Everyone would agree that keeping your home neat and clean is important. Keeping your rugs clean is part of the whole cleaning process. While you can appoint professional cleaners to clean your rugs, it will cost you a lot of money. You should try cleaning your rugs in the comfort of your home. However, in order to clean rugs at home you need a few tips and specific products to carry out the process. This guide will help you with cleaning your rugs at home.
Carpet Cleaning Products You Need
Before you immerse yourself in deep cleaning your rugs at home, we suggest you gather a few necessary products. Depending on the type of rug you have at home, you might need different cleaning products. But here are the basic products that you should always have in your home:
- Vacuum cleaner: It should come as no surprise that vacuum cleaners are necessary cleaning equipment. You need them to clean your entire home anyway.
- Rug shampoo: Yes, there are shampoos specifically made for cleaning rugs and carpets. We recommend getting a rug shampoo specially formulated for the material of the rugs you have.
- Carpet Cleaners: The name is self-explanatory. These appliances are perfect for spot-cleaning or cleaning an entire rug and carpet. Any significant spills or stains can be picked up by this device easily.
- Carpet Floor Sweeper: These devices are extremely useful when deep cleaning rugs. While vacuuming will get rid of a lot of the dirt stuck in your rugs, you can truly remove all the debris with the help of a carpet floor sweeper. The sweeper is equipped to pick up pet hairs and food crumbs from the rug.
How To Clean A Rug At Home
There are certain things to keep in mind before you start washing a rug.
- Always spot-test your rug. Before you use rug shampoo on the whole rug, pour a little bit with some water on a little patch in the corner and leave it on for a few hours. This will help you determine whether the colour of the rug will bleed out or not and if the shampoo is the right choice.
- Most rugs come with washing instructions. Always make sure to read the instructions beforehand because many rugs are meant to be only dry-cleaned.
- The deep cleaning process explained below is not meant for all materials. Some materials are a little more delicate and require different care instructions. For example, Sheepskin and fur rugs can be cleaned with talcum powder, vintage and Persian rugs often require professional cleaning, etc.
What’s The Plan?
Whether you are washing down one small rug or a big floor rug, you need to plan in advance when you should be doing it. Since you’ll be washing the rugs thoroughly you also need to consider how much time they will take to dry up. Plan the cleaning session according to the weather. If you are going to get 3-4 days of consecutive sunny days, that should be your window to clean your rugs.
Hot Tip: Always start with the biggest rug and only when it is completely dry and ready to go back indoors should you consider cleaning the others.
Get The Dry Cleaning Done First
First things first, rug or carpet cleaning should always be done outdoors in a large space where you have access to water. Once you have your area established vacuum and dust the rug. The vacuum will get rid of most of the dry dirt. In order to dust the rug, we recommend getting a long stick and whacking the rug to get rid of the dust. It’s a violently satisfying experience but make sure to cover your face with a mask to avoid coughing fits. Lastly, go over the rug with a floor sweeper to get rid of crumbs, debris and pet hairs.
Time To Lather Up
Once, the dust and debris have been removed from the rug, there are two things you can do. Either use a carpet cleaner or do it by hand. If you are dealing with a full-sized floor rug then using a carpet cleaner would be the better choice as it won’t require too much effort on your part. But if you don’t have a carpet cleaner, all you will need is a hose, brush/sponge and rug shampoo.
How do carpet cleaners work?
These appliances are highly useful to have if you have a lot of rugs at home. You can opt for one with a compact design that is easy to handle and store. The cleaner essentially has everything you need to clean a rug in one device. It releases the rug shampoo and water onto your rug and the brush attachment works it into the fibres. Then it sucks out all the solution and all the dirt in one go, transferring it into a dirty water tank and leaving you with a sparkling clean rug.
Manual Cleaning
Once you have placed yourself and the rug in a large space with access to water, you need to hose down the rug. Be careful not to drown it in water, over-wetting the rug can cause long-lasting damage. Once, the rug is drenched in water, drop some rug-cleaning shampoo and work it in with the help of a brush or sponge. A sponge should be used with materials that are delicate such as silk and wool.
Rinse and Dry
If you’re manually cleaning the rug, then you will need to hose down the rug after you’ve given it a good scrub. This will get rid of all the dirt and gunk. Once rinsed completely, you need to wring out the excess water (this is a two-person job) and hang the rug out in the sun. A simple clothesline won’t be strong enough for a heavy rug. A sturdy clothesline tied around two tree branches or the railing of your balcony would work perfectly. Moreover, you need to keep in mind that the rug will take at least two-three days to dry completely. So, if you want it placed in a more protected area, you can move it to a garage space after drying it in the sun for a day.
Fluff It Up
Before you lay your rug back in its designated position in the house, run a vacuum on it. This is just to fluff up the fibres that would have been flattened during the washing and drying process.
