Hello! I never had a carpet at home growing up... then when I rented to my current apartment, it has a dark grey (ugly) carpet, and I'm having a hard time with the cleaning. Since there is not any disinfectant or cleaning product I can use, I feel like it's really dirty and I'm not able to clean it! I have already bought those carpet cleaning products, but I don't feel like they clean anything, I feel it just has a nice smell to it. But it doesn't clean! I vacuum clean it every week, but that doesn't clean germs. And the worse part is my dog eventually pees on it and drags his butt on it, so I need heavy cleaning!! Any suggestions on what do you use? What is a good product that doesn't ruin carpets but cleans it well? Bare in mind it's dark grey....
I know this sounds silly, but have you tried washing it? If the carpet is not that big you can probably wash it indoors. My old folks used to do this a lot when we were younger. Mind you, we had smaller carpets that could fit in the bathtub with some effort. Then we used detergents or soap for a good wash. Most stains and smells were gone after drying.
Have you considered having it professionally cleaned? It may be worth it to have this done at least once a year to remove any deep set stains and other germs/bacteria/dander. If the carpet is particularly old and in bad shape, you may want to consider asking your landlord to have it replaced when it comes time to renew your lease. I believe I read somewhere that in the US at least, landlords are required to replace your carpet every few years (though they never offer to do this, but by law they are supposed to). I would avoid using too many cleaning products, especially on a dark carpet, because you will discover that many of them leave a ton of residue behind which generally makes the problem worse. The sticky residue will attract more dirt and stains. And on darker carpets, you can literally see the streaks and marks from the cleaning products. I used to have a dark green carpet at one of my previous apartments and I made the huge mistake of using that carpet powder to freshen it up. It make a mess of my carpet and it took me forever to get it all out. I could see streaks everywhere after using it. The only thing that worked well for me was to invest in a carpet cleaner, preferably one that will actually heat the water itself, since many don't. I also used super hot water in it from my tap, and only cleaned in small batches, refreshing it with more very hot water. Also, don't use too much of the cleaning solution, it's better to err on the side of putting a little less than called for. Some stores will even rent out the industrial strength carpet cleaners for a reasonable price, which would be another option to look into. I think KMart does this, but I've also seen them at grocery stores too.
