To Steam, or Not to Steam....A Full-Time RV Living Tip

When we bought Maude, there was slight wear-and-tear. She's a 2007, so we knew we weren't getting her straight out of the box, brand new. And we were fine with that. Because we were still learning how to maneuver this whale-of-a-vehicle, and some bumps were going to be felt. However, one part of the "wear" that Maude came with, was an old, shag carpet, installed on the slide and cab.

It was gross. Dirty, gross. Not like what one might find in a beard that isn't maintained. More like dirt. Apparently Maude's previous owners clomped around in shoes and didn't care that the BEIGE carpet was slowly changing shades. The fix was simple: we needed to clean the RV carpet.

Part of the issue was fixed after we tore up the carpet around and on the slide. As mentioned in our previous post about replacing our RV couch, there was some pretty phenomenal wood underneath that we stained and capped. But, that didn't resolve the issue with the carpet in the cab.

We vowed this summer to clean the carpet. We couldn't take it anymore. We wanted cleanliness! We wanted beige! We wanted damn near brand new!

​Note carpet color below...

We got lucky when we visited Vanessa's family this past week. Vanessa's mom had a secret weapon that she whipped out for us to try....a home carpet cleaner. REJOICE!

Vanessa lugged that puppy up our stairs and went to town on our carpet. Let me just tell you, the results were life-changing. The dirt that came up not only lightened our carpet back to practically new, but it also neutralized the air inside the RV. Not that Maude was the smelly kid in class....or on the road.... But she did have a scent. A natural musk if you will. That when you walked in, you recognized good old Maude.

Cleaning the carpet neutralized the air. So not only was the carpet clean and free of dirt and debri, it also didn't capture 9 years of smells.

Here is the final product....

We've decided to clean the carpet twice a year at minimum. Even if you don't think your RV interior needs it, it probably does. Give it a whirl and let us know what happens, you may just be as pleasantly surprised as we were.

​See you on the road!