If you are going to clean your carpets without the help of a professional carpet cleaner, there are some things that you should know.

According to the Carpet and Rug Institute, carpets should be thoroughly cleaned every 12 to 18 months. This means that in order to remove deep dirt and stains, the carpet should be dry or wet-extraction shampooed. However, before this is done, to keep a carpet clean in the interim, it should be vacuumed daily.

When it's time to clean your carpet, check the label and see what the manufacturer recommends. You can rent the necessary equipment to do it yourself, but you want to make sure that you are renting the right equipment.

If you have a carpet that is made of synthetic fibers, you can choose any cleaning method recommended by the manufacturer. The cleaning solutions that you use should contain stain resistant ingredients sold for synthetic carpets. You should never use soap or any kind of detergent. There are five different cleaning methods that can be used including the Bonnet Method that is a machine similar to a floor buffer with a spinning pad that removes dirt. The Polymer Compound Method is a saturated compound of detergents and solvents that are brushed onto a rug with a machine and then vacuumed. The dry foam extraction method uses a dry foam cleaning solution that is applied to a rug using a machine with reel-type brushes and a wet vacuum. The hot water extraction method is better known as steam cleaning, which is a pressurized cleaning method, and the rotary shampoo method is similar to the Bonnet method.

If you are going to clean your carpet yourself, you will save money. Just remember to pre-vacuum the carpet to remove as much dirt as possible and use only what is recommended by the manufacturer to clean the carpet.