If you have ever thought about cleaning your carpet you have two thing to consider. Do you want to do it yourself or hire a professional for the job? Professionals can be very expensive and the recent drop in the price of carpet shampoo and cleaning supplies seems to make this an ideal DIY project. Along with the lower prices, many of the top names in carpet cleaning supplies are promoting easy to use shampoos for your carpet and cleaning products.

Majority of the carpets that are installed in newer homes are loop carpets. These new carpets are designed for high traffic, and because of this they often need a good cleaning. No matter what type of carpet you have, you need to find the best carpet shampoo if you want to make your old dreary carpet look new and fresh again.

The characteristics of the best carpet shampoo

What are the characteristics of the best carpet shampoo? The first thing you want to look for is a shampoo for your floor that has good foaming properties. It should also contain water softeners. These water softeners in the shampoo will prevent your rugs fibers from becoming damaged by adding lubrication to the cleaner. There has also been a recent push for "green carpet cleaners". These carpet shampoos are more environmentally friendly, and safer if you have pets and children. Some of these "green rug cleaners" work well, others do not. If you plan to purchase one of these green rug cleaners, read the reviews first.

The two types of carpet shampoos to choose

The two basic types of shampoos you can use to clean your carpet are steam clean or dry clean carpet cleaners. A dry carpet shampoo does not need any type of cleaning machine. All you have to do is put it on the stain and vacuum it up. This method works well for light stains, but if you have deeper stains, you will need to use the steam clean method.

The steam cleaned method works best if you have a difficult stain or a large area to clean. You will either need to buy or rent a carpet steam cleaner. These carpet cleaners use a method known as water cleaning extraction. Basically, the steamers have two chambers. One for the heated carpet cleaner water mix, and the other to store the used water. The steam cleaner will spray the mix on the carpet and at the same time, vacuum it up along with the dirt and grime in your carpet.