Can Carpet Cleaning Prevent Coronavirus?

There is no doubt that at the moment due to Coronavirus, we are all doing anything and everything possible to keep ourselves healthy, and this includes keeping our homes clean and sanitised too. The sales of antibacterial cleaning products have no doubt skyrocketed, and spring cleans are taking place on a much regular basis, but what about your carpets? Can a simple task like carpet cleaning prevent Coronavirus?

The thing is, no one is immune to Coronavirus, not yet. We don’t even know for sure whether you can contract the virus again after having it once, we don’t know enough about it yet, but that will come with time. Therefore carpet cleaning is very unlikely to prevent it, but it certainly won’t do you any harm if you add your carpets to your cleaning regime. Of course, in a normal situation, it would be a good idea to get a carpet cleaning company called Anyclean or similar, to come along and give your carpets a deep clean. Still, these aren’t regular times, and it wouldn’t be sensible to have people in your house unless it’s an emergency at the moment.

With this in mind, what can you do to give your carpets a good clean during these uncertain times?

If killing bacteria and viruses is the main reason you want to clean your carpet, then the only thing that will do this is a steam clean. It’s the high temperatures of over 60°C that kill viruses that get rid of the germs, and steam cleaning gets much hotter than that. So during these times, where a steam clean isn’t possible, here’s what you can do to keep those carpets as clean as you can.

What can you do at home?

Use domestic carpet cleaners during this lockdown period and keep your carpets vacuumed as much as possible. While both of these won’t remove bacteria and viruses, it will help to keep them clean and reduce any smells.

How often your carpet needs cleaning depends on the kind of use it gets, if you have children or pets, you might want to think about doing it more often. Clean your carpet when the colour starts looking dull. Don’t make the mistake of waiting until it’s filthy as this will make the whole process much more difficult, take much longer and likely cost you more in the long run.

When you do vacuum, make sure you do it slowly enough so that you remove as much dirt out as possible. One quick pass over low-traffic areas will suffice and two slow passes over high-traffic areas. By doing two slow passes it will remove any ground-in dirt much more effectively than several fast passes.

If you do have a nasty stain to contend with, ideally you need to deal with it quickly and efficiently. Deal with spills quickly, place some kitchen roll or paper towels over the stain and blot – don’t rub! If anything makes a stain more difficult to remove, it’ss rubbing it. When you vigorously rub a stain it will increase the chances of spreading the stain into the surrounding carpet fibres.

A lot of people will be reaching for white vinegar thinking it’s a great idea – in theory, yes, it will kill germs, but can you cope with that smell?

Don’t think that alcohol is the answer either. Rubbing anything like this into your carpet might sound like a good idea in theory but could ruin it at the same time. The same goes for chlorine bleach; this will strip out the colour of your carpet and cause damage can’t is difficult to repair.

If you want a quick freshen up idea and can’t get access to the products currently on the market at the moment, try bicarbonate of soda – sprinkle it on carpets for at least 15 minutes (but preferably an hour) before vacuuming, and that lived-in smell will disappear (you can thank me later!).

The best thing you can do at this time is to stay off the floor and keep those hands washed. Then when all this is over, treat yourself to a professional steam clean. This way, you know your carpets will be squeaky clean and damage-free.

Above all, stay home, stay safe and enjoy this time with your families.