How to Prepare Your Home Before We Arrive

You do not need to do very much before a carpet cleaning appointment. But the small amount you do makes a genuine difference, both to how long the job takes and to how good the result is. None of this is complicated, and none of it involves cleaning anything.

Clear the floor of small things

This is the single most useful thing you can do. Toys, shoes, laundry baskets, magazines, pet bowls, bins, floor cushions and anything else sitting loose on the carpet is easier for you to move than for us to work around. Cables and phone chargers are worth unplugging and lifting out of the way as well.

Every small object left on the floor is either something we have to move or something we have to clean around, and cleaning around things is how you end up with untouched patches. If you have small mats or runners sitting on top of the carpet, lift those too, unless you want them cleaned as well.

Furniture, and what actually gets moved

There is a lot of confusion about this, so here is how we work. We move light furniture as part of the job. Dining chairs, coffee tables, side tables, ottomans, small bookcases if they are not full, and similar items.

We do not move heavy, fragile or awkward items, and this is not us being unhelpful. Beds with drawers underneath, wardrobes, pianos, full bookcases, china cabinets, entertainment units with televisions and electronics connected, aquariums and antique furniture all fall into that category. There is real risk in moving those things, both to the item and to the floor, and in some cases to whoever is doing the lifting.

For anything we cannot move, we clean carefully up to and around it. In most homes the carpet under a wardrobe or a heavy cabinet has barely been walked on anyway, so leaving it is rarely the problem people expect. If you particularly want a heavy item moved, empty it beforehand and tell us when you book so we can plan the time.

Sort out parking before the day

This matters more for carpet cleaning than for most trades. Where access allows, we use a truck-mounted system that runs from the van, so how close the van can get to your door directly affects what equipment we can use.

If you are on a narrow terrace street, in a permit zone, or somewhere parking disappears by mid morning, tell us in advance. If you have a driveway we can use, that is ideal. We would much rather know beforehand than spend the first twenty minutes of your appointment circling the block.

If you are in an apartment

Apartment buildings usually need a little more organising, and it is worth doing a few days ahead. Check whether your building requires contractors to book the lift or use a service lift. Find out whether the building manager needs notice, and whether there are restricted hours for work in common areas.

Let us know about visitor parking, loading zones and how to get through security doors. Also tell us which floor you are on and whether there is lift access, because that determines what equipment we bring in.

Plan for pets and children

Equipment is noisy, doors are often propped open and hoses run through the house. Most pets find the whole thing unsettling, and an open front door is an obvious risk.

The simplest arrangement is to keep pets in a room we are not cleaning, or out of the house entirely for a few hours. Same thinking applies to small children, mostly because of trailing hoses and damp floors.

Tell us about the stains

This is the part people most often skip, and it is genuinely useful information. If you know what caused a mark, tell us. Coffee, red wine, pet accident, cooking oil and ink all respond to different treatments.

It also helps enormously to know how old a stain is and whether anything has already been used on it. If a supermarket spot remover has been applied, say so. It changes what we do, and it is far better known upfront than discovered halfway through.

There is no judgement in any of this. We just work better with the information.

What you do not need to do

A few things are worth actively leaving alone. You do not need to vacuum. Thorough vacuuming is part of our process, and we do it with equipment suited to the job. If you want to run a vacuum over it anyway, that is fine and it does no harm.

You do not need to pre-treat stains, and we would prefer you did not. Scrubbing a mark before we arrive can permanently distort the carpet fibre, and leftover product residue interferes with the treatments we would otherwise use. You certainly do not need to clean the carpet before the carpet cleaner arrives, which people apologise for far more often than you would think.

Access on the day

Somebody needs to let us in and be there at the start so we can walk through the property together and agree what is being done. If that is not possible, arrangements can usually be made, but it needs to be sorted beforehand rather than on the morning.

Doors will be propped open while hoses run through, so if security or a nervous pet is a concern, mention it and we will work around it. We also need access to power and water, which is straightforward in most homes but worth checking for garages, granny flats and outbuildings.

A short checklist

If you want the version to run through the night before, this is it.

• Small items, toys, shoes and bins off the carpet
• Cables and chargers unplugged and lifted clear
• Small rugs and mats taken up
• Fragile or valuable items moved somewhere safe
• Parking sorted, or the situation explained to us
• Lift and building access booked if you are in an apartment
• A plan for pets and small children
• A note of any stains and what caused them

After we finish

The preparation that matters most actually happens at the end. Leave furniture off the carpet until it is properly dry. Metal feet can mark damp carpet and timber can leach colour into it, and both are avoidable.

Keep air moving through the house rather than closing it up when you leave. Walk in clean socks or bare feet rather than shoes for the first few hours, and take care where damp carpet meets tile or floorboards, because it can be slippery.

We will go through all of this with you before we leave, and give you drying advice specific to your property rather than a generic instruction.

How we approach every job →