How Often Should You Shampoo Carpets?

According to a study that was conducted a few years ago, more than 60% of Americans leave their shoes on when they walk into their homes without making a concerted effort to wipe them off. They leave dirt, germs, bacteria, and more in their carpeting as a result of it.

Yet, more than one-third of people admit that they don’t shampoo their home’s carpets at least once a year. Some of them even admit to not deep cleaning their carpets at all.

Does this sound like you? If so, you might be asking yourself, “How often should you shampoo carpets?”

Generally speaking, most experts recommend cleaning your carpets every 12 to 18 months. But you might need to shampoo more often than that under certain circumstances.

Here are some of the situations that might force you to consider shampooing your carpeting more than just once every year or so.

You Have a Lot of People Living in Your Home

One of the first things you should think about when you’re trying to answer the question, “How often should you shampoo carpets?”, is how many people you having living in your home.

Do you live alone? If so, it’s not going to be necessary for you to shampoo your carpets all that often. You might be able to get away with not doing it for more than 18 months depending on how diligent you are about cleaning your carpets.

But if you have, say, a dozen people living under one roof, that’s going to be a much different story! You might as well save your carpet cleaner’s phone number in your smartphone since you’re going to be hiring a carpet cleaner all the time.

If you have that many people living in your home, it’ll be especially important for you to make it a point to vacuum your carpets and spot clean them on a regular basis. But even then, you’re still going to need to get into the habit of hiring someone to shampoo your carpets at least every 8 to 12 months.

You Have Pets Running Around in Your Home

If you have pets running around in your home, you love them to death. Whether you have dogs or cats, they’re like a part of your family.

But one of the problems you’re going to run into when you have pets is that they’re going to do a number of your carpets. Even if they’re housebroken and don’t pee and poop in your home, they can still send pet dander into the air, which can work its way into your carpets.

Pets that go outside can also track dirt, mud, dust, and more into your home and send it deep down into your carpeting. Try to wipe your pets’ paws off when they come inside to stop this from happening.

Start shampooing your carpets at least once every year, too, as soon as you introduce pets into your home. This will keep your carpets clean in spite of the presence of your pets.

You Have Heavy Traffic Areas in Your Home

Do you have carpeting located in a heavy traffic area in your home?

Maybe you have carpets in the foyer that get stepped on as soon as people walk into your home. Or maybe you have carpets in a hallway that leads to all of the bedrooms in your house that gets trampled on every morning and every night.

Whatever the case, the carpets in these heavy traffic areas aren’t going to hold up well if you don’t shampoo them early and often. Arrange to have them cleaned professionally once a year, if not more, to stop them from showing signs of damage.

You Have Tons of Dust Floating Around in Your Home

Is your home almost always dusty? This is yet another thing that could have an impact on your carpets if you’re not careful.

To combat this problem, you should dust your home at least once every week to try and eliminate as much of it as you can. You should also vacuum your carpeting so that you can suck up any dust that makes it down into your carpets.

Doing this should get most of the dust out of your home and, more specifically, your carpeting. But it’s going to leave some dust behind in your carpets and force you to shampoo them more regularly than you would have to otherwise.

If you don’t, the dust can cause your carpeting to wear out. It can also make your carpets look unsightly if you have certain carpet colors.

You Have Light-Colored Carpeting in Your Home

No matter how hard you might work to clean your home’s carpets, there are going to be stains that set into it from time to time. Dirt, mud, juice, and more can all leave stains behind.

If your carpets are on the darker side, it’ll hide these stains pretty well and prevent them from hurting the appearance of your carpeting. But if your carpets are a lighter color, the stains are going to show up and ruin the way your carpeting looks.

Those with light-colored carpeting will need to shampoo their carpets more often than those with dark-colored carpeting. It’s something you should keep in mind when you first pick out carpets for your home.

So, How Often Should You Shampoo Carpets? It All Depends

As you can see, there is no right answer to the question, “How often should you shampoo carpets?”

A homeowner who lives alone without any pets won’t have too much trouble keeping their carpets clean. But a family of 12 with two dogs and four cats is going to have to make carpet cleaning a part of the regular cleaning process.

It all depends on what your living situation is like. But regardless of what kind of situation you’re living in, a good general rule of thumb is to shampoo carpets once a year. It’ll keep them looking and smelling their best.

Take a look at our blog for more tips on maintaining your home.