Removing furniture before cleaning your carpets ensures that your carpets can be cleaned quickly, easily, and thoroughly. Of course, this is hardly convenient, and you’ll want to put that furniture back as soon as possible. However, if you put it back too soon you can risk water damage to your furniture, rusting of metal parts, and make the denting on your carpet worse.
How Long After Carpet Cleaning to Put Furniture Back?
You should not move furniture back after carpet cleaning until your carpet is completely dry. The typical rule of thumb is to wait 24 hours, but the length of time may vary depending upon the thickness of your carpet, the method used to clean it, and environmental factors. Some carpets may be dry in as little as 6-10 hours.
The method used to clean your carpet – hot water extraction, steam cleaning, dry cleaning – may have a significant impact on the dry time; the more water is added to your carpet, the longer the time to dry. For this reason, you may wish to use dry cleaning methods if it is important that you are able to quickly walk on your carpet.
You may be able to reduce the dry time and get furniture back on your carpet quicker by using dehumidifiers or fans in the room that has had professional carpet cleaning. Both these methods reduce the time to dry wet carpet dry quicker (humidifiers reduce humidity, fans increase air flow which aids evaporation).
Failure to adhere to these guidelines can lead to damage to your furniture legs. The dampness can damage wood parts and cause metal parts to rust, leading to further rust stains on your carpet and wood stains on your furniture.
How to Protect Furniture From a Wet Carpet
If you really must move furniture back into your room quickly after a professional carpet cleaning, you can do so by putting something underneath the furniture so that it is not in direct contact with the carpet.
Waterproof protectors are available on Amazon and in home stores, but you can just as easily make do with pieces of polystyrene or something similar. Putting something on top of the carpet may increase drying time for that part of the carpet.
p.s. Need some new furniture to go with your clean carpets? Check out our sustainable furniture guide for some ideas.
How Long After Carpet Cleaning Can You Walk On The Carpet?
If your carpet has just been professionally cleaned it is best to walk across it as few times as possible before it has dried (up to 24 hours). At a minimum, you should wait at least 30 minutes before walking across the carpet after it has been cleaned, and then only with clean white socks so that colors do not transfer to the carpet.
Walking on carpet before it is completely dry can lead to dirt and odors entering deeply into the carpet fibers, which will reverse the work done while cleaning it and make it harder to clean the next time.
James is a copywriter based in the UK. He writes on sustainability, finance, tech, and anything else that interests him. He likes tea.
