5 Easy Ways to Clean a Carpet Without a Vacuum Cleaner

Looking for ways to clean dirt and debris off your carpet?

If you feel like calling a professional carpet cleaner and buying a vacuum are money and time consuming, you are probably right.

These are the not-so-glamorous parts of owning a carpet:

• Rug areas collect a lot of dirt
• If you do not have a vacuum, you need to be creative with your spot cleaning

So, if you’re curious about how to clean your carpet without a vacuum, you’ll enjoy my article.

Let’s do this!

Please Note

The procedures and steps enumerated below are for spot cleaning and removing physical dirt for carpets. If you are planning to soak or wash your carpet thoroughly, I recommend removing all material debris that you can pick up with your hands.

Or you can also follow the steps listed below first so you will not collect debris in your washing machine or clog your drains with them.

Prepare for the Materials

Professional carpet cleaners would still use the basics when it comes to cleaning carpets.

Why?

Because the best ways to remove dirt and debris is still by manually taking them out.

Here is a list of the material you should prepare to apply our 5 methods.

The Dry-Cleaning Methods

You don’t necessarily need to soak your carpet to clean it. In this section, I’ll show you how to do this using simple materials.

Method 1: Baking Soda And Carpet Sweeper

For this method, you’ll need:

Step 1
Deodorize using fine powder or baking soda on your rugs.
Simply sprinkle the powder on the carpet and let it sit for an hour.

Step 2

Sweep or shake off the powder, small debris, and dust from the carpet.

Step 3
Use the carpet sweeper to weed out more dust.

Step 4
Beat the carpet off

Use a racket or paddle to beat other foreign particles off the carpet.
I advise doing this outside to make sure the dust does not only bounce off and return to the rug.
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Method 2: Packaging Tape Or Lint Roller

There is another effective way to keep your carpets and area rugs clean. And this method covers the use of packaging tape or a lint roller.

Quite surprising.

Step 1
First, shake the carpet off outside to eliminate loose dirt.

Step 2
Stick packaging tape or glide the lint roller over fine carpets and area rugs

Step 3
Make sure that the tape and roller stick as much dirt and debris on them as possible. I recommend to focus on spots with the most visible dirt and work your way from there.

Step 4
Replace the tape or use a new sheet of the roller when it gets full of hair, fur, or other elements

Step 5
Finish off by brushing out the remaining dirt.

For the last dry cleaning method, I’ll go back to some fundamentals.

Method 3: Broom and Dustpan Cleaning

Before vacuum cleaners, the broom and the dustpan were used as cleaning equipment.

Today, they are still an old fashion way to clean a home.

To apply this method, you should use a broom that hasn’t hard bristles. Otherwise, it may damage your carpet.

So, to proceed, you have to:

Step 1
Shake off the broom to remove retained dirt.

Step 2
Sweep carpet area by moving through one direction only

Step 3
Keep a dustpan on stand by at the end of a carpet corner

Step 4
Keep sweeping in one direction (towards the dustpan) and scoop off all dirt collected.

Now, let’s discover the 2 wet cleaning methods to deodorize your carpet (without the use of a vacuum).

The Wet-Cleaning Methods

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Method 4: Steam Mopping

To keep your carpet in top condition, there is a good way to sanitize and deodorize your carpet: steam mopping.

Steam mopping allows you to deep clean a carpet. Indeed,  steam mop kills dust mites, pathogens, and 99% of bacteria and germs thanks to steam power. Besides, steam mop doesn’t involve the use of chemicals: you just need water.

Therefore, the steam mop is an excellent way to clean a carpet.

Be cautious however when gliding the steamer as extreme heat may damage your carpet.

To do so:

Step 1
Fill your steam mop with water.

Step 2
Plug it in and wait for it to heat up and release steam

Step 3
Attach a plastic clip on the mop head.
This way, the steam is evenly spread out the diminishing threat of heat damaging the carpet.

Step 4
Glide away

Learn more: How to steam clean your carpet

The next method is more aggressive since it involves washing your whole carpet.

Method 5: Washing Your Carpets

If you want to deep clean the carpets, you have to wash them.

And for this, you don’t necessarily need a vacuum for carpet or a carpet cleaner.

But before washing, I recommend checking for labels on the carpet see instructions to determine proper cleaning instructions.

Step 1
First, lightly brush or sweep off large particles of dirt.​​​​

Step 2
Then spot clean stains
This step depends on the type of stains you want to clean.

For blood, urine, or saliva:

• Mix 1-part hydrogen peroxide with 5 parts of warm water.
• Then spot clean with a brush or sponge mop

For Wine, beer, or alcohol stains:

• Pour club soda into a rag and dab on the affected area.

For food stains:

• • Mix dish detergent and water on a bowl then apply on the stained part of the carpet.
  • Scrub it well
  • You can also use a homemade carpet cleaner. For a homemade solution, you can mix baking soda and white vinegar. Dilute vinegar properly so as not to ruin the fabric of your carpet.

Place it in a spray bottle

• Spray on the affected area and dry off with towels.

Step 3
If you need to soak small to medium-sized rugs, fill a tub or a big basin with water and soap

Step 4
Soak and manually wash the rug in the tab. Rinse it well.

Step 5
Hang the wet carpet or rug outside and let it dry overnight or for the rest of the day.

So, these are my 5 methods to clean and deodorize rug areas without investing in an (expensive) cleaning machine.

Now, I’ll share my tips and warning.

Warning

• Use brushes and carpet sweepers properly. The first time I got my carpet sweeter, I was excited. But I misused it and ended up pulling fibers off my furry carpet. The bottom line: Use brooms with bristles and materials that work best with your carpet fabric.
• You should soak big floor carpets with full attention.If you don’t, your carpet will stink. You wouldn’t want a stinky rug. So, soap it. Rinse it. Then make sure it dries completely before putting it back on the floor.
• Don’t over-dry your carpet or brush it too much.Ever heard of static effect?This is when your carpet becomes too dry or too charged. This leads the fibers to stick up. And next thing you know…Everything will stick to it.

Now I Would Like To Hear From You…

So this is my top 5 go-to methods to keeping my carpets clean without the use of a vacuum cleaner.

These are the easy ways to keep your carpet in top shape.

Now I would like to hear from you:

• Which one are you going to try first?
• Which one for the method you think will work best for your rugs?

Drop your carpet cleaning experience at the comments section below.