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For the majority of us who can't shampoo our carpets every day but still have to deal with the routine spills, dust and dirty footprints that our messy household members and small children leave on our carpets, there are lots of carpet cleaning supplies and stain removers.

For some serious carpet deep cleaning, carpet suppliers sell carpet cleaning equipment like hot water extractors, truckmount extractors, duct cleaning equipment, upholstery cleaning equipment, and robot vacuums, which yield professional results.

But for everyday use, home steam carpet steamers are environmentally friendly home carpet cleaning machines that are easy to use and are chemical-free. They can be cooler or hotter, and leave more or less moisture on the carpet's surface. Some are hand-held and ideal for spot cleaning, while others are large enough to clean large area carpets. Spray extraction machines also cleanse carpets, using water instead of steam. They spray water and detergents deep into the carpet to loosen deep debris, while their vacuuming mechanism sucks up the loosened dirt and grime. When using a spray extraction machine, great care must be taken to properly dispose of the extraction machine's waste water to avoid environmental contamination.

For light, everday maintenance and immediate cleanup, chemical carpet cleaners, sprays, and extraction agents can usually get rid of small stains. Many agents are even detergent and bleach free and can remove popular grease, paint, ketchup, lipstick, food and oil stains.

Room sprays and carpet deodorizers also help control the smell of odors, and can eliminate the bacteria residing in carpets, leaving a the carpet fresh smelling. Houses that contain pets should sprinkle on carpet powders that contain boric acid to kill fleas. Dry carpet powders are another good spot cleaner. They absorb bacteria and are sprinkled on the carpet and vacuumed off a few minutes later with either a conventional vacuum or a carpet sweeper. Carpet sweepers are hand-powered devices with wheel rollers ideal with sticky adhesives designed to pick up crumbs and large specks of dirt.

For routine cleaning and carpet care, the vacuum cleaner remains one of the most effective large area carpet cleaners, and removes dirt and bacteria deeply embedded in the carpet. The ideal vacuum to depends largely on the carpet area and type of carpet. Vacuums can be upright, canister, broom, handheld, or Hepa. Upright vacuums are great for large areas and collect alot of dirt, while canisters are less powerful but also are easier to use when cleaning fabrics and upholstery, in addition to carpets. Handhelds are the least powerful of all, but can be bought in wet/dry versions, and thus are ideal for small spills. Hepa vacuums use Hepa filters, necessary for asthmatics and allergy sufferers.

Whatever type of vacuum you use, change the vacuum bag at least every month and the vacuum belt every three, to bacterial infestation.

Bacteria, germs as well as dust mites can infest carpets that are not cleaned regularly, causing foul odors and worse, illness.

Learn more about this author, Paola Fanutti.
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