DAR hears about food trends
Lisa Whitfield, right, DAR Moseley-Bright Chapter regent, thanks Tammy Kelly, Lenoir County Cooperative Extension director, for speaking to members of the chapter at their April meeting. Kelly gave a brief history of food trends followed by a focus on current topics, such as organic farming, buying local and farm-to-table partnerships with area restaurants. She provided recipes using items in season at the Lenoir County Farmer’s Market and brought recipe samples.
Home Solutions: Keeping Carpet Clean
Regular maintenance of carpeting is essential to its long life, to both maintain the appearance and keep a healthy home environment.
Carpets usually do not wear out but their quality and appearance can decrease due to poor vacuuming and improper cleaning methods.
A “low-tech” way to insure your carpet will stay as clean as possible is by using floor mats or rugs in all entrances. These will absorb and collect dirt before it is tracked onto the carpet. Clean mats frequently by shaking to reduce soil tracking inside the home.
To minimize long-term damage, clean up soils, spills or stains as soon as possible. Small portable carpet/furniture cleaners (like SpotBot) are effective tools. In most cases, hot water extraction removes soil and stains. However, excessive use of cleaning agents will cause a chemical build up, which can attract more dirt.
Your carpet supplier can provide detailed descriptions of proper maintenance procedures for all types of carpet, including: vacuuming, extraction, spotting, repairs and others.
Using green label cleaning products will help ensure your family’s health and protect the environment. To ensure indoor air quality, select cleaning products with no or low volatile organic compounds.
Look for the Carpet & Rug Institute Seal of Approval. CRI’s seal identifies carpet cleaning solutions and equipment ensured to clean carpet the first time. Not all cleaning products earn this approval.
There are three basic carpet-cleaning methods. In the “dry extraction” method, dry compounds of absorbent cleaning powder or particles cover the carpet and are worked through the pile by brushing, followed by thorough vacuuming.
The “dry foam” method works a low moisture foam solution into the pile, suspending soil and collecting the foam using a wet vacuum.
“Hot water” extraction or “steam cleaning” is an environmentally friendly method of removing most stains while preventing chemical build up. The residual moisture in this method must be extracted as soon as possible to prevent moisture damage to the furniture. Carpet that retains dampness can result in the growth of mold.
Quick drying is essential to successful carpet cleaning.
Resource: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Trudy W. Pickett is extension family and consumer agent at the Lenoir County Cooperative Extension Office, 1791 N.C. 11/55. Reach her at 252-527-2191 or trudy_pickett@ncsu.edu.