10 Reasons To Clean Your Carpet Regularly

By Chuck RobertsSubmitted Content
Print Story | Email Story

Previously, I wrote about why it's a great time to clean during cold-weather months. This time I want to inform you of 10 great reasons why you should clean your carpets (or rugs) on a regular basis.

Extend the wear life: Carpet and fiber manufacturers recommend carpets should be cleaned every 12 to 18 months. This helps remove damaging soils, keeps the appearance looking like new, and helps extend the wear life, maximizing your investment in your floor covering.

Indoor air quality: Carpets act like filters, trapping airborne pollutants. Dust, dander, pollen, pet hair, soils, etc. all contribute to our breathing unhealthy air. These pollutants must be removed to improve your indoor air quality, breathing, and helps protect the carpet and your investment.

Easy to maintain: Cleaning carpets before the spots and stains occur is much easier than afterwards. Most carpet soiling is from dry soils brought into the home. Regular vacuuming will remove approximately 70 percent of dry soils.

Spots and stains: Spots and stains often attract more soiling. This usually happens when homeowners use easy to purchase retail products. Unfortunately, many fail to read the small print and fail to test the product first. Usually this leads to either color loss or the product was not thoroughly rinsed leaving a slight, sticky residue which traps new soils, leading to rapid re-soiling.

Prevent buildup of allergens: If anyone in your family has breathing or allergy problems, a regular cleaning of your carpets can help remove many of the allergens or bacteria that has been hiding in your carpet (don't forget your furniture either!)


Improve appearance: Clean, well-maintained, like-new carpet makes a homeowner feel good about having guests in their home as well as the overall cleanliness of their home or facility.

Morale: Family members, guests, visitors, workers, staff, etc., all feel better about their environment when it's clean. This includes having clean, great-looking carpets, rugs, orientals, furniture.

Family fun: Having clean carpets and rugs invites your children, grandchildren, and others to have fun on the carpet, without having to worry about smelly, dirty, spots, stains, and soils showing.

Dust mites: Yuck! A thorough cleaning of your carpets and other furnishings will help remove dust mites and bedbugs which may have found a home in your home or facility.

Maintaining your carpet warranty: If you don't remember, you may want to review your carpet warranty. Most manufacturers require cleaning be conducted every 12-18 months, or within a specific time frame.

Chuck Roberts is owner of Roberts Carpet & Upholstery Care, an authorized Von Schrader Associate specializing in low-moisture cleaning. For more information, contact him at 413-458-9399 or robertscf@aol.com.

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Great Barrington Little Leaguers Down Dalton in Extra Innings

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
ADAMS, Mass. – Brayden King scored from third on Ivey Weller’s ground ball to the left side in the bottom of the seventh Thursday to give the Great Barrington Little League All-Stars a dramatic, 4-3 win over Dalton-Hinsdale in the teams’ opening game of the Don Gleason District 1 Tournament.
 
GB and Dalton combined for six runs in the last inning and a half to cap a game that featured strong pitching and big plays on defense from both teams.
 
After Dalton-Hinsdale’s Tye Shove led off the game with a triple and scored one batter later on Parker Lussier’s single, no one could get a run across until the bottom of the sixth.
 
That is when Great Barrington’s Weston Tremont hit a leadoff double – GB’s second hit of the game – and eventually scored on a pitch to the backstop to send the game to extra innings.
 
“Our 10-year-old who got called up late to be on the team to give us numbers comes up with a huge double for us,” Great Barrington coach Jowe Warren said. “He scores on that passed ball and that was a big momentum shift for us and gave us a lot of energy.
 
“It got the boys going.”
 
And the win gets GB a leg up in the standings in the 12-year-old tournament, where they are tied with Pittsfield, a winner over host Adams-Cheshire on Wednesday night.
 
View Full Story

More South Berkshire Stories