10 tips to keep your carpets clean in the workplace

How to keep your office carpets clean

A clean carpet in a workplace can go a long way in making an office feel like home. A soft and cosy cover to hard and laminate flooring is a great way to add an inviting layer of comfort underfoot in any professional space.

But with more people making their way back into the office after lockdown, you may find that your carpets are getting a lot more wear now. A carpet is an investment and a long-term purchase, so maintaining it carefully is always a good idea for the long run. If you want to keep them looking spick and span for your team’s home away from home, we’ve compiled our top ten tips for maintaining clean and inviting carpets in the workplace.

Top 10 Carpet Cleaning Tips for the Office

1. Lint removers

2. Doormats

3. Regular vacuuming

4. Rugs on areas of heavy footfall

5. Furniture coasters

6. Clean messes quick

7. Carpet stretching

8. Remove stains using an iron

9. Remove gum using ice

10. Regular professional cleaning

1. Get a good lint remover

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Our first carpet cleaning hack is using a metal lint remover to pick up any hair or loose dirt from out of the fibres. You’d be surprised at just how effective a metal scraper is for this job! If your office has any furry friends keeping you company, this is definitely a tip you’ll want to try. Even the cleanest-looking carpets can bring up a multitude of dirt with a good lint scraping, and it’s such simple method.

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Just scrape the lint remover in repeated motions over the area you want to clean and watch what it pulls up! This is great for cleaning small spots on your carpet without using any chemicals, but if you’re looking for a full-coverage cleaner, this won’t be the best option unless you’re a fan of laborious scraping.

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A good tool for the job is a cheap remover like this one which you can find on Amazon for just a pound.

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2. Wipe those feet!

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Whilst it may seem like a simple solution to carpet mess in the home, doormats are often overlooked in office spaces. If you’re serious about maintaining your carpet, you should look into using a doormat for every entrance into the space to catch any damp or muddy feet from outside. Your shoes can pick up all kinds of dirt and grind them over time into the fibres of your carpet.  

If you’d rather not face the stink of a barefoot workplace, wiping your shoes off at the door is a good alternative!

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3. Keep a good vacuuming schedule

Regular vacuuming is great for the long-term health and longevity of your carpet. Whilst it won’t work miracles on tougher dirt, vacuuming will pick up whatever’s become embedded over time and help prevent this build-up being trodden deeper, where it will be harder to remove.

To keep your carpet looking bright and fresh, you should aim to vacuum around every two weeks, covering the entire space both horizontally and vertically. Running over the carpet multiple times will help to ensure no spot is missed and you’ve lifted all the dirt you can.

A cleaning timetable or a hoovering chart is a good idea for maintaining consistent vacuuming and an organised, clean office.

4. Rugs are a carpet’s best friend

Areas of your workspace with more traffic will inevitably face more wear and tear than spots with lower footfall. This means that over years of daily use, certain spots of your carpet will become worn out far quicker than the rest. This could be under chairs as they scrape around your desks, or entryways that see countless feet come and go.  

A great way of preventing this wear is by adding a second layer over your carpet with a rug, which can be both decorative and protective. Extra cosy underfoot and looks great too!

5. Use furniture coasters to prevent indentations

Another good idea for the longevity of your carpet. Furniture coasters are weight balancers places under areas of high impact or strain to reduce any marking they’ll leave once the furniture is moved.  

If the indentations are already there, you can reduce them by using an ice cube. Simply place on the dent and leave it to melt. Blot the area after and fluff up with a towel. Once dry, this area of the carpet is ready to brush through and reshape.

Heavy desks and chairs needn’t leave a permanent reminder on your carpet!  

6. Don’t leave messes for later!

We’ve all done it. You’re in such a rush that you knock your drink over, or drop a plant pot and spill soil everywhere. It’s tempting when you’re working to deadlines to leave the cleaning for later or to find the quickest fix. But a mess or spill left uncleaned can be bad news for your carpets as once a substance seeps into the fibres, it will be much tricker to get out.

Our advice is to dab, not scrub as you could end up rubbing the mess deeper. Each spill needs a different cleaning solution, but professional carpet cleaning services are always a good idea for stubborn stains.

7. Give your carpet a stretch

Ripples in the textile might be caused by the humidity of the room, moving heavy furniture, or pushing chairs, and they can grow worse over time if you don’t stretch them out.  

Stretching out a wrinkled carpet will lengthen its lifespan. As well as looking smarter, a stretched carpet will be less of a trip hazard, easier to clean, and will prevent uneven wearing and dirt forming and settling in-between creases.

A good stretch occasionally isn’t just good for our posture at work—it’s good for your carpet too!  

8. Use an iron to remove stubborn stains

If vacuuming a stain has proved fruitless, it’s time to bring out the big guns. After the vacuum, drop a 3:1 mix of water and vinegar onto the stain and leave for 5 minutes. Then you simply place a towel on top and iron it out with a hot clothes iron. This picks up the stain like a magnet and works a charm for your carpet.

9. Get chewing gum out of your carpet with ice

Sticky stuff + clean carpets = recipe for disaster. Luckily the solution is simple; use ice!  

If you have chewing gum in your carpet, it’s best to act quickly before it lodges in too deep. Simply put a few ice cubes in a sandwich bag and put it over the gum. This will freeze it, and solidifies the mess, making it easy to break and scrape off. Once you’ve removed it, you can clean up the area with a drop of vinegar and some soap before blotting dry with a towel.

10. Professional Carpet Cleaning

If you’re looking to see top notch cleaning results for your office carpets, the best way forward is with regular office carpet cleaning. Deep cleaning should be carried out every 12 to 18 months according to cleaning professionals. This will have many benefits for your carpet in comparison to using shop bought carpet shampoo and DIY carpet cleaning machines. Your carpets will look nice and clean, reduce bacteria and health-related issues for office users, make the carpet easier to spot clean, and increase the carpet’s lifespan. You can learn more about why carpet cleaning is important for hygiene here. Even the oldest carpets can start looking happy and healthy with the right care!

Remember, your carpet’s results will only be as good as the cleaning company you hire! Before you settle on a cleaning provider, you should carefully consider what you’re looking for. This article can help with the process by providing 10 questions you should ask your carpet cleaning company.

A Cleaning Service, based in Bristol, provide expert and experienced carpet cleaning with a range of techniques available to best suit any kind of carpet. If you’d like to know more before you book in a clean, we can offer a quick assessment, a quote, website articles with cleaning tips, or a chat about what we can do for you.  

When having a busy workplace cleaned, we understand that you want as little disruption as possible, and our services are designed to be simple and efficient with minimal intrusion. After 15 years of practice, we’ve made professional cleaning as smooth as can be.  

To maintain our attention to detail and high-quality service, we’ll first carry out a service free of charge and a demonstration to provide a custom program to suit you. You can book now through our website or call on 0117 325 9250. You don’t have to spend your weekdays walking on dirty floors! Don’t hesitate to contact us to keep your office carpets clean.