TLDR: Your carpet is going to need a little bit of extra love and consideration to thrive and survive during the year’s cold, cold times. Investing in an indoor and outdoor doormat is a simple and effective way to protect your carpet from the season’s rigors. Vacuuming regularly shows your flooring you really do care, and the occasional visit from a carpet care expert will keep your carpet from singing the fall time blues.

Your carpet is one of the hardest working additions to your household. From providing comfort to insulating, all the way to protecting the very foundation of your home, carpet works tirelessly to provide for you and your family. In the warmer months, when the weather is nice, families and friends get to spend more time outside and carpets everywhere get a much-needed break from the tireless rigors of being tread upon constantly. However, as the weather cools down, and everyone returns to spending most of their waking hours indoors, all carpets start to work double time. As we descend into the chillier time that is autumn, here are some ways you can show your carpet some love. Basic preventative measures are all that are really needed to save carpets around the world from falling into the spot and stain-induced fall blues.

Doormats Are A Carpet’s Best Friend

Doormats are the first barrier of defense when it comes to keeping your carpet fall time pristine. With autumn comes muddy chunks, errant leaves, and other carpet dangerous detritus. For the most protection, an indoor doormat and an outdoor doormat is the best practice. Your indoor and outdoor mats should have completely different compositions, however. The outside mat should be coarse and act as a brush, sweeping debris from shoes as people enter your abode. Coir material is the most traditional (the hay-looking mats that are seen all over department stores), but any mat that has a thicker, brush-like material would do. For your inside mat, you’re going to want something made from acrylic, vinyl, or rubber. 

Protip: Mats made from vinyl, acrylic, or rubber don’t shed like their coarser coir counterparts and will save your flooring from the dreaded doormat shed.

Keep Those Shoes Off My Floor!

Shoes are the natural enemy of carpets, especially when fall rolls in. Many of the joys of fall lead to no so joyous smattering across your hard-working fabric friends. The color changing and falling leaves lead to more tracks across polyester surfaces. Cozy, chilly, rainy days lead to muddy trails carving their way through every flooring fiber.

Protip: The best thing you can do for your fibrous flooring friend is enforce a strict no-shoe policy in your home.

Say “not today!” to the rubber-soled menaces that encase the feet of all. Banish them to a shoe rack by your door, and keep your carpet safe from stains for another day. 

Vacuum Your Way To Victory

Even if you are a diligent carpet ally and you take all the preventative precautions listed above, your carpet is still going to get soiled. Such is the life of a floor covering. This is where vacuuming comes in.

A consistent vacuum schedule can only provide benefits to the cleanliness of your home. Twice a week passes across your home’s floor should be sufficient, assuming your passes with your trusted vacuum are of a slow, constant speed.

A constant vacuum schedule isn’t enough, however! A vacuum only performs as well as it is maintained. Vacuums with bags need to be swapped before they are completely filled to maintain efficiency. If your bag is a least three-fourths full, you should probably change it. Bagless vacuums usually come with washable filters. If your bagless vacuum seems to be losing its suction ability, it may be time to give that filter a wash!

Protip: Most people don’t realize their vacuum filter needs to be washed at least every three months. When was the last time you washed your filter?

Give Your Carpet The Day Spa It Deserves

Even the most compassionate and diligent carpet owners will notice signs of wear, tear, and discoloration as the season passes. Professional carpet cleaners are armed with an arsenal of tools your average homeowner doesn’t have the luxury of owning or accessing on a regular basis. Professional cleaners have the means and the care to give your carpet the TLC it deserves after a long chilly season. If you’ve adhered to the preventative listed above, a professional cleaning shouldn’t need to happen frequently. Only the occasional deep clean will be needed to reap the pick-me-up benefits of a professional once over. 

Protip: Schedule your professional clean right around when winter comes knocking at your door. This way, you will have a pristine clean just in time to become very acquainted with the floors of your humble cold time abode. 

Key Takeaways:

With the wind picking up, leaves clinging to everyone’s shoes and lots of brush separating from the local foliage you have to be diligent when protecting your floors. Utilize door mats, keep those shoes out of the main areas of your home and vacuum daily! These tips will keep your home clear for the fall and any professional carpet cleaning jobs you might need less frequent.