When it comes to cleaning your carpets, you really have three choices. Either clean them yourself with your own equipment, get a carpet cleaner rental, or have a professional company come in and do it. Whichever you choose, it is going to cost you something, be it time or money or both. Cleaning your carpets at home yourself can be very time consuming, and you may not be able to get all of the stains out, or even get the really deep down dirt that resides near the bottom of the fibers, near the backing. Plus, it is a lot of hard work, and you will be spending a good amount of time scrubbing your arms off. This hardly seems worth it, unless you really enjoy the work out it gives you.

You can go for a carpet cleaner rental. These are basically steam cleaners and shop vacs you can rent by the day from your local home supply store, such as Home Depot. This is a good choice if you plan to only clean a few times a year, or for special occasions, or if you get a particularly nasty stain on your carpet. The charges aren’t too high, and the machines are readily available. Still, it is a lot of hard work to steam clean or shop vac an entire house, and you will have to move your furniture out of the way and then put it back when the carpet dries. It can take a lot of time to do the whole house, and just like scrubbing it yourself, it is a hard physical workout. If you really want a totally hands-off approach, you can always hire a professional carpet cleaner to do the job for you and do it right.

Professional carpet cleaners are not as expensive as you might think. In fact, many of them run new customer specials or have local coupons in area newspapers and even online if you follow them on a social network such as Twitter or Facebook. You can get really good deals if you have cleaning done during the off seasons, too, such as times that are not around holidays. If you only get your carpet professionally cleaned once or twice a year, this can represent a significant savings over doing it yourself or getting a carpet cleaner rental, especially when you consider that you don’t have to do the work yourself.

Most professional carpet cleaning companies will even move your furniture for you and put it back when they are done. It is really a full service company you’re after, and you can still find great deals on those. So, the next time you are considering cleaning your carpet yourself or getting a carpet cleaner rental, consider hiring a professional cleaning company instead.