Archive for Rug Cleaning

How Often Should I Have My Carpets Professionally Cleaned?

As a homeowner you have made a significant investment in your carpeting, furnishings, and area rugs. These are the pieces that define your style and make your house a home. It is important to take care of your investment with regular professional cleanings. But how often does it make sense to have cleanings completed? The answer varies depending on your household and its inhabitants.

Here is what you need to consider when it comes to having your carpet, rugs and upholstery cleaned.

The Size of your Household

If you have a houseful of family who are regularly using the furniture and walking on the carpets and rugs, then you certainly want to get a professional cleaning once a year. The more wear and tear and use you get out of your house, the more important it is to stay on top of deep cleanings to prevent debris from building up, deep stains from setting in, or matting of the carpet fibers.

If you have a one- to two-person household, you can mostly get away with cleanings every 18 months.

If You Have Children

It is no secret that children, no matter their age, can be messy. Kids have a way of trailing in crumbs, tracking in dirt, spilling drinks or worse. This is not confined to toddlers. Kiddos, as much as we adore them, are hard on furnishings. If you have multiple children in your home, we suggest cleaning your carpets, rugs and furnishings every 6 months which will greatly extend their life expectancy and look.

Do You Have Pets?

What’s messier than children? Pets. While this might not be true 100 percent of the time and, even if you are diligent with cleaning daily as a pet owner, pets shed, track in grass and dirt from outside and even have an occasional accident. Pet owners should plan to professionally clean their furniture, carpets and rugs biannually.

And if you are lucky enough to have a bustling house of kids and pets then you should consider a quarterly cleaning schedule.

Highly Trafficked Areas

Certain areas of your home tend to receive more foot traffic than others. This holds true for certain pieces of furniture as well. The more traffic a room or item receives, the more important it is to give it the attention it needs. We recommend that you hit the heavy areas, such as your living room, master bedroom, family room, and basement recreation room more often. Those rooms where your family spends most of their time could be cleaned every 6 months with a 12-month cycle for the less frequented areas.

The Environment

Where you live matters. In Saint Louis we have weather extremes from hot and humid summers to cold and icy winters. If you live in a household where you wear shoes, then it is very important to stay on top of your annual cleanings to assure that you extend the life and look of your carpets, rugs and furniture.

Allergy and Asthma Sufferers?

If you or a member of your household suffers from chronic allergies of asthma it is important to vacuum with a HEPA filter vacuum each day and to have your carpets and rugs cleaned once a year at a minimum. This will greatly reduce the possibility of mold and dust in the fibers which can cause those with breathing problems to suffer more than needed.

No matter how large your household, or how many furry friends you have, it is important to get a professional cleaning for all your carpets, rugs and upholstered furniture annually if you want to make sure that your home is always looking its best. Contact Sams to schedule your next cleaning, or set up a recurring cleaning schedule.

Enjoy this article? Pass it on!

How to Keep Your Home Office Clean

In March 2020, many office workers throughout the St. Louis area became remote workers seemingly overnight. Many of us set up makeshift office spaces to accommodate our temporary arrangement, planning to be back in the office in the weeks ahead.

Fast forward a year and many of us are still working from home with plans to continue on a permanent or hybrid basis. If you’re working from home, you likely spend more waking time in your home office than you do in any other room in your house. Keeping it clean and sanitized should be a priority for both your physical and mental health.

Let’s explore three actions you can take today to instantly improve quality of life and work/life balance with your home office.

Declutter and Dedicate Space

If your home office is in a multi-purpose room, it’s important that each purpose have its own dedicated space. While there’s been a good deal of debate over the years, studies have now shown that clutter leads to lost time and can impact our cognition, emotions, behavior, decision-making, and relationships.

Aside from the psychological impacts, it’s simply impossible to keep a space clean without keeping it tidy. Go through your workspace and look for items that you don’t need to do your job. If there’s no reason for the item to be in the space, remove it. A simple first step to keeping your home office clean is reducing the number of items that need to be cleaned or moved to do the job.

Set Aside Time for Cleaning

With all the use your home office is getting, you may find that your normal cadence for house cleaning simply isn’t enough to keep your office space clean, sanitized, and tidy. Dedicating just 15 minutes a day a few times per week, to micro-cleanings can make all the difference. This time could be used for a quick run of the vacuum on carpets and furniture, dusting surfaces and decorations, or wiping down light switches and computer components. However you choose to use it, scheduling time to clean a little bit of your home office at a time will make upkeep more manageable.

If you’re spending less time in your commute, reprioritizing some of that time for office cleaning will of a long way toward creating a cleaner work environment without it becoming a major project.

Commit to Regular Professional Carpet, Rug, and Upholstery Cleaning

The single biggest factor that determines how frequently your carpets need to be cleaned is traffic. If you’re up and down and in and out of your home office several times throughout the day, your carpet could be getting dirty without you even realizing it. Factor in accidental spills while eating and drinking at your desk, and you can understand why having your carpet cleaned on a regular basis by the Sams team can make a big difference in its life and longevity.

