Rug revival: How to clean area rugs yourself

If you have stained carpets in your home that are driving you mad, you may be wondering how to clean them once and for all, right? Rug stains and dirt can often be hard to remove, but there are a few things you can do to restore your rugs. And if you keep reading, you’ll learn how to clean area rugs yourself in 6 simple steps.

1. Vaccum rug on both sides
The first step to efficiently clean area rugs is to vacuum the dirty rugs thoroughly on both sides. Start by vacuuming the carpet fibers on one side of the rug to remove any long-lasting dust. Then flip the rug and repeat. When you feel the rug is clean, you need to roll the carpet up and take it outside ready to be shampooed and washed down.

2. Test different carpet shampoos
In order to avoid ruining your area rug material, it’s always important to test out different carpet shampoos before you apply them to the entire rug. Apply a small amount of the shampoo to a small patch of the rug and leave it to settle. Once a few hours have passed, rinse the shampoo and check to see if there is any potential damage to the rug. If there is any color damage or fiber damage, do not use the shampoo in question.

3. Apply shampoo and wash the rug
When you find a shampoo that works well with your rug, it’s time to apply the shampoo to the rest of the carpet. Firstly, give your rug a good soaking using your hose pipe. Next, apply the shampoo and work it in thoroughly with a strong brush. Cleaning rugs properly requires a lot of elbow grease. You’ll need to set aside some time to achieve the best results, and you should make sure you focus more effort on any stains.

4. Rinse the rug
Depending on the shampoo you have used, you may need to leave the shampoo on your rug for a period of time before you rinse it off. However, once that has passed you can focus on hosing down the rug once more. At this point, it is important to make sure you get all of the shampoos out. You don’t want any shampoo residue left on your rug.

5. Dry the rug
The first step to drying your newly cleaned rug is by wringing out as much of the excess water as possible. You can always use tools like a squeegee to help with this. Once all of the excess water has been drained, you will need to wait for your rug to dry completely. The drying process takes a day or two, so patience is definitely needed.

6. Vacuum the rug again
Once your rug is completely dry, place the rug back in its rightful place and give it a final vacuuming. Vacuuming your rug at this point will help restore the fresh look to your carpet as the fibers will likely be flat at washing.