Your carpet is most probably the largest component of your living space. Being the first thing that meets the eye any time you get into the house, you'd want to maintain your carpet's pristine look for the longest time. Besides, you'd not want it to harbour dust and stench. Remember, your carpet might have cost you a fortune to purchase and getting the most life out of it is only fair.  

Unlike clothes that are cleaned every time they're worn, cleaning carpets too regularly is uneconomical. A good number of carpet cleaners recommend that a carpet should be cleaned after every after every 12 to 18 months. However, this stipulation should only serve as a loose guideline while the real factors that determine the frequency of your carpet cleaning patterns lie around you. So just how often should you clean your carpet? Here are considerations you need to make while settling on the frequency:

How much traffic does your carpet get?

The number of people that move in and out of your house is a sure determinant of how frequent your carpet gets dirty and dusty. Obviously, a family of ten will need to have the carpet cleaned more often than a family of two. A large household may require professional carpet cleaning after 9 months while a small family may go for over one and a half years between carpet cleanings. Do you have kids around? Children running around the house may necessitate frequent carpet cleanings for their hygiene's sake. As well, you never know what they bring with them from outside.

Do you have pets?

If you have indoor pets, you may not escape cleaning your carpet after every 6 to 12 months. It is common for pets to drop fur and dander on your carpet fibres, which are not too safe for kids crawling on the same carpet. Coffee spillages resulting from pet accidents are at times inevitable. If you have indoor pets, hiring a professional carpet cleaner every six months is a perfect hygienic practice.

Do you allow people to wear shoes indoors?

Shoes carry grit particles that cause the carpet to wear off prematurely, especially if they are not dusted out of the carpet for quite some time. While courtesy dictates that you should remove shoes when stepping into a carpet, some settings allow it and controlling visitors is tricky. In this regard, dust your carpet regularly and clean it after every six months.

Every homeowner has different carpet usage habits, and so are the cleaning patterns. Cleaning your carpet too often might wear it off sooner than its life span while keeping it unclean for too long is unhygienic.