1. Rent a carpet cleaner and do it yourself. See if a friend/neighbor needs theirs cleaned as well, and each pay half of the rental fee.

2. Buy a carpet cleaner and do it more often so it doesn't get "really dirty" which often requires a professional to restore it. Even using a steam cleaner made for non-carpeted floors lightly on the heavy traffic areas once or twice a month will help maintain them once they are cleaned, without having to do the whole carpet.

3. In reality, most carpets need to be cleaned once or twice a year. You either budget for the professional or you budget for the appliance to do-it-yourself or a rental unit. It's a lot like owning a car - they require regular maintenance to extend the life, so do quality carpets. Any way you look at it, it requires enough forethought to put the amount required in your budget. It's a lot more expensive to replace them.

-Grainlady

Those are good points. I am looking for advice on any solutions available or something we can make at home or any ways to clean it, though.

You can clean a rug by hand. You do it the same way you spot clean. You can use dishwashing soap (not dishwasher soap) and water and lightly rub it on the rug with a cloth. Be careful about the color of the soap, I would avoid blue or green unless your rug is one of those colors. You can't put this in a machine, but you can use it for hand cleaning.

Don't soak the rug, just use enough to get to the dirt, then rinse with a clean wet cloth.

I had a friend who used Tide and ammonia to clean her rugs.

But really, a one day rental of a rug shampooer and bottle of their cleaner is the way to go.

I found that soap/detergents will leave a residue that attracts dirt quickly.

Vinegar water is great for cleaning carpets and leaves no residue.

I learned the hard way that ammonia will rot carpet backing.

A good strong vacuum cleaner should be used before cleaning the carpet. Dirt from down below will wick back up to the top when carpet becomes damp.

I finally broke down and had carpets steam cleaned and was very pleased. Supposedly they only use water with a softener in it to clean, leaving no residue. Cost was very reasonable. I did request wall-to-wall cleaning and not just cleaning the trails.

Research a good local steam cleaning company that uses truck mounted equipment. Check with friends/neighbors for best in your area.

This post was edited by krissie on Sun, Nov 17, 13 at 17:00

OP is in India, so may not have access to same product brands and services as in US/Canada.

What about using bleach in a carpet cleaner? With lots of open windows naturally... my carpet is just beyond hope.. clean but stained seemingly to the point of no return.

Oxygen bleach is o.k. to clean carpets and put in a carpet cleaner. Clorox and similar liquid bleach will ruin the carpet and machine.

In a washing machine the Clorox liquid bleach is rinsed out, not so in a carpet.

I think you should use a carpet dedicated powder which makes your job easy. Also Vinegar water is effective in carpet cleaning.

Hi, For me the most difficult task in house cleaning is sweeping the carpets. It was very difficult for me to clean the carpets until I started using the lightweight stick vacuum from Canada. It’s easy to use and is also portable. It very well clears all the dust particles!!