
Deep cleaning your carpet and upholstery is a wise move. It helps keep your home clean, lengthens the life of your furniture and carpets, and prevents illnesses. Knowing how to deep clean carpet and upholstery the right way can avoid problems and help you get the job done right the first time.
Why Should You Deep Clean Your Carpet and Upholstery?

More often than not, it’s less expensive to regularly deep clean your carpet and upholstery, especially when compared to the cost of purchasing new carpet. When it comes to stains, germs, and allergens, a deep clean is usually the cost-effective way to go.
Most people search for deep cleaning solutions and ask about how to deep clean carpet and upholstery the right way after they have an existing problem caused by a spill. Pet, wine, and coffee stains are the most common culprits, but any substance can create a problem, even if you remove the stain on the surface.
Aside from getting rid of those visible, unsightly stains, there’s also the matter of what’s living in your carpets and on your upholstered furniture. Mold, dust mites, and bacteria inhabit your carpet, even if you and all your guests regularly remove their shoes.
All of these creepy crawlies are alive: and they can make you and your family sick. Mold is shown to cause and worsen autoimmune conditions. Salmonella is another culprit, which can result in inconvenient short-term illnesses (diarrhea and vomiting) as well as long-term complications, especially for kids and the elderly.
How Often Should You Deep Clean Your Upholstery and Carpets?

It varies depending upon your needs. If you have COPD, asthma, allergies, or autoimmune conditions, you’re likely to be more sensitive to unwanted materials on your carpets and furniture. If you have pets, kids, or many individuals in your business or home, you’ll need a more frequent clean just because there’s going to be more wear and tear.
For most structures, we recommend deep cleaning annually or twice per year. A good way to remember it: schedule your deep clean after an annual landmark, such as a birthday, anniversary, or holiday. If you do big holiday parties, a post-holiday deep clean makes a lot of sense because the spill, germ, and grime levels will be high, especially during flu season.
Highly trafficked offices require closer attention, as more people occupy the space. A clean environment can result in fewer employee illnesses and absences and can keep employee morale high. After all, everyone enjoys a clean workspace—and your customers will appreciate it, too.
How to Deep Clean a Carpet and How to Deep Clean a Couch

Before you begin, make sure you pick up any objects in the way. This includes moving furniture around as you go—you’ll want to make sure you cover the entire carpet because germs and other creepy crawlies can live anywhere. Take care moving furniture—especially those heavy office desks. You may benefit from using furniture sliders or aluminum foil under furniture feet.
Before you do your deep clean, vacuum your carpet and furniture as you usually do. This helps pull some of that dirt and dust up and provides a good preliminary base for the deep clean. As you go, look for stains you might not have spotted before, so you know to concentrate on them when it’s time for the deep clean.
Pre-treat the stains. We recommend eco-friendly cleaning products, especially if you’re in an office setting and are unaware of everyone’s allergies. Note that each type of upholstery and carpet has different cleaning instructions, so be sure to find out what works best for that material.
For your sofa, in particular, consider an additional pre-treatment of baking soda. Those upholstery fabrics are a bit more sensitive than carpets, and this will provide some extra freshness before you begin. Again, upholstery cleaning varies heavily based upon the fabric. Some are no-suds projects. If it has an “X” on the tag, that means vacuum only. If you can use gentle soap on it, dish soap may work:
- Suction (with vacuum)
- Spot removal (with dish soap)
- Sudsing (if possible)
Purchase or rent a carpet cleaner. It must have a steam cleaning ability. Transport the cleaner to your desired location before filling it with water, as adding the water makes it very heavy. If you’re treating both carpet and upholstery, make sure you get a machine that does both (or acquire two separate machines).
Add the recommended amount of water to the machine. If you rent a cleaner, you’ll have to buy the cleaning solution. Hopefully, the store you rent it from (Home Depot, Lowe’s, and other home improvement stores rent them) will recommend something, but if not, you can find it next to other cleaners in Walmart.
Fill the machine before you plug the machine in. Once it’s filled, plug it in.
Beginning away from the door, find a stubborn stain and clean it as a test. Make sure the machine is effective before you proceed. Once complete, you’ll want to be at the door or the exit of the room, so you can leave with the vacuum without walking over your clean carpet.
Let your office or home dry by opening the windows and using fans. Keep employees, customers, kids, and pets away from the carpet and upholstery while it dries. Make sure you ask the rental place or the local water treatment facility about disposing of the chemical-infused water; different areas have different laws.
Don’t Want To Tackle That Deep Clean Yourself?

It’s a big chore, and we don’t blame you. If you’d rather not rent and haul cleaning equipment or spend the time learning how to do this, we’re here to help. Save time and improve the cleanliness of your business or home with the help of TLC cleaning. Got a busy store, office, or other business? Based on the type of business and amount of foot traffic you get, we’ll help you determine how often you need a deep cleaning–and we’ll put together a schedule with you. Call us today to get started.