I am a carpet cleaner, but I must confess that I do not always have the cleanest carpet in my own home.

As a matter of fact, a standing joke that I usually make to placate my guests who know that I am a carpet cleaner, and arrive when our carpet looks like it needs some attention is: "We clean carpet in just about every other home in Utah, except this one."

But I do find great joy and satisfaction in cleaning the carpet in our home.

Over the years, I have developed several habits that have helped me to achieve this.

Since I clean my own carpet, I can use any chemical, material or procedure I choose, and in fact, do this to test out and experiment with different carpet cleaning and upholstery cleaning variables, about which I am continually reading and learning.

We have two types of carpet in our home and so, some of the things we have determined by experimentation that we now do habitually, are:

1. Always use the deep steam cleaning method for really efficient removal of soiling from the carpet. Only use the dry chemical method for periodical light maintenance. Deep steam cleaning is particularly good for cleaning those heavily soiled traffic lanes and entrance ways that gets soiled fastest.

2. Use the most effective solvents available. New cleaning chemicals are constantly being brought to the market. It is important to check the trade journals every now and then to see what is being offered, and determine how they could help in your particular situation.

3. Always try to use those solvents and emulsifiers that are truly "soap-free". When I first started to clean carpet, I would select the most aggressive chemicals I could find, in order to take out the soiling quickly and make the carpet look really good in short shrift. I soon found out that these chemicals had a very high pH, and needed to be neutralized with an acid (low pH) rinse and washed out of he carpet completely, or else they could be just a "dirt magnet" that would cause rapid re-soiling and leave the carpet looking dirtier than before.

4. Make sure the cleaning water temperature is hot enough to get the soils on the carpet into solution, quickly. The hotter the water the better the cleaning action, but try not to have the water temperature at the surface of the carpet to be above 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. If there are spots and stains on the carpet, try to determine what caused them, before attempting to use spot or stain removers.Remember that there is no universal solvent that will remove 100% of your stains. If you run into problems, call a carpet cleaning professional.

It is fun to check out all of this at home, and practically, it helps to keep me sharp and confident about my cleaning capabilities.