The Quest for Sparkling Tiles

If you've just bought a house that you have not yet moved into, here are some carpet cleaning tips you may like.

Wait until after you've had the carpets cleaned to move your things in

If the carpeting that is in the house was left there by the previous owners, then it's best to have it cleaned, as you don't know how hygiene conscious the past occupants were and the carpeting may have accumulated lots of dust mites, grime and bacteria.

If possible, you should wait until after the carpet cleaning specialist has cleaned the house's carpets before moving your possessions into the property. There are two reasons to do this. Firstly, with no furniture inside the house, the cleaner will be able to access the entirety of each carpeted floor with their equipment, without having to move beds, sofas and wardrobes out of the way. Secondly, if you move your things in first, it might not be feasible to get the carpets cleaned until you've unpacked all of your boxes (which could take several days), as using this service before you'd unpacked them would mean you'd need to put all of the boxes on elevated surfaces to provide access to the carpets and to prevent the contents of the boxes from getting wet.

Avoid making your carpets dirty again when unpacking

When moving in and unpacking after the house's carpets have been cleaned, you should try to avoid making them dirty again. For example, if your moving boxes have been transported in a dusty removals van or if any of them were dropped on the ground, they may be dusty and have some dirt on them. Likewise, any furniture on castors (like a sofa or desk) that you've rolled along a path or pavement might have accumulated some grime on its wheels.

As such, you should lay some old sheets over the areas in which you need to stack your boxes, as this will prevent dirt from being transferred from the cardboard to the carpet. Additionally, you might want to roll your wheeled furniture back and forth over an old damp towel to remove any grime on the castors; this should then allow you to roll it over the carpets without getting them dirty. Lastly, you should unpack your vacuum right away so that you can quickly vacuum up any debris (such as opened bags of crisps or crackers) that falls out of the boxes when you go through them; this will ensure that this debris doesn't get smashed into the carpet and leave behind a greasy stain or a strong odour.