Keep your carpet smelling fresh with these helpful cleaning tips!
Your rugs and carpet floorings will inevitably take a beating over time. Throughout its lifetime, a carpet will get stepped on, spilled on, and maybe only infrequently cleaned. Eventually, all that wear and tear will catch up with it and leave it in a sorry state that brings down the appeal of whatever room it’s in, particularly when it comes to smells.
Carpets tend to be porous, with the material they’re constructed from clinging to all manner of stains, dander, and odors. Things like pet hair and liquid stains are generally easy to get rid of if you have the right tools on hand, but a smelly carpet is a bit trickier to manage. Because most carpets are woven from absorbent fabrics, anything with a bad smell can sink in and stink up your home with no apparent source.
Reading this guide will help you get rid of smells in your carpet, teaching you several odor-eliminating techniques and aiding you in identifying possible causes of bad smells.
Where Does Carpet Odor Come From?
An excellent way to stop bad smells from permeating your home is learning to recognize the most common causes and taking preventative steps.
- Pet Odors – We love our pets, but they can stink sometimes or end up using your carpet as a bathroom. Bad pet smells linger in furniture even after multiple cleanings.
- Cigarette Smoke – Smoke is one of the “stickiest” odors—it seeps deep into furniture and carpets and can be the most difficult to detect in households with heavy smokers.
- Old Age – When fibers get old, they start to break down and release an unpleasant, musty smell that can quickly fill the whole house.
- Moisture – Wet spots on a carpet are easy enough to deal with, but if moisture is persistent or allowed to sit for an extended period, then you risk a build-up of bad-smelling mildew and mold.
How To Best Get Rid of Odors
Thankfully, even with a large number of possible sources for a stinky carpet, there are just as many ways to have it smelling fresh and clean again.
The cheapest and most common method is using baking soda, which acts as a natural deodorizer. The process is simple: sprinkle some fresh baking soda all over the carpet or rug, massage it in with your fingers, then let it sit overnight. Come morning, grab the vacuum for a quick and easy clean up.
For more persistent smells that are concentrated in certain areas, you can use white distilled vinegar. Make a mixture of vinegar and water (about 3 cups of water to 1 cup of vinegar) and pour it into a spray bottle. Once you spray it on the smelly section of the carpet, the acidic content will kill bacteria on contact.
Still have stinky smells coming from your carpet? Contact Remnant King Carpets to see about replacement options!