You don’t have to have all the carpet in your house cleaned every time we come. If you typically have your carpets cleaned annually, you could identify three rooms that might need a six-month touchup each year in between your regular cleanings. Sams offers specials for multi-room cleanings that you can take advantage of.

Beyond carpets, the Sams team can also help with the furnishings and décor in your home office. We offer area rug cleaning services with pickup and delivery. If you have a soft chair or couch you use for breaks or reading through proposals and projects, our team has the talent and tools to keep your upholstered furniture clean and looking its best as well.

There are upsides and downsides to working from home. But taking a proactive approach to keeping your home office clean and tidy will allow you to begin each day prepared to do your best work.

Enjoy this article? Pass it on!

How to Get Your House Looking Its Best Before the Holidays

Family is gathered once again for the holidays. The house is filled with the smells of delicious family favorite foods on the table. There’s football on the TV in the living room. Grandma and Grandpa talk, and everyone listens to stories of holiday traditions from their childhood. It sounds so peaceful and idyllic, doesn’t it?

I suppose it does if your only responsibility is to show up with a smile. But if you’re the one responsible for preparing the meal, buying presents, and cleaning the house so that everyone else can bask in the holiday magic, it probably sounds exhausting.

The holiday season can already be a stressful time with responsibilities that go above and beyond the usual. The idea of making your entire house shine to provide a perfect canvas for the holidays to be painted on can be downright overwhelming.

In this blog post, we’re going to provide five tips for getting the most out of the time you have available to clean for the holidays.

Tip #1: Have Your Carpets, Area Rugs, Tile Flooring and Upholstery Professionally Cleaned Before the Holidays

Nothing quite matches the “Wow” factor of professionally cleaned floors and upholstery, especially if it’s been a while since the last time it was done. With professional help focused on your floors, you’ll be able to direct your attention elsewhere knowing one of the biggest projects is taken care of.

The Sams team is here to get your carpets, area rugs, tile flooring, and upholstery looking as fresh as possible for your guests this holiday season.  We are only a click or phone call away to get your scheduled.

Tip #2: Repair Damaged Carpet and Remove Stains

Many people don’t realize it, but replacement isn’t your only option for overcoming stained or damaged carpet.  In addition to carpet cleaning, Sams can also repair damaged carpet and remove stubborn stains. We’ve seen customers amazed at our technicians’ ability to repair seams, burns, and snags. We’ve taken on spots and stains that customers have all but given up on, and gotten the carpet looking as good as new.

We can help with damaged or stained carpet before the holidays, but make sure you contact us early to ensure availability.

Tip #3: Break Up the Work into Smaller Tasks

There is an undeniable satisfaction that comes with starting and finishing a job all in the same day. But that can also be overwhelming, and lead to that big job being put on the backburner until it’s an emergency.

Instead, make a list of all the cleaning tasks you need to get done and prioritize them. As breaks arrive in your busy holiday schedule, pull out the list and pick an item or two to check off. Tackling your holiday cleaning activities in 30-, 60-, or 90-minute chunks can make the process way more manageable and help ensure it actually gets done.

Tip #4: Focus Your Attention Where it Matters Most

Of course, in a perfect world, you’d have time to scrub the entire house top to bottom to prepare for visitors. But unless any of them will be overnight guests, most of your holiday company will only see a portion of your home. So while we don’t encourage the “sweep and hide” method long term, the bulk of your attention should be on the parts of your home that will receive the most traffic: kitchen and dining room, main living area, and any nearby bathrooms. Bedroom and closet doors can be closed if need be.

Tip #5: Hire a Cleaning Company

Sometimes even these tips aren’t enough. That’s ok. Research local cleaning companies and find someone to help prepare your house for the holidays. Read reviews online to make sure you’re hiring someone you can trust. Better yet, ask close family and friends for a referral.  Get an estimate up front to avoid unexpected charges. Even if ongoing cleaning services aren’t in your budget, there’s no better time than the holidays to treat yourself to some much-needed one-time support.

If you’re preparing for visitors this holiday season, make Sams your first call. We’ll take on your flooring and upholstery, two of your biggest holiday house cleaning projects, so you can enjoy the season and time with family.

Enjoy this article? Pass it on!

Ho Ho Ho, Don’t Let Your Area Go

Area rugs can pull together a room’s entire atmosphere, and you’ll find them decorating the most beloved, and the most high-traffic rooms of your house. During the holidays, those area rugs will probably experience even more traffic than usual, and before you know it your beautiful rug may be creating a different atmosphere than you were planning for.

Don’t give up on your area rugs—we can save them! You will be surprised what we can do to clean your hand-made and machine-made area rugs.  Whether you just got your rug, or if it has been in your family for years, we treat them with the utmost care.  Your rugs can keep looking refreshed and revitalized for many more holidays.

