My kids are very hard on our carpets. Even with rules like no food outside the kitchen somehow chocolate pudding, maple syrup, and ketchup have all been embedded in carpets throughout the house. That, combined with puppy pee and poop had me out shopping for a solution better than our current upright carpet steam cleaner. The steam vacuum cleaner we had worked well enough on refreshing the carpets overall, but I found that tough stains still needed to be scrubbed by hand. Not fun.

I recently shopped for a tool that could better clean tough stains and completely remove urine from carpet. I went to Walmart (because I needed something that day) and I stood in their vacuum aisle for over an hour checking reviews online. Based on my research, prices, and what was currently in stock, I purchased Bissell’s Spot clean Pro Heat Pet. This is a portable cleaner that is amazing!! Urine smells gone. Blood stains gone. And I no longer have the urge to rip out all carpets in our home. They literally look brand new. I even removed paint that had been on the carpeting in the twins room for over a year! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. Even Justin said there wasn’t a chance that paint was coming out. It did!! Here is the amazing little tool that restores carpets and is nicely priced at just under $100 at Walmart. FYI- I am not affiliated with this product or getting compensated in any way. I just like sharing things that work well for my household, so I can help others.

Now keep in mind it doesn’t just work with water alone. For real big stains I used the good stuff. It’s not cheap (almost $20 a jug), but again, it worked!! I used 1 jug for completely cleaning two bedroom floors. It took me 2-3 hours to clean each room by hand. Keep in mind we had serious stains throughout and we were on the verge on ripping out carpets in both of these rooms. I cleaned section by section and refilled with clean water as needed. Don’t skimp on the cleaning fluids or you will be wasting your time! Here is the cleaning product I used (also from Walmart)-

For pet stains I use this cleaner below, which I keep on hand since we have a puppy and he is not 100% housebroken (and apparently my twins aren’t either ????).

For upright vacuums we own three. The upstairs has the most carpeting, so we keep our best vacuum up there- which is a Dyson. Downstairs, in the main area of the house, I keep a vacuum that has a retractable cord. I found that I am more likely to do quick vacuum sessions if the cord retracts on its own. Such a waste of time retracting cords. I bought this vaccum on Amazon for about $100 and it works great!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06XKM8F39/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile

I have come to realize that your vacuum will only work as well as it is maintained. The canister needs to be emptied on a regular basis, or the bag replaced if it uses bags.

Yes, mine needs to be emptied today.

One of the other things that is more often overlooked is the beater bar. This is the thing that turns on the bottom of the vacuum to pick up all the junk. This problem with the beater bar is that hair and string get wrapped around it over time. You need to cut off the string, hair, and carpeting that get wrapped on the beater bar over time. I just cleaned ours about a month ago and you can see how the cycle is starting all over again and string is already collecting on the beater bar.

The beater bar will cease to work if the belt(s) break. Belts are cheap to replace, usually under $10. The key is knowing how to replace them on your vacuum and knowing what kind you need. The good news is that google can help. I couldn’t recall either times mine have broken which belts were needed, but a simple google search told me the belt type, which were then ordered on Amazon. YouTube provided me with a video of how to replace the belts on my specific vacuum. It involved removing 4 small screws so I could access the belts. I know people who have thrown out perfectly good vacuums simply because the belts were broken. Save your money and just replace the belts! It will work like new if it is just a broken belt problem.

When all else fails get rid of the carpets and go with hard floors throughout ????.