Tools you need


Rubber gloves
Vacuum cleaner with attachments
Dishwashing liquid and water
Soft cloth


The Quick Fix

1. De-Hairing is your first priority when you have pets. Don't waste your time with a lint roller. It's just not effective for  large areas like this and really expensive. Instead, get a pair of clean rubber dishwashing gloves. Run your hands over the arms, seat, and back of the furniture, gathering and tossing the hair as it balls up. For water-safe upholstery (which doesn't change or transfer color when blotted with a damp cloth in a hidden spot), wet the gloves are better for this job.

2. Even if you have a no-food-on-the-sofa rule, dust and debris somehow make their way into seat crevices. The most effective tool for this problem is — no surprise — your vacuum cleaner with the upholstery attachment. Run it over the cushions, top to bottom, left to right, then behind and underneath them with the crevice tool (pocketing any spare change, of course). Or if you don't have an attachment you can shake out or brush crumbs onto the floor and vacuum them up there.

3. Spot-clean stains. The downside to debris-free furniture: finding a spill or mark you didn't know was there. For water-safe fabrics, squirt a bit of mild dishwashing liquid into a cup of water, and mix up a lot of suds. Dip a clean cloth into just the suds, and dab at the stain until it's gone; rinse the cloth, wring well, and blot out any soap when done.

 

Make It Easier Next Time

•Apply a static-eliminating spray, like Static Guard, to fabrics to make pet hair and dust easier to remove.
•Try 3M's Scotch Fur Fighter ($10) with disposable sheets that grip and remove embedded hair from fabrics.
•Cover the arms and seats of the sofa or frequently used chairs with a washable throw to help keep the upholstery itself cleaner.
•Stash an absorbent microfiber cloth in a nearby drawer to soak up spills before they stain
Most of these can me found any cleaning outlet in Boise.

There are many techniques in cleaning carpets. Here are a few things you can do between regular cleanings to maximize the life of your carpet.

Pre-clean

Pre-cleaning involves the simplest of activities like sweeping up dirt that is caught in the threads of your carpet. A broom with hard bristles will help make the nap stand in your carpet and loosen any embedded dirt. Simple sweeping will show noticeable improvement in the appearance of the carpet and perhaps will help you go a little longer between cleanings.

Neutralize

Observe any foul smell from your carpet. Cleaning carpet stain methods aren't always about washing or sweeping. Another thing to clean up is the air around the carpet. Some invisible stains let off an odor that can be quite unpleasant so although your carpet looks pristine, its smell may say otherwise.

To neutralize the smell, use cornmeal. Get some Borax and mix it with some cornmeal. Borax is a kind of salt that is used in detergents and cosmetics. You can sprinkle this mix over the carpet and let it be for an hour. It will absorb the smell in and around the carpet in that time and you can vacuum up the mixture afterwards.

Speed

The most important thing with spills on carpets is that you do something about it immediately. You don't want to end up cleaning carpet stain areas that have hardened and stand to cause damage. So as soon as a spill happens, make sure to get a few paper towels and perhaps some warm water to blot and clean it up immediately. Blot the area where the spill has occurred from the outside of the spill and towards the center. Do not let the spill dry especially if the substance spilled is something sticky or something that will cause odors to form.

Vacuum

Give the carpet a good once over with a vacuum cleaner. You might be surprised to find out that there are areas that were not stained to begin with. Sometimes, dust can accumulate in one area quite quickly and really just needs to be swept or vacuumed away. Use a broom to loosen some of the embedded dirt and then vacuum afterwards.