FrenchTown Rug Cleaning Co., a division of Sams Carpet Cleaning & Repairs, is one of the few fine and area rug cleaning companies certified as a Master Rug Cleaner! This is the gold standard in training and certification for Rug Cleaning Professionals, meaning we’re the kind of team you can trust to care for and clean your rugs!

You may want to have your rugs picked up and cleaned to PREPARE for your holiday parties, or you may want to have them picked up and cleaned AFTER to recover from your holiday parties. In either case, we have free pick-up and delivery whether it’s before or after the holidays (minimum charges do apply). We’ll wrap them up until you want to put them down again after the winter months, or right away to help you celebrate.

We understand that area rugs are important, many have history to them (or the amount of time it took to pick them out could have a history of its own). It’s important to keep these treasures clean to have them continue to be beautiful for years. Give us a call today, and let us help you make your home clean and cozy. Learn more about FrenchTown and our services HERE.

 

Enjoy this article? Pass it on!

Your fine rug is an investment. Protect, clean and care for it.

1988 Château Lafite Rothschild. A Gulfstream Six airplane. Literally any floating vessel. Your fine rug.

Sure, these investments may seem extravagant, but numerous people have spent gazillions on each one. Imagine spending $14,000 on a bottle of wine that ended up being, and we’re quoting here from the Susie and Peter Masters of Wine Website, “Frankly disappointing.”

You, however, are a savvy investor. You pick your spots, and then you go for it. The next thing you know, you’re having a Cabernet Sauvignon party to show off your new Karastan Rug.
“The Karastan is an heirloom!” you tell your hair stylist.
“We will pass the Karastan to our children!” you gush to the cashier in the grocery store.

And you speak the truth: it really is an investment, a physical, beautiful keepsake to pass down through future generations of your family. You can almost picture your grandbabies learning to crawl on it during Sunday dinner at your kids’ house.

Like any investment, however, it needs to be nurtured, cared for, maintained. Because life happens. Dirt happens. Pets happen… sometimes all over your rug. After a while, no amount of blotting, vacuuming or Botox on your part will rescue it.

And that’s where we come in. At FrenchTown Rug Cleaning, a division of Sams Carpet Service, we’ve been about the business of caring for, and in some cases resurrecting, your investment. For decades, we’ve specialized in rejuvenating the finest rugs on earth: Indian, Persian, Turkish… and yes, your Karastan.

We have turned the science of rug cleaning into an art. We inspect everything by hand. We clean everything by hand. We can even provide protection against the not-really-housebroken Yorkie your neighbor brought over to your rug-warming cocktail party.
A rug truly is an investment… an investment in you, and in the future generations who matter to you. They are meant to endure and to bring joy to all who enter your home. We are here to care for that investment and to offer you peace of mind that we will treat it as such.

In order to maintain your rug and ensure it maintains its value, and pristine condition, here is what we at FrenchTown Rug Cleaning will do to restore your investment to its original glory.

DSC_0306 (1)

 

First Things First

  1. Like the start of any journey, the first step is always the simplest, but one of the most critical. We begin by thoroughly inspecting your rug. We will know pretty quickly our dos and don’ts, and what method will work best.
  1. Next we tackle what you can’t see: the ground-in, stuck-to particles that have been quietly robbing your rug of its brilliance. Picture your great grandmother in the old country with her vintage rug beater. Only cube it… and then put it on steroids. That’s our Rug Badger System. This step can remove so much dirt that you didn’t even know was there.
  1. Then we hand-clean your rug, fringes and all, with our unique cleaning technology process. Color and softness are restored in no time. This is a process that we don’t take lightly, a hand cleaning process that makes all the difference!
  1. We dry the rug in a humidity and temperature-controlled environment.
  2. We inspect it again. If it’s not good enough for us, we know it won’t be good enough for you, so we’ll repeat any steps necessary to meet our satisfaction.

And that’s it. You can either pick it up, or have it delivered. Just like that, your rug is restored and ready to be passed along to a loved one, or back to the living room to be enjoyed by all! Give us a call today to learn more or set up your cleaning, 636-949-8229.

Enjoy this article? Pass it on!

Announcing a New Division of Sams Carpet Cleaning & Repairs

Announcing a new division of Sams Carpet Cleaning & Repair – FrenchTown Rug Cleaning Company. Recent company relocation has fostered a state-of-the-art atmosphere by adding a new element of technology to our rug cleaning process. The addition of facility and equipment will provide our rug cleaning technicians the most up-to-date process to clean and preserve customer rug investments. With this in mind, Jeff Sams, President, decided to add a new subsidiary company and dedicated staff to concentrate on cleaning all types of machine and hand-made rugs. As we progress in this new adventure, we will keep you abreast of our progress and improvements.

Enjoy this article? Pass it on!