In the winter months, there is nothing quite as pleasant as feeling soft, fluffy carpet under your feet. While you might be attracted to the soft aesthetic and to the warmth that carpet can bring to your home, carpet is something that can easily deteriorate over time if you don't clean and maintain it properly. Here are a few ways in which you can extend the life of your carpet so that you and your family can enjoy it for many years to come.

Install welcome mats. Most of the dirt that finds its way to your carpet will be tracked in on shoes. For this reason, it is a great idea to place a welcome mat outside your front door or inside your home's entrance – or even both.  It can be a good idea to ensure that the mat is large enough so that it collects dirt from shoes over a number of footsteps.

Take off your shoes. Because dirt that ends up on your carpet is often trodden in, it can also be effective to implement a "no shoes" policy inside your home. You can make this rule easier to adhere to by installing a shoe rack immediately in your home's entrance so that people are reminded that they need to take off their footwear when they enter your home.

Vacuum daily. The sooner that you can get to the dirt that is on your carpet, the more easily it can be removed. This is why it is important to set a date with your vacuum cleaner every day. If you schedule a regular time when you vacuum your carpet for five minutes, this will become part of a daily routine that you won't forget or be tempted to skip. Get into the good habit of vacuuming your carpet, and it will become as regular as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. By removing dust particles from your carpet, vacuuming will also improve the air quality in your home.

Deep clean every six months. As well as regular cleaning of the surface of your carpet, you should also commit to a deep clean around twice a year. It could be worth hiring in expert cleaning companies who have access to steam cleaning vacuums and other professional pieces of cleaning kit. These deep cleans will reach the dirt that you can't extract with a regular vacuum cleaner, and it will also remove any residue that exists from cleaning products. For more information, contact a company such as Cleaners Warehouse (Brisbane) Pty Ltd.