Cleaning Your Carpet (Without a Carpet Cleaner)

You can get your carpets "company-ready" without a carpet cleaner or a lot of effort with just a few simple tools. This will save you so much time and money, and you don't have to wait hours for it to dry! I use this method to make my carpet look brand-new even though it's over 6 years old.
Here's what you'll need: Vacuum

Carpet Rake
(buy this at Home Depot or any home improvement store for around $10)

Brush with a Handle or Sponge Mop
(Walmart)

Carpet Cleaning Foam
(Bissell is 1/2 the price of Resolve where I live but you can use any brand)

If you have pet stains you'll also need this:
Here is what the carpet looked like prior to cleaning. I removed most of the furniture. It's actually worse than the pic shows. It is somewhat matted and has some pet stains. (Click on it to enlarge)
First, vacuum your carpet thoroughly, use an attachment if you have one to get along the wall. I started out only doing half of the room so that I could show the difference.

If you have pet stains, spray the pet stain remover on them heavily enough to saturate, blot, and brush in.
Here's what mine looked like before starting:And the same spot after the entire process:

Starting at a far corner,spray a light mist of cleaner to about a 2ft x 3ft section. Use a slightly heavier spray on stains. After the spray has set for a minute, use the brush (or sponge mop) to somewhat gently rub it into the carpet. You don't want to be too harsh, but you want to make sure that it's getting into the fibers. Go in at least 2 directions. Then simply move on to the next section until your entire room has been sprayed and brushed in.

It will probably look something like the left side of this picNow let the carpet dry. It will take around 15 minutes to 1/2 hour depending on how heavy you sprayed. Once dry, vacuum again. Now, start back at the far corner and rake. You want to make sure that you're only pulling the rake toward you, (not too hard), and only pulling back about a foot or less at a time. Go across the back and continue in this back and forth manner until you get to the end of the room.

(for some reason the camera decided to make the color funky
in this one, but you can still see the difference)


It took me about an hour to do the entire room and look at the difference!
(click to enlarge)
This is something that probably shouldn't be done more than
once every three months and I would still recommend having carpets cleaned professionally about once every 1-2 years.