Choosing Kitchen Appliances You'll Actually Use

It's very important to let your carpets dry out completely after they are steam cleaned. However, it's also quite inconvenient, and people naturally want their carpets to dry out quickly. Of course, there's nothing you can do to make this happen instantly – but here are just four tips to follow if you want your carpets to be bone-dry as fast as possible.

1. Lower the Humidity

In order for the moisture in your carpet to leave, it needs to evaporate into the surrounding air; in order for the moisture to evaporate, the surrounding air needs to be dryer than the carpet itself. Lowering the interior humidity can let your carpet dry out much faster, so open up your windows, as long as it's dry outside, and make sure your heating is turned up.

2. Keep the Room Clear

You should really resist the temptation to move your furniture back into the room before your carpet dries. Yes, it is annoying to keep it elsewhere, but placing anything over the carpet is going to make the dry process take a lot longer. Additionally, you should avoid walking across the surface of the carpet as much as you can – this will press the dried tops of your carpet's fibers down into the wetter parts.

3. Use Modern Cleaning Machines

You probably don't have your own steam cleaner sitting in the closet, so you'll need to rent one if you want to steam clean your own carpets instead of hiring in a professional. When you're looking at steam cleaners, it can be tempting to simply pick the cheapest option, but this is really something to avoid. In many cases, those cheaper cleaners won't be as powerful, meaning they won't suck up very much of the water in your carpet. They should still provide a proper clean, but you might find that your carpet remains wet for quite some time.

4. Use a Professional Company

If you have a little experience, go ahead and rent one of those more advanced steam cleaners and do the job yourself. If you don't boast any experience, think long and hard about using a professional company. An experienced technician will be able to expertly gauge how much moisture needs to be used during the cleaning of your carpet. If you do the job yourself, you might use too much moisture. That's going to retard the drying process, and it could even cause structural damage if excess water seeps below the underfloor.