Getting Ready for the Carpet Cleaner
Take at least a half day off from work. Carpet cleaners tend to arrive in four hour windows, and their work schedules can be unpredictable. Someone should be home to see them in-leaving a key is a bad idea. And you don’t want to be trying to rush home from work, only to miss the carpet cleaners who will claim they sat outside your house for ‘hours’ waiting for you.
See to it that pets are locked up somewhere comfortable near their litter pan, and with food and water available to them. This is for your pet’s own protection as well as your peace of mind. You don’t want to be worrying that the carpet cleaners will accidentally let your pets out of the house while they come in and out with all their equipment. You also don’t want to worry about your pets getting hurt by the equipment or sick on the chemical treatments that the cleaners will use on your rug. And of course, you don’t want to risk that your pets get spooked and bite or otherwise attack your carpet cleaners. Finally, the noise of the machines can terrify some pets-if they’re secured away in a place that they feel comfortable and safe, it will help calm their nerves.
Even though most carpet cleaners will help you move furniture out of the way, try to get as many items up off the floor as possible. This will make the job of cleaning the carpets easier, but it will also help protect your furniture and other items. Moreover, it will help you find any stains you might not have seen before, so that you can point them out to your carpet cleaners when they come.
For that matter, get rid of most breakables and put them away. You don’t want your carpet cleaners being too gentle-they have to give your carpets a vigorous cleaning-so they shouldn’t have to worry about knocking over fragile knick-knacks and glassware.
Vacuum the floors thoroughly before the carpet cleaners arrive. Extra dirt and fibers in your carpet makes their job more difficult, and ultimately results in a poorer cleaning job than you might otherwise have. Most methods of cleaning your carpet will involve water, and the last thing you want to do is turn a few grains of soil into ground in mud, when they could have been easily sucked up with a vacuum before hand. Vacuuming the floors will also help you and the carpet cleaners identify the stains and spots in your rug where there is the most wear and tear.
Collect any coupons that the carpet cleaning business may be offering. If you don’t see any in the paper, call the company directly and ask them if they’re offering any specials and if they will quote one for you. Write that down and keep it near your checkbook. Don’t pay cash for carpet cleaning-pay by check, so that if something goes wrong, you can cancel payment. Having everything together will keep you from forgetting when it’s time to pay the carpet cleaner. And be prepared to negotiate-set a budget for yourself, and if they start trying to sell you extra products and cleaning services, tell them how much is the most you can pay and see if they adjust their price accordingly. Most will.
Take a photo of each room and rug that you’re going to have cleaned, before the carpet cleaners get there. These photos will either serve as a reminder of what a good job the carpet cleaners did on your floors, or as evidence of what a poor job they did. If you have visual proof that the cleaning didn’t do much good, or actually worsened your problem areas, you can get the company to come back and fix the error.
Plan for a night out; carpets can take up to 12 hours to dry. This will make you wear shoes in the house, which in turn will make your feet slippery on linoleum when you’re trying to cook dinner. Everything may be a little humid and uncomfortable until morning, so it may be best to go out to dinner and a movie.
By the time you wake up the next day, your rugs should look as good as new!
