Seriously, I rented a carpet cleaner for $30 hoping it would do a decent job with ease. Let me tell you, my fingers hurt and came close to blistering from having to hold the trigger down the ENTIRE TIME, and moving the machine around is a work out.
Worst part: it didn't do a good job!
The photo above was my carpet in our rental apartment after living there a year. It was brand new when we moved in. They were thrashed from my 3 children who always had to eat the messiest food on the carpet. Here's my method from getting carpets cleaned:
Supplies:
- Bowl
- Hot water
- Dish soap
- Scrub brush
- White towel (I don't know if colored towels will spread their colors onto carpet)
Procedure:
1. Locate test subject. (Nasty stain that occurred sometime in the last few months)
2. Fill bowl with HOT water, add a small squirt of dish soap (Seriously, like one small squirt per 2 cups water).
3. Scrub stained area up and down, then side to side.
4. Use towel to scrub off excess moisture
5. Allow spot to dry. Admire the results. Resist urge to clean entire carpet.
Seriously. The hardest part of this method, besides some simple scrubbing, is keeping enough white towels in stock to do the entire floor at once. I had to do the living room floor in 4 days.