light colour carpet - how do you keep it clean?

[crossma]

Majority of people do take their shoes off but some (older generation, tradespeople) do not. Every little mark is beginning to show up too much. It has not always been possible to clean immediately - rushing for children etc. So how does everyone else manage?

If you have kids then I think you're being a bit unrealistic in trying to keep it clean. It WILL get dirty. Chill out and worry about something more important!

I've got a cream carpet and I'm a childminder! It wasn't my idea, it was DH's and for a while it really bothered me, but I've just learnt to chill about it. I hire one of the Rug Doctors a couple of times a year. They're not that expensive to hire, about £20.

I don't - I've given up trying to keep my lovely beige waffle pile clean. I've got a Vax, and give it a going over with that, but it always looks manky.

I yell SHOES OFF SHOES OFF SHOES OOOOOOOOOFF and wave my arms about like a mad woman every time I spot someone walking past the house.

We have a cream carpet in the living room, and 2 small boys.

Cream carpet + 2 small boys = tears

I told my husband. I told him and I told him, but oh no, cream carpet looks best so cream carpet it had to be.

Yes. Cream carpet does look best. When it is cream.

But not when it is

mud
spaghetti hoops
chocolate
blue tac
mud
glue
glitter
crayon
mud
and something right across the middle that looks frighteningly like a skid mark.

We have cream carpet and cream sofa in sitting (it was DH idea!!!!!!!). The trick is no shoes and definitely NO FOOD allowed. Unfortunately food does get in to our sitting room and on to carpet (I have 4 DC) so my mum arrives up with her Vax carpet shampooer every 2 months or so and gives it a blast. To be honest it would be worth investing in one if you're going to keep the cream carpet.

No shoes

Buy a Bissell

try very hard to stop the boys taking drinks where they shouldn't but in teh end, they get dirty and about every 6 months we have them professionally cleaned.

We have a cream carpet on stairs and landing. It was spotless when we moved in. The previous owners were childless and in their 50s Within weeks it looked lived in. Being a slattern I've learned to ignore it.

Why is it that I go to friends houses and their cream carpet looks spotless yet they have toddlers or older children? Be honest do some of you clean the carpet every two weeks?

You can't which is exactly why ours are coming up at the weekend and are being replaced with oak flooring!

Get yourself a decent VAX, you will find it v satisfying seeing your carpets clean every few weeks. I have pale carpets too and it has been a godsend. Worth its weight in gold.