpet untreated, the longer and more difficult it is to get rid of.

Have you been doing any of these mistakes? Any that we missed? Let us know in the comments!

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