The holidays are upon us in full swing. Time to put up the turkey baster and crockpots and break out the Christmas decorations and tree. But first this place needs a good scrub down and that’s what I have spent the day doing. Everything has to be spic’n span before the decorations can go up.
Its funny because one of the questions I get most frequently is “how often do you vacuum your carpets”? Well, I think the better question is how frequently do you “clean” your carpets? I recently found out that the EPA recommends that you should shampoo your carpets 2-4 times per year. As dog owners, we are certainly in the high end of the 2-4. Did you know 80% of all the dirt in your house walks in on feet? Feet meaning paws too. That amounts to ALOT of dirt in my house even though I vacuum with a Dyson every day. Carpet that is freshly vacuumed and appears clean can hide as much as a pound of dirt per square yard. The 5 second rule? Myth! Bacteria can live on carpet even after four weeks! And even grosser, around 2,000 dust mites can live on one ounce of carpet. OMG my dogs LAY on the carpet!
Dust mites are present year round but particularly favor August to November when houses are closed up because of cool evenings and increasing humidity. According to DVM360 - Dust mites are the leading cause of allergy/asthma in humans. In dogs, it appears to exceed flea allergy as the most common intradermal skin test reaction. An estimated 30-80 percent of atopic dogs and cats skin test positive to dust mites. Again, up to 2,000 of these little buggers can live on just 1 ounce of carpet! I found a photos of them on the internet and they look like something straight out of a horror movie!
This year Brutus and Rufus have developed really bad itchy skin. They went to the vet a few weeks ago and the vet put them on Benedryl and Claritin twice a day. It has helped, but they still scratch and I’ve started wondering if its due to dust mite allergies. So…. it’s time to shampoo the carpets and see if that does the trick.
There are many products on the market that clean and shampoo carpets. I have rented and purchased several different shampooers over the years. I have had the best results by far with the Rug Doctor line. Rug Doctor rental machines (red machine) can be found in over 30,000 grocery, drug and home center stores throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and over 20 other countries. To find the rental location nearest you dial 1800-Rug Doctor or check the website. You can also find savings coupons (here).
Rug Doctor has several specialized professional cleaning products in cleaning formulas and wipes, including: Anti Allergen Carpet Cleaner, Oxy-Steam Carpet Cleaner, Pet Formula Carpet Cleaner, Hi-Traffic Pre-Treatment,Urine Eliminator, Spot & Stain Remover, Odor Remover and Upholstery Cleaner.
Recently they have started offering a line of machines for home sale (blue machine) that are identical to the rental machines. Same great machine, just a different color. You can find them for sale on the Rug Doctor website, Sams Club, Costco, Amazon, Sears, Target, and Walmart. While the machines cost significantly more than the other retail machines on the market, they dont even compare in quality, durability, performance and value. Rug Doctor motors are tested to failure and will perform in excess of 1400 hours. The average house requires 1 hour of actual motor run time per cleaning. Deep cleaning my carpets at say once a month, the machine would last more than a decade! The last machine I bought, I paid $239 for, it didn’t clean very well and broke in less than 3 months, 1 deep cleaning and half a dozen or so spot cleanings.
Since I have great, hairy, slobbering, oily coated beasts (lol), I have a retail machine (blue). Having one on hand is an absolute must for frequent thorough deep cleaning and a savior for spot cleaning when owning dogs or cats. Today I used the Anti-Allergen cleaning formula which removes pollen, dander and yes, drum roll please ***DUST MITES*** yey! It smells so fresh and clean in here. My carpet is clean and I’m ready to put up my holiday decorations. And bonus, NO scratching for over 8 hours now! I will honestly tell you it is worth every single penny. Make sure you put it on your list for Santa.
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