Getting your carpets cleaned is a great way to improve your homes appearance, and will help get rid of unwanted odors as well. Whether cleaning the carpets yourself or hiring a professional to do it, there are a few steps you should take before the cleaning begins to make the job a little easier.

First of all, you should vacuum your carpet. By removing as much dirt as possible before the cleaning, the carpet cleaner can focus on the dirt found deep down in the carpet.

Next you should clean your baseboards. This doesn’t make cleaning your carpet any easier, but it will help keep your carpets from getting dirty as fast because of dirt and dust coming off the dirty baseboards.

After cleaning the baseboards, it’s time to remove any fragile items such as knick knacks, expensive vases, collectibles,and any other items that are breakable.

You also want to put away any valuable items if you’re hiring a professional carpet cleaning service. Any time you invite strangers into your home, you put yourself at risk of theft.

If you going to get a thorough, wall-to-wall cleaning, you’ll need to move your furniture. This will likely require that you store it somewhere out of the way so you won’t have to keep moving it around. The carpet cleaning service may do this for you, but it’s possible you can save some money by doing it yourself.

You should also make sure to get smaller items off the floor as well. If you have long curtains, drapes, or blinds that touch the carpet,make sure they are lifted out of the way as well.

Lastly, make a note of any problem areas so that you can let your carpet cleaning person know about them. That way he can give those areas a little more attention to make sure they get the cleaning they need.