Homeowners Guide To Rug Cleaning
Cleaning Your Rugs Has Never Been So Easy
You love your rugs. They’re a great way to spice up an otherwise bland space, an even better way to protect wood floors, and a clever method for keeping your carpets looking good. But what happens when your rugs get a little dirty? How can you fix your dirty rug blues and get those surfaces looking good as new?
Well, as it turns out, there are many ways to keep your rugs nice and clean. Each one of them is even more intuitive than the last. So, if you’re looking to keep your space looking gorgeous, don’t be afraid to employ a few of our tips.
But, what are these tips? How do you get your rugs looking fine despite the heavy traffic? In this article, we’ll talk about a few helpful tricks you can use to keep dirt, grime, and stains off your beautiful rugs.
1. Shake Them Out
This one is a no-brainer, but it’s much more important than you think.
Some homeowners view shaking rugs out as a once-in-a-blue-moon type deal. In reality, you should be shaking rugs out fairly frequently.
But why waste the energy? Well, as it turns out, rug grime isn’t just dust buildup on your beautiful rug’s sequined surface. It can also become built-in, meaning it has time to accumulate to the point that it will be more than troublesome to remove. In this case, a simple shake-down might not help.
Keeping on top of dirt and grime by shaking your rugs out occasionally- but not too infrequently- is a great way to get on top of this phenomenon. All you’ve got to do is take your rug by either end, fold it up lengthwise (so you’re gripping the thinner side), and take it outside. After this, shake it out just like you might do a sandy towel.
You might want to keep a vacuum cleaner nearby for this method. If you’re allergenic, it may even be a good idea to repurpose one of your COVID masks. This will keep you from breathing in too many allergens in the process (they will be hanging out in there).
After you’re done shaking the rug out, run a vacuum over the floor areas you had to drag your rug over. Inevitably, these will have picked up a good bit of dirt and grime falling from the sides of your rug. This filth can be just as bad as rug filth.
2. Regularly Vacuum Rugs
Just like with shaking out your rugs, vacuuming can be a great way to keep on top of dirt and grime. But unlike shaking out, vacuuming digs deep in the fabric to remove congealed grime and dirt that you might not otherwise be shaking out.
A vacuum is really the best tool for anyone looking to do some modest cleaning around the house. By employing suction action, it gets deep in your home’s nooks and crannies to remove those really pesky pollutants.
Keeping on top of your cleaning is really the best, and easiest, way to keep your dirt and grime in check. If you can keep a regular vacuuming schedule, that’s even better.
3. Wash Your Rugs
Isn’t there something wrong with washing your rugs? Say most of our readers. Our answer? There can be. But, if you do it right, washing your rugs is the best way- bar none- to really work out the dirt and grime and get yourself a clean rug.
For this method, you’re going to want to go out and buy some cleaning solution. If you have a particularly valuable rug- we’re thinking Persian or European- you will want to avoid skimping for costs. Your rug’s health will be very important and you don’t want to dilute the color.
Next, take a soft-bristle brush and work the cleaning solution into a lather on the rug. You’re going to want to do this on a clean surface outside. After about five minutes of letting the solution foam, go ahead and rinse it out.
Cleaning solution works similarly to soap for your hands. The solution works its way into dirty nooks and crannies and lifts up dirt and grime. All this dirt and grime, once lifted, will slide off your rug with ease.
It’s a whole lot easier than shaking your rug out, and if you’ve let your dirt and grime get out of control, it may be your only choice. Anyhow, however much work it is, it’ll be worth it to see that rug sparkling clean with no pollutants whatsoever.
4. Place Rugs in Light-Use Areas
One passive way to keep your rugs clean (rug cleaning requires no work at all) is to place them cleverly. If you use your rugs to protect your carpet or shield high-use areas, this strategy will not work. However, if you’re using your rugs mainly as decoration this may be your best bet.
You could place your rugs in places where you and your guests will be trampling all over them (high-use areas) or, you could place them down in areas where you and your guests are unlikely to use them. This strategy is interesting because instead of forcing yourself to clean rugs off often, you can simply keep them from getting dirty at all.
This strategy- when taken to the extreme- can yield some fairly interesting outcomes. I, for example, have seen people who opt to keep their Persian rugs up on the wall instead of on the floor because it keeps them so dang clean. And if the decoration is what you’ve got them out for- why not?
In any case, keeping rugs in lightly used areas is a clever and effortless way to keep them clean.
All in All
All in all, keeping your rugs clean doesn’t have to be a big pain in the butt. If you’ve got lightly-used floor spaces, you could just keep your rugs there. If this isn’t an option, washing, shaking, or vacuuming them as grime gets too thick can be your alternative.
