Your rug is a focal point in your room and home. They tie your décor together and draw attention the moment you step into the room. But to keep your rug a beloved member of the family, you need to invest in some daily and weekly care. But with so much information online regarding cleaning and care, it can get confusing. Today we are going to share our tips to extend the life of your rug!
1: Vacuum Weekly
While we’d like to say vacuum daily, that’s a lot for the average person to do. Unless you have heavily shedding pets in the house, weekly vacuuming is fine. Vacuuming is important as rugs can hold an incredible amount of dirt and dust before they even begin to look dirty. Routinely vacuuming can help lift as much of this dirt and dust as possible out of your rug fibres, between professional cleanings.
2: Have Stains Treated as Soon as Possible
If a stain or spill occurs on your rug, you need to get it cleaned as soon as possible. Home cleaning solutions and online DIY methods are often disastrous for your rug, however. They can spread the stain, cause the dye to run, and even permanently damaged the rug fibres meaning you’ll never get rid of the stain. Instead, gently blot up the stain and remove any solids. Blot and tap, don’t rub or scrub. Rubbing and scrubbing drives the stain deeper into the fibres and damages the fibres. Once you’ve blotted up the mess, organise to have your rug professionally cleaned as soon as possible to hopefully remove the stain.
3: Keep Shoes Off the Rug!
Shoes can track any number of nasties and pollutants into your home. And you certainly don’t want all that mess and dirt in your home. It is important that you instigate a no shoe policy in your home, to prevent all that dirt ending up deep in your rug fibers.
Further, shoes will also cause wear and tear for your rug, especially in high traffic areas. This includes hallways, living rooms and kitchens. By having a no shoe policy, or switching to slippers and socks inside, you not only protect your rugs but also your health. It also means you might not need to vacuum or get your rug professionally cleaned as often.
4: Combing Your Rug
In some cases, you might want to lift up your rug fibers, especially if they’re in a high traffic area. While this is part of the service provided by professional cleaners, you can do it at home. Make sure you can lie your rug out in an open space and vacuum your rug thoroughly first. Gently comb through your rug with an appropriate carpet/rug comb (sometimes available online) to lift matted fibers. This can help bring some life back to your rug’s pattern and design.
5: Dealing with Pet Stains
As much as we all love our pets, dealing with pet stains and messes in our homes is definitely one of the downsides. Like with food and drink stains, you need to carefully blot the stain, not scrub or rub at it, as well as lift any solids off the rug. Again, we don’t want to work the stain deeper into the fiber. you then need to immediately book your rug in for cleaning. Due to the acidic nature of pet urine, as well as the wide variety of food our pets can eat, its not always guaranteed that you can remove stains.
While the smell can me removed, the urine can cause dye bleed, bleaching and a number of other issues. And the longer you leave your rug, the harder it is to remove the stain and odour. There are lots of DIY solutions online, but these often only set the stain further into the rug, causing more damage, spreading the stain, and making it impossible to remove. It is important not to do anything more than blot the rug before having it professionally cleaned.
6: Professional Rug Cleaning
If you’re not sure how to clean your rug, you’re stumped by a rug that is still dirty looking, or you have a food, drink or urine stain, then it is best to have a professional clean your rug. It is recommended that you have your rug professionally cleaned at least once a year, and twice a year for rugs in high traffic areas that are exposed to more damage and dirt than other rugs.
Vacuuming won’t completely lift all the dirt and grime from your rug, which means it is more likely to wear down, shortening its life. A professional can safely clean and groom your rug, to bring it back to life and extend its lifespan. However, it is important that you a regular with your cleanings, as even professionals can’t perform miracles on very old, very dirty and very damaged rugs.
Do you have a neglected rug that is in need of a good cleaning? Do you want to try and extend the life of your beloved piece of home décor? Then contact the team at Woods Rug Laundry today for more information on our pick up-drop off cleaning services.