How to Clean Carpet on Stairs the Easy Way
Source: Podlesnyak Nina/Shutterstock.com
You use your stairs at home every day. Sometimes, you get busy and forget to clean them, or you’re not quite sure how to clean them properly. No one wants to carry a big vacuum cleaner just to clean their stair carpet, so here are our best tips on how to clean your stair carpet the easy way.
1. Scrape Off Excess Hair — The first step you’ll need to do before you actually start cleaning your stair carpet is to scrape off any excess hair or fur. Use a pet hair remover brush to scrape off as much pet fur and human hair as possible.
Get Your Uproot Cleaner Pro™ Tool
2. Use a Lightweight Vacuum — Because you scraped off excess hair, you’ll have an easier and quicker time vacuuming the rest of the carpet. Use a lightweight handheld vacuum cleaner so you don’t have to carry a heavy vacuum up and down the stairs. Alternatively, if you don’t have a small handheld vacuum, you can use the soft brush extension that came with your vacuum to clean your stairs.
3. Use Carpet Shampoo — Next, shampoo your carpet. This will act as deep cleaning on your stair carpet to help remove any stains and lift any old embedded fur, hair and other debris and dirt.
4. Use a DIY Solution — You can use a DIY carpet cleaner solution on your carpets. Before using the DIY solution all over your stair carpet, be sure to spot test it on a small part of your carpet first. You’ll want to make sure it doesn’t stain the carpet on your stairs. The cleaning solution you buy from the store can easily cost you about $20-$30. You can make your own carpet shampoo at home, according to Happy Money Saver, with 2 tablespoons of laundry detergent, 1 scoop or about 3 tablespoons of a stain remover like OxiClean, ¼ cup of an oxygen base cleaner like LA’s Totally Awesome, 1 teaspoon of fabric softener and a gallon of hot water.
5. Dry the Stairs — After shampooing with carpet shampoo using the homemade solution on your carpets, allow your stairs to completely dry. You’ll need to do a final vacuum next, but you don’t want to do that while it’s still wet. Remind anyone else in your home to stay off the carpeted stairs until they dry so they don’t get more dirt on the carpet and disturb the drying process.
6. Vacuum One More Time — Finally, you’ll want to do one last vacuum for good measure. Once the stairs are dry, you’ll find that the carpet still may not be as squeaky clean as you like. Vacuuming one more time will ensure you’ve finally picked up all the dirt and debris from your carpet. You can also use a lint cleaner to help remove any other hair, fur or lint that came up during this final step in the cleaning process.
7. How Often Should I Clean the Carpet? — Cleaning the carpet is easy once you break it down into actionable steps. However, it is still quite a labor-intensive chore. That being said, it’s certainly not a task you need to do every day. General vacuuming can be done weekly. Shampooing can be done on a quarterly basis. Deep cleaning such as all of these steps plus additional steaming can be done once or twice a year. Use any of our best pet hair removers to help clean not only your stair carpet but remove hair from your clothing and other furniture at home.
Shop Our Best Pet Hair Removers
Now that you know how to clean your stair carpet, you’ll have a much cleaner and fresher home. Uproot Clean makes it easy to remove excess pet hair and lint from not only your stair carpet but also rugs, furniture, clothing and more. Take a look at our Uproot Cleaner Pro™ to get your portable lint and pet hair remover brush today.
