Spring is a wonderful time of year. Better weather makes many people want to clean their living space inside and out. When you can finally open your windows without worrying about heating the outdoors, you notice how stale the air in your house is and want to freshen everything up. You want clean walls, clean floors, and clean carpets.
Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning isn’t the huge endeavor it once was. In the old days when people heated with wood or coal fires, ash and soot would build up on the walls and ceilings during the cold months. Floors could be swept in winter, but many housewives would take all of the furniture out of the house in spring, beat the rugs, and then whitewash everything inside and out. Whitewash was an inexpensive paint choice, and it not only covered dirt and soot, its slaked lime content disinfected as well. By the time the house had been emptied, cleaned, and whitewashed, people could feel satisfied that their home was clean and presentable again. It was a real fresh start for the nicer half of the year.
Americans often find staying on top of housecleaning to be stressful, and clutter provokes anxiety too by reminding us of all thing we still have to do. This is why spring cleaning increases productivity and improves mood. Today psychologists agree that spring cleaning boosts creativity, lowers stress, and improves happiness.
Clean Carpets: So Much Easier than It Used to Be
Nowadays it’s much easier to achieve that feeling of clean. Many people concentrate on airing out their bedding and cleaning off surfaces made dusty by forced-air furnaces, but it’s important to remember floors and carpets as well. They’ve taken a beating from crushed leaves, dirt, oil, salt all winter and need some TLC. If you have wall-to-wall carpeting, it’s time to use a wet vacuum on it. If you have hardwood floors, you need to remember to clean both the floors and the carpets thoroughly. Area rugs are exposed to the same ground in dirt that wall-to-wall carpet suffers, and beating a rug is not enough to keep it in good condition. Antique or Persian rugs should be cleaned by a professional, of course.
For an additional fresh smell, mix 10-20 drops of an essential oil like lavender or lemongrass into a box of baking soda, then sprinkle it over your carpet. Wait five minutes and then vacuum it out. The baking soda will remove bad odors, and the essential oil will leave them smelling great.
While you are cleaning your carpets this spring, it’s a good idea to look them over for damage. Do the fringes of your rugs need repair? If the bindings have come loose, you can either repair or replace them. Are they are prone to slipping on your hard floors? If so, take the time to add a slip-free rug product for both safety and aesthetic reasons.
If you have questions about the condition of your area rugs or carpets, please contact us at Bond Products. We have all the products you need to keep your rugs both beautiful and in good repair, and we’d be happy to help you find what you need to keep your carpets and rugs well maintained